A lovely matured bottle of Burgundy – this was a great way to start to the evening. While there was no hint of the origins of the bottle on the label, the owner of the bottle told us that Potel had sourced from Robert Ampeau, and one could definitely see the family resemblance with other Ampeau wines. I really liked the nose on this with its fully matured aromas of white mushrooms and nuts, caramel and cream, all mingling amidst kumquat and melon scents and, in the background, a nice touch of earth and toasty spices. Lovely. The palate was still nicely fresh, even lively, showing a touch lighter then nose suggested I thought, with white fruit on attack and some faintly citrusy notes following on behind. The wine feints to droop and fade a little on the midpalate, but returns beautifully on the finish with a great linger of truffles and earth and a little ring of caramel. This was really a subtle pleasure, starting to tire perhaps, but truly a wine of complexity and charm. A great pairing with white truffle and scrambled eggs too, with the truffly creaminess of the dish seeming to give the wine extra legs and a fresher ring to its fruit. Lovely.

Rather too young, but this was a delicious wine with plenty of character. The nose was a case in point – it showed the sweet ripe aromas of the vintage, with sweet lemons and white fruit alongside dollops of cream and butter and a touch of spice, but there was also a real sense of minerality to it, with deep wafts of chalk and flint and oyster shell. In fact, if blind, I may well have guessed it as a really ripe Chablis on that nose alone. The palate, on the other hand, was clearly Cote d’Or, with lovely sweet notes of pears and green apples – very pure expressions I thought, almost like pear-drops, before then a more citrusy ripe lemony tone came up on the midpalate. This had nice depth, good breadth of flavours and great balance for a 2006 – it would have been quite the complete if not for the fact that the finish seemed a little short after the fullness of the attack and midpalate. Nevertheless, this was really yummy. While it clearly needs a few years yet, it is shaped up to be a rather early drinking Leflaive. I would happily drink this in another 2-3 years.

Absolutely superb – this was a great Champagne perched right at the peak of its drinking window. It had a beautiful nose of cream and broiche, caramel and salted butter tones, wreathed around lovely scents of red apples and melons and ripe lemons, and then more bassy notes of white meat and earth and higher toned florals drifting around it all to make a lovely bouquet. It was a complex and attractive nose, yet somehow so well integrated that it came across almost understated. I loved the palate too. The mousse had mellowed into the background, but it was beautifully balanced, poised and quite completely resolved into a wonderfully integrated whole, with deep, creamily textured, almost melting tones of sweet apples, kumquats and lemons wrapped around a core of fresh, gently mouthwatering acidity. This was power wed to grace, with the fleshy ripeness of the 1990 vintage clearly present, but harnessed to an impeccable balance and effortless elegance that made the wine almost deceptively easy to drink. Great finish too, super-long, with a little hint of minerality trailing behind sweet apples and shades of stone fruit. Beautiful stuff, almost as remarkable for its understated perfection as it was for its sheer deliciousness - I loved this.

A stunning, stunning wine – this could well be the best bottle of Burgundy I have had this year. It had a to-die-for nose, with beautiful, almost haunting tones of fragrant wood spice and orange peel and perfumy floral accents dancing around a core of black cherries and damp earth. An incredible, ethereal bouquet – you could almost dab the wine behind the ears and use it as a perfume. If anything, the palate was even more beguiling. Ethereal is perhaps the most suitable word to use here again – it was pure, elegant, almost crystalline in the clarity of its black cherry and dark berry flavours garlanded with more of those perfumed florals and drifts of sweet Vosne spice; all this couched in the laciest of structures, with silky tannins and a beautiful bright balance caressing the mouth seductively, making the wine such a joy to drink. Beautiful finish too, with gentle pulls of spice lingering amidst the brilliant purity of the fruit. Quite stunning stuff; yet for all its lithe clarity, the wine also had a deceptive depth and strength to it, with a generosity and fullness that only comes with a top Grand Cru. In fact, I think it was that fullness of expression that actually made the wine much more complete than many 2001 red Burgundies that I have had in recent times – there was not a hint of that slight austerity in structure and acid that afflicts even some of the very best wines of the vintage. This was pure bliss. A seductive, elegant, beguiling wine; full of strength and complexity, yet completely effortless at the same time – I have not enjoyed a wine this much for a long while. Indeed, it is wines like these that made me fall in love with Burgundy in the first place. Great now, but this will keep in the bottle beautifully at least over the next decade or so.

A lovely wine, but this really suffered in comparison being served next to an amazing bottle of 2001 Robert Arnoux of the same vineyard. Having had the 2002 Confuron RSV a few days ago, it was quite easy to pick out this bottle as another from the same house. While the 2002 was clearly the stronger vintage, I thought this wine was nevertheless really good in its own right. Like the Arnoux on the same flight, it had beautiful nose. A bit thicker and riper than Arnoux perhaps, with deeper, bassier aromas of earth and warm spice, riper notes of red cherries and berries, and then fragrant scents dried flowers floating alongside. Really attractive, even if not quite as ethereal a bouquet as on the Arnoux. The palate here, however, was tighter, less giving, more in line with classical 2001s, with clean, clear flavours of darker cherries and more red berries lined with bright juicy acidity and fine tannins. While again missing the ethereal purity of the former wine on the palate, this was actually quite finely shaped, with a good amount of depth and scale wed to a nice finesse and great balance. There was just a greater sense of structure and bite on it at the moment, enough to give it a more austere edge, especially at the finish. There was a lovely length here, with a nice kiss of sweet spice that lingered on the palate, but it somehow just seemed a little clunky next to the grace of the Arnoux. All said and done, however, I enjoyed this very much indeed – it is a really nice wine and starting to drink quite well.

This was extremely enjoyable. I thought it had the best nose out of the four bottles of Bonnes Mares that we had – the most Chambolle-like if you will, with a perfumy mélange of sweet roses and violet, peppery spice and orange peel, dark cherries and blueberries with a slightly liquered tone to them, and then dirtier notes of earth and slate tossed on top, all making for a wonderful bouquet. I really liked the feel on the palate too. This bore all the hallmarks of a Mugnier wine, with velvety, melting tannins wrapped around pure, dulcet tones of cherries and berries, showing a subtle intensity yet without any impression of weight – a really delicate, elegant expression of the terroir. My only issue with the wine was its distinctly mid-lengthed finish, which was definitely on the lighter-side for Bonnes Mares. It had a charming character, with a little kiss of spice, earth and flowers, but faded rather too quickly, most probably a reflection of the vintage rather than the winemaking. Still though, this was a real charmer of a wine – my favourite amongst the Bonnes Mares flight. Like one or two of the other wines on the night, this was actually drinking very nicely and giving tons of pleasure - this is a wine I could happily drink a whole bottle of over a quiet night.

Way too young – it was the most backward of all the wines we had on the night – but this was seriously impressive. There was a classic Bonnes Mares nose on the wine, with large-scaled aromas of ripe dark berries and cherries tossed with some dried earth and a nice bit of toasty spice. It was probably the ripest, most assertive nose amongst the quartet of Bonnes Mares. The palate was a real change of gear from the sylph-like, elegant 2000 Mugnier Bonnes Mares that preceded it on the same flight as well – this was bigger, thicker, sappier, with deep-set flavours of ripe cherries and darker berries wrapped in a muscular structure of fine, powdery tannins and well-integrated acidity. There was a ripe sweetness to the fruit that gave the wine a very primary feel at the moment, but this was wed to a lovely purity that Roumier seems to be able to coax out of all his wines in spite of their ripeness and weight. An insistent, almost powerful pull of spice and earth riding over the dark fruit then filled the back-palate at the long, full finish. Overall, while this was objectively a much more complete wine to the 2000 Mugnier (which was my favourite amongst the 4 Bonnes Mares), it was also far less ready. This was more impressive than sensuously pleasing at the moment I would say. Even amongst a vintage where many Grand Crus are a little shut down though, this was markedly monolithic and backward, with only the purity and sappiness of the fruit allowing it to be enjoyable on the night. However, there is a ton of solid raw material here, and it should make a truly superb wine given enough time. One to keep away and broach in 10 years I would say. 93++

Pretty good, but again a little too young. I particular liked the nose here, with its sweet blueberries and dark cherry tones, along with some earth and toasty spice scents and a little sweet, musky whiff reminiscent of wilting flowers. Nice. The palate started out on a rich 1999 attack, with a nicely layered depth to its flavours of black cherries and blackberries. At first, I thought this was surprisingly open and giving for a 1999 Grand Cru, with a very clean, transparent feel to the fruit. However, past the midpalate, it became clear that there was a lot left in reserve, all bundled into a tightly coiled core of darker fruit, with juicy acidity and nicely integrated tannins rising to the fore. The finish had decent rather than impressive length, coming across less convincingly than I would have expected of a Bonnes Mares from a great vintage, with some blueberry notes seasoned with tiny dash of spice and a twist of bittersweet herb. All in all, a pretty nice wine with a good bit of quality on it, but not all that interesting at the moment - it really needs several more years in the bottle to strut its stuff. Try again in 2017 / 2018.

This stood out as being quite different from the other three Bonnes Mares on the same flight for me. It was a nice wine in its own right, but somehow came across a bit advanced for a 2002, especially when put next to the backward, monolithic 2002 Roumier. The nose here started out with pretty fresh aromas, but with a bit of air and time, it really put on some scale, showing rich aromas of stewed cherries and plums on a bed of wet earth and meaty, umami scents. Quite pleasant, if rather more forward than I would expect of a 2002. Same thing on the palate too. Here, the acidity seemed completely integrated and the fine tannins had started to softened and mellowed, almost showing a little bit mushier in texture than some of the other wines. It had nicely matured flavours as well - with tons of umami - Chicken Chickadees snacks came to mind - alongside its ripe, slightly stewed notes of berries and dark cherries flecked with some spice. There was a slightly warmer, later-picked feel to it I thought. For all that though, there was still a nice freshness to the wine, especially towards the finish, where there was a surprisingly clean purity to the fruit. All in all, a pretty nice wine, but not quite the same class as either the Arnoux-Lachaux RSV in the earlier flight, or one or two of the better Bonnes Mares that were served alongside.