Burgundy holiday 2012
Beaune, France
Tasted March 22, 2012 - March 29, 2012 by kingkanu with 1,089 views
Introduction
A spring holiday in Burgundy, no proper domain visits just chance to get a feel for the area, and it's wines...
Flight 1 - Friday Night, 23/3/2012 (3 notes)
Dinner in Beaune at Le Conty's cellar restauarant, a great little cellar restaurant with a pretty great wine list, plenty to choose from with some older vintages at reasonable prices.
White
2009 Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet
Another restaurant bottle in Beaune. Ripe and quite round with little acidity, not what you would expect from a Puligny but with the ripeness of the vintage it was drinking pretty well, I wouldn't think about keeping this for long.
Red
1994 La Pousse d'Or Pommard
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard
From a Beaune restaurant and notes from memory. Quite a stinky nose which took a short while to blow off. Elegant in style, from the Volnay side of Pommard I would guess. Plenty of freshness on the palate, although it took a while for the ripeness of the fruit to come through. Nice length. Paired with a scallop and black truffle risotto and stood up to it very well.
Red
2000 Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanée
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée
From a 375ml. Quite rich and darkly seductive, still very primary, but the tannins has melted away if they were once heavy. Nice complexity, good length, a really good village Vosne.
Flight 2 - Saturday 24/3/2012 (2 notes)
This was market day so we stocked up on supplies for the week, we were self catering in a central Beaune flat and got a load of delicious cheeses, salads, vegetables, truffles and mushrooms for the week. Tasted at Patriarche (negotiants) in Beaune (no notes) they had a small but interesting selection of old magnums to buy at some pretty reasonable prices that are worth a punt, I got a mag of 1980 Romanee St Vivant for 160 euros which i thought was well worth trying, then dinner at the flat
White
2006 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Meix Chavaux
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault
A relatively subtle nose for a good meursault, but meursault it sure is. A little nuttiness, some ripe fruits verging on the tropical but restrained by some nice citrus acidity giving it a lovely crisp edge, a minerally and medium long finish. More to give in time I would think, but enjoyable now, if feeling a little over priced
Red
2004 Domaine des Lambrays Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Les Loups
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Morey St. Denis 1er Cru
Some nice savoury complexity on the nose, forest floor and wet earth mixing with some dark cherry fruit. There are some unusual tones on the palate which while not being unpleasant, are reining in the quality of the fruit. Decent freshness and length. Nowhere near as good as the 2010
Flight 3 - Sunday 25/3/2012 (10 notes)
Tasting at Caveau de Chassagne-Montrachet, dinner back at the flat. We also tasting at Marche Aux Vins in Beane, but with no notes. One of the sommeliers there pulled us into the vintage room for some more tastings of better wines, which we really enjoyed, especially a Corton-Charlamagne and ended up buying more than anticipated...
White
2009 Philippe Colin Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Vergers
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru
The nose almost got to banana it was so ripe, but unlike the previous wine it had great acidity to balance this up and give the excellent length a mouthwatering finish. We brought some of this, one of the freshest 2009s we've tried.
White
2010 Marc Colin et Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru La Garenne
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
Tasted at the Chassagne-Montachet Municipal Cave. This is super fresh and crisp, in fact it's all fresh and crisp, missing some fruit in the mid palate, I don't think this does the wine or grower justice, maybe far too early to try this.
Red
2010 Gros Frère et Sœur Vosne-Romanée
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée
A much richer nose than the previous wines with deeper black and blue fruit flavours from ripe fruit. nice acidity and quite long. very good for a village wine
Red
1988 Gagnard-Delagrange Volnay 1er Cru Champans
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru
From a 375ml brought from the Chassagne-Montrachet Cave Municipal. Quite light in body, quite vibrant in colour with bricking running almost all the way through the wine. The nose has some griotte cherry and a hint of cough medicine, some secondary notes add some damp leaf notes and more interest. On the palate it is silky smooth, but has plenty of freshness left, more of those griotte cherries, it could benefit from a little more fruit and length, and not really much evolution to notice. As time went on a very small hint of cork started to show, but it was very subtle indeed. An elegant and mature volnay.
Red
1988 Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques Domaine Louis Jadot
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
Quite full but bright with only slight bricking at the edges. The nose is just fantastic, this is what burgundy means to me, dark cherries with forest floor, a little truffle and some gentle spice, I just want to keep my nose in this glass. Very smooth in the mouth, plenty of berries and cherries going on with only a slight sense of its age giving it some extra complexity and depth, a lovely wrap of acidity keeps this fresh and vibrant, it's still got a good life ahead of it. Really excellent wine.
Flight 4 - Monday 26/3/2012 (9 notes)
Heading out to Nuits-St-George, tasting at Dufouleur, dinner at the flat. Unfortunately went to 2 domaines who were rude and were not interested. Michel Saban didn't want to let us taste more than 2 simple wines, even though he had more open, and the simple wines were pretty average at best. Caveau Fleurieres, who have huge signs up on the main road saying 'Degustation' lectured us that domaines in burgundy didn't do tasting, so we didn't hang around in those unfriendly places.
Red
2007 Dufouleur Freres Pommard
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard
Raised in 20% new oak. this has black currants on nose and palate, some dark cherries too, quite juicy and good lengtyh. A lighter style of Pommard and really quite good for its level.
Red
1999 Patriarche Père et Fils Beaune
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Beaune
Brought from the negociants cellars in Beaune for a very reasonable price (19€) and this is probably the bargain of the trip. Mature but still has enough freshness to keep it going for longer. It has attractive red fruits mixed with more secondary notes of forest floor and a little leather, medium length. Paired with a good layered potato and wild mushroom bake which brought the freshness out even more.
Red
1994 Domaine de Montille Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard 1er Cru
From a 375ml. Bricking is pretty obvious in this wine but still has some vibrancy at its core. The nose is quite meaty without much fruit thats discernible. In the most hits very smooth, all the tannins have melted away leaving a beautiful, elegant and delicious Pommard.
Flight 5 - Tuesday 27/3/2012 (11 notes)
A day at Domaine Olivier Leflaive, morning workshop and winery tour, tasting lunch and then a small plates dinner at the hotel. This was a brilliant day. The wineary tour was done by Olivier himself, he did this with great charm and humour but still got his passion for wine across in spades. Simon, a sommelier at the hotel took the walk around the vineyards and ran the lunch time tasting and was excellent in both french and english (he is english) At dinner there were other sommeliers who were also extremely knowledgable and explained more about the domaines approach, making more accessible wines for earlier drinking. My main take away was that all the wines showed real balance and were very well made, we came away big fans and with a case of mixed white wines across the villages.
White
2009 Olivier Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc Les Sétilles
France, Burgundy, Bourgogne Blanc
A blend from Puligny and Meursault. Crisp and clean, some citrus (lime?), green apples and a little minerality, ripe on the nose, maybe some kiwi fruit ? Very pleasant entry level wine.
White
2008 Olivier Leflaive Meursault
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault
This seems to lack the richness and flavour of other meursaults although it did open up a little more over time in the glass. the sommelier said this had shut down recently, i would agree with that, probably the only disappointment of the day.
White
2008 Olivier Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet
This is all about the acidity, minerality and freshness, some white flowers, but nothing leaps out too much, it opened up over a bit of time in the glass and with the tempreture rising a bit became a little more expressive. A decent example of a village puligny but nothing more than that.
White
2007 Olivier Leflaive Corton-Charlemagne
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru
The domaines says they think this starts to drink about 5 years after vintage and on this showing I'd agree with that. This was quite powerful with waves of flavours hitting the palate through a very long finish. There's good nuttiness, lemon, vanilla custard, lovely acidity giving it real poise and balance. excellent with fresh and matured goats cheese. My favourite of the tasting.
Red
2008 Olivier Leflaive Pommard
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard
Medium light body but with dark berry fruits of blackberry and black currant showing on nose and palate. Quite approachable now, in fact drinking rather well now.
Red
2008 Olivier Leflaive Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru
Interestingly this showed slightly darker and fuller than the village Pommard. Raspberry and cherry with a slightly gamey edge, tannins are still a little dry. medium length. Not a bad effort, but not really exciting.
White
2006 Olivier Leflaive Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru
This really needs an hour or more to open up and be served at cellar temperature to do its thing, and it's thing is a fabulous minerally and fresh meursault, full of favour and richness but the minerality and freshness cuts that perfectly and ends in a satisfyingly long and tasty finish, just getting going and will drink well for another 5 years or more.
Red
2003 Olivier Leflaive Pommard 1er Cru Les Charmots
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard 1er Cru
From a 375ml. This was quite full of dark and very ripe fruits, even some notes of chocolate here, plenty of dark and rich notes here, not elegant but it a blockbuster either. We really enjoyed this bottle even if it wasn't a classic Pommard, sometimes you just need something a bit more full on and open !
Flight 6 - Wednesday 28/3/2012 (2 notes)
Vosne Romanee, dinner at Le Richebourg hotel. A very nice hotel and spa in Vosne-Romanee, we had a quick tasting at Domaine Francois Gerbert in the village, their borgogne rouge was excellent value at 10 euros, but they also sold some vintages from some of the bigger names in the village from the various Gros domaines, Grivot etc, and my self control was not so good ! The highlight was walking through the village and seeing Sylvain Cathiard loading a lorry on his forklift !
Red
2006 Domaine Michel Noëllat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
this had typical Vosne character, dark cherries, black currant, earth and a walk in the woods, plenty of concentration and flavour, plenty of acidity and a medium long fresh finish, mouth watering and tasty. Would probably benefit from a bit more time in bottle to bring out some more complexity, but very enjoyable now in a primary way.
Closing
We now know a bit more about how burgundy works and the lie of the land, we've been out and around all the key villages and understood the terroir much more, next time we'll need some better domaine visits to expand the knowledge more
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