5/18/2022 - Remony wrote:

2/12. For my birthday. Ludicrously overpriced now at £800+, but purchased en primeur for a mere (!) £150. A lovely, very clean, light-coloured wine with a rich & satisfying floral bouquet, although a touch of alcohol shimmers through (14% on the label). Very similar on the palate, so very clean and quite rich. Reasonable length, but modestly overwhelmed by the alcohol, perhaps. I wonder whether another few years might resolve this slight imbalance? Overall, very pleasing.

4/8/2022 - Remony wrote:

This is lovely, for what it is. Quite pale. Succulent fruits, some fine tannins still, but seriously more-ish. Surprisingly long. And (per the label at least), only 12.5% abv. From the vineyards in Flagey across the road from Clos de Vougeot. Augurs well for my village wines of the same vintage from this grower, who was new to me in 2017.

3/14/2022 - Remony wrote:

Lovely fruit, floral and persistent. But still quite tannic. Best left for another year or two.

2/10/2022 - Remony wrote:

Magnum. Good with food, less good on its own. A bold, quite intense wine, strongly tannic, mild astringency. We loved this wine, from bottle, 5 years ago, even 3 years ago. I had wondered whether to buy more, but won't after this magnum. Another 8 to go.

10/4/2021 - Remony wrote:

I foolishly opened another bottle. Light in colour, significant acidity, uninteresting at present, no length. But not quite as impenetrable as it was earlier in the year. This probably does need another 3-5 years -- either that or it is a dud. Very disappointing as against the Phelan Segur, another Cru Bourgeois of the same vintage from St Estephe.

5/12/2021 - Remony wrote:

Over recent years I have struggled to understand or to really like this wine. Once again it shows the acidic sharpness which I first found in it 6 years ago. If the Vosne spice, flowers or sweetness are there, they certainly aren't showing at present. To be fair, it was much better (little or no acidity) when tried in 2017, but several bottles since then have showed the same overwhelming acidity. Leave for another 3 years, and try again. 13% abv according to the bottle.

3/6/2021 - Remony wrote:

Mildly disappointing. Just not enough oomph. Correct, pure, unadorned, tannins resolved, but few flowers and some acidity. No real length. Such a good vintage, such a well-regarded grower; this should have been thrilling. But it isn't. Try again in 4 years.

3/3/2021 - Remony wrote:

Disappointing. Clean clear colour, but surprisingly light for an NSG 1er Cru. Tart on the nose; tart, tannic and a hint of caramel on the palate. Relatively short, and not very enjoyable. Shows no signs of improvement over several hours. Is 2002 generally becoming problematic? Certainly I have had a deal more pleasure from several 2001 wines than from those of 2002.

2/26/2021 - Remony wrote:

First two bottles from a case of 12. Zalto Burgundy glasses. Lovely mid garnet colour, firm at rim. Expressive nose, very well integrated, no signs of the 13.5% alcohol. Good grip, but lacks complexity in mid to back palate at present. Some length, but I'm sure there is more to come. As good as the 2001 grand cru at this stage, and better than the 2002. Give it another few years. Good QPR at under £30 en primeur. Very promising.

1/31/2021 - Remony wrote:

Magnum, first of six. Zalto burgundy, P & P. Not yet fully developed. Little perfume, lovely clear colour, still a bit sharp, no significant length. Somewhat closed in this format, but not without promise. Leave for 4-5 years, in magnum anyway.

1/31/2021 - Remony wrote:

Lovely village wine. Perfumed, then a clean and mouth-coating mid-palate, excellent grip, and very good length. There may yet be room for further development, but lovely now, especially with some air.

1/26/2021 - Remony wrote:

Can't decide whether this wine is still too young, or whether it may be contrived and over-extracted. Ormes de Pez in a good vintage has been a regular and good value banker in my cellar since the 1986, and I would have expected the 2005 to be more or less ready by now. But it (probably) isn't. Doesn't improve with 24 hours in the remaining half bottle. I will assume for now that it needs a few more years (NM says it does and he may well be right), but there is nevertheless a question mark too.

8/20/2020 - Remony wrote:

Chez Aykroyd. First bottle sound, a firm nose, with a marginal sharpness to the fruit. Still a very good rounded wine, long and pleasing, but in the early stages of decline. Perhaps just a little rustic. Old-fashioned winemaking. Second bottle less good, more rustic, perhaps a touch of TCA, and certainly shorter, but no old-winey caramel flavours. Drink up. 92 for bottle 1, NR bottle 2.

7/6/2020 - Remony wrote:

Bought 60 bottles in the Farr Vintners Summer Sale as an unassuming wine for our family shoot at under £11 delivered. This will fill the bill perfectly. No greenness, very pleasant to drink without needing to stop to think about it. No length, but nicely balanced, and no aggression. Would have preferred less than 14% abv, but that is rarely obtainable nowadays at this sort of price. Absolutely fine for the job it was bought for, and very good QPR.

4/26/2020 - Remony wrote:

Horribly woody and sour. Presumably badly affected by TCA, but unusually unpleasant even for a corked wine. 1st bottle of a case of 12.

4/25/2020 - Remony wrote:

P & P. Unmistakable VCC quality in a good vintage for Pomerol. Now ready. Seemed light initially, but opened up well after 30 minutes. Full and rounded on nose and palate, good fruit, nicely balanced. Strongish, very clean, savoury, with a slight and very pleasant astringency. Tannins still present but resolved. Long. No better, but no worse, on Day 2. Good VFM (£41/bt in 2005), not great, but very good indeed. Glad to have three cases of this. 1/36.

4/21/2020 - Remony wrote:

Am in total agreement with Xavier Auerbach's tasting note below. This was my last bottle out of 5 cases, which have served us very well over the last 5 years. But it hasn't lasted well. Now edgy, unbalanced, disjointed as Xavier says. Always a shame to say farewell to a staple wine in the cellar, a reliable old friend which has done what was asked of it. But it's time to move on. Drink up!

4/12/2020 - Remony wrote:

My last bottle, and very much the best out of a job lot of six bottles purchased from BI in 2010. Sound cork, bottle ullaged to top shoulder. Needs an hour to open up. Slight touch of brett on the nose, but not on the palate. A touch of tobacco, good length. Lovely mature moderately tannic wine, without any trace of old winey flavours. But time to drink up, I think.

2/29/2020 - Remony wrote:

P & P. Overwhelming volatile acidity initially. The worst of it blew off, but VA remained at a less intense level through the rest of the bottle. But it didn't wholly impair the wine on the palate. Quite good fruit, although acidity remains at the forefront, along with smooth but noticeable tannins. A hint of caramel at the back, but no more than a hint. Overall, this wine is unbalanced, which could be the consequence of some dirtiness in the course of its evolution, or may just be the product of Girardin's extreme non-interventionist wine-making, which I understand was at its apogee with the 1999 vintage. Whatever the cause, it has not entirely spoiled the wine, but has made it rather rustic. Certainly not a typical CdlR.

12/23/2019 - Remony wrote:

Not in the same class tonight as the 2001, drunk alongside. Very good, balanced, but lacking the pzazz of the '01. On a parallel with the 1996 drunk from a magnum last week.

12/22/2019 - Remony wrote:

Very lovely. Drunk alongside the Lambrays 2002, and this is very significantly better tonight. Profound, vigorous and very satisfying. Much more interesting as well than the 1996 from a magnum last week. 2001 shows its class once again.

10/20/2019 - Remony wrote:

Mature lightish colour, some watering at rim. Pungent and pleasing red fruits on the nose, with marked acidity. Pleasantly sharp, no sweetness, red fruits puckering the mouth. For the first two hours, it seemed to be in a good place, but a little later it began to tire, and some caramel emerged. Time to drink up, I think, and not to linger over the bottle.

10/1/2019 - Remony wrote:

Nothing like as good as our last bottle, a year ago, which I scored 93. Assertive tannins make this bottle unbalanced. And not as sweet or as long as last time. But I hope this may just be an awkward phase, and look forward to trying again in another year or so. Still very impressive QPR, at £30 a bottle en primeur.

9/28/2019 - Remony wrote:

Yet another 1998 from the Medoc impaired by all that rain in September. A 75cl bottle which we didn't decant. Very soft and gentle for an LB, diffuse in mid-palate. Pedestrian, unexciting, a little weak. You can almost taste that rain. However, it did improve a bit towards the end, with some vigour and tannins, probably due to suspended solids in the last glass.

8/24/2019 - Remony wrote:

Coming along very nicely. Strongly coloured. Still some tannins, but excellent fruit, acidity and vigour. May still improve further.

6/7/2019 - Remony wrote:

At Arras, York, with Peter S, Mark G, Rodney T, Tony and Simon B. From the rocky true Charmes, not from Mazoyeres. Slightly watery at rim, diffuse soft colour, and minute solids in suspension. Fully mature, in perfect harmony, no trace of excess acidity. A really good example of mature Gevrey GC. Warm, friendly but complex flavours, and good length. Earthy and inviting. Lovely.

5/30/2019 - Remony wrote:

Bourgogne Rouge doesn't often get better than this. Roseate colour, floral nose, lovely sweet well-balanced wine with decent length. Summer flowers, especially roses. From Corgoloin, I paid £9 a bottle en primeur. Happily still have plenty left.

5/24/2019 - Remony wrote:

Decanted into an ETO for 5 hours, and taken to London for the annual Burgundy Wimps. Initially the wine appeared corked when first poured, and browner than its age warranted. However, over time it did improve significantly in the glass (and turned out not to be corked). Nevertheless, overall it remained slightly caramelly and disappointing. Drinkable, but nothing like what I hoped it would be. Several bottles from the same case have been much better, including one very special one in 2010, but others have disappointed as this one did. Probably the case has been mistreated at some point (I didn't buy it en primeur).

5/3/2019 - Remony wrote:

At Le Millesime Restaurant, Chambolle-Musigny. The Sigauts are growers not previously known to us (Anne is the senior partner as the label shows, even though the domaine formally bears her husband's name), and Les Groseilles is a 1er cru I also did not know. But this was the recommendation of the sommelier to accompany our main dishes of veal and turbot.

As with most lists in Burgundy, the restaurant's wines were almost all from vintages no older than 2012 (even the grands crus), and so were much younger than we would normally have drunk all but the simplest generics. However, the sommelier knew his stuff. We set a limit of €110, and this bottle came in nicely at €92. A lovely, pungent nose, despite its medium colour. And initially quite robust by the standards of Chambolle, but it soon developed into a nuanced, perfumed, floral glass typical of the village, and very well suited to our meal. Red fruits and summer flowers. Remarkably good to drink with only 3 years of bottle age. Bravo.

4/30/2019 - Remony wrote:

At Le Soufflot, Meursault. Pale. Initially quite modest, almost delicate. Then some insistent acidity. Much happier when the food arrived. Excellent with smoked mackerel, then champignons de Paris, then cod with onions and cauliflower. After that, we switched to a Volnay. Some way still to go for this St Aubin, we think.

4/30/2019 - Remony wrote:

At Le Soufflot, Meursault. I was going to choose a 1er Cru, but one of the three young patrons strongly insisted that this was the Volnay to have from a formidably long and very fairly priced list. I have no way of judging his choice, but this was a bold (but not overbearing) village wine, with insistent fruit and earthy minerality. At €60, it was also 40% cheaper than the 1er Cru. The tannins only began to show after 90 minutes, and even then they were not off-putting.

4/16/2019 - Remony wrote:

Domaine grapes, not negoce. Decanted 2 hours. Well balanced, fruity, mouth-puckering. Very delicious right now, remains to be seen whether it will shut down at some point, as other 2015 village wines have done. Quite good QPR, at £27 delivered.

4/4/2019 - Remony wrote:

Probably now ready, but will last for a good while yet. Still dense and opaque in appearance. Not particularly sweet or harmonious, but has some satisfying edgy tannins, even if these are not quite what you expect in a Pomerol. A touch of alcohol in the taste profile, despite its claimed 13% abv. Overall, a bit sharper than expected, but rich, nicely acidic, and pleasing. It has been a banker of our cellar for the last 3 or 4 years, when it has seemed a bit more simple than it does now. I think we will leave our remaining 5 bottles alone for several years more, and see what happens.

3/28/2019 - Remony wrote:

Lovely. Needs an hour or two in the decanter to show its full colours. With that, a slightly smoky beautifully balanced wine emerges, long and pleasantly tannic, a real success. Many more years to go. Surprising that there has been no price movement for this wine in the last 4 years.

1/25/2019 - Remony wrote:

Quite floral, with some spice. But is it a little hollow, watery, lacking robustness? We shall see. First of 24 bottles.

1/13/2019 - Remony wrote:

Remarkable depth of flavour. Cool, broad, smoky nuances of pebbles and graphite. Superbly balanced, gets better and better with a couple of hours of air. The Chateau says that the 2005 is the equal of this wine -- if that is true, it will be an extraordinary bottle. Significantly better than our last bottle 4 months ago. Simply excellent.

12/25/2018 - Remony wrote:

A Double Magnum perfectly decanted by Peter for Christmas lunch with the McCormick family and Simon & Di. Fine limpid appearance, a beautiful wine from the last of a trio of outstanding vintages in Pomerol. Remarkably smooth and elegant. Probably holding back some of its future complexities, but we wouldn't have noticed that on an occasion such as this (it followed vintage Bollinger, and Yquem '83 with the foie gras). Lovely.

5/19/2018 - Remony wrote:

3 bottles for my 70th birthday dinner. They showed some bottle variation, although that may have been because the two better bottles had been left in open jug-style decanters for 4 hours before being served, whereas the third was in a stoppered decanter, in case it was not needed on the night (it was, of course!). Exquisite blackberry colour, cool essence of Graves pebbles and graphite (I cannot agree with those who say that terroir does not impart minerality to a wine), and great with the beef. But not, to my mind, quite in the same class as the 1989.

9/17/2018 - Remony wrote:

Not remotely oxed, praise be. Sad that one has to start a 2010 tasting note with that preliminary observation! A lovely rounded 8 year old village wine, just as it should be. Fruit and a slight sweetness, good acidity, and some minerality; a wine for sipping and savouring rather than quaffing. Lasted well over 3 days. Very good indeed for what it is.

5/19/2018 - Remony wrote:

Opened on my 70th. Both bottles (my last two) hopelessly oxidised, and poured away. Happily not a metaphor for a wasted life!

9/18/2018 - Remony wrote:

Deep imperial red. A touch of brett on the nose. Tears on the glass sides, tannins fully integrated, fine acidity. But no real fruit, and the mild brett persists in the mouth. Very good indeed, but not enough complexity or length in this bottle for a better score.

9/16/2018 - Remony wrote:

17th of 24. Perfectly correct, if not truly inspiring wine. Quaffable cab sauv from a fine vintage at only £22 en primeur, a more than acceptable weekend house wine. Has the added virtue of being fully ready to drink, unlike many other 2000s.

8/28/2018 - Remony wrote:

37.5cl. This wine is not singing as yet, even in half bottle format. A bolder, heavier wine than I was expecting, unknit, with tannins yet to resolve. Leave for another two years, at least.

8/26/2018 - Remony wrote:

In 37.5cl format, this is ready to go, and is lovely for what it is. Rich, rounded, flavoursome and more-ish. Tannins in balance. My first foray into my selection of cases of different 2009 half bottles, and a very good start it is too.

5/19/2018 - Remony wrote:

At my 70th birthday dinner. Arresting and authoritative but still young, lots of smoke, a touch of gunflint still; it worked really well with the oily richness of the Icelandic peat-smoked salmon. No hint of the sweetness or candied fruit you sometimes get in 2005 white burgs (and no hint of ox either in these two bottles).

9/14/2018 - Remony wrote:

2 years ago, this was lovely. But for now, it is spirituous, unbalanced, and quite disappointing. New World in feel, not at all what I expected. Alcohol & tannins. Some astringency, no sweetness. Leave for a couple of years and try again.

9/13/2018 - Remony wrote:

No more than a two dimensional Pomerol at this stage of its development. Simple, lacking sweetness, assertive. Indeed initially quite aggressive, modern and contrived. But after several hours (and the next day), it shows more possibilities, although tannic and unbalanced. Leave for a number of years.

9/6/2018 - Remony wrote:

5 magnums of this ideal easy-drinking wine for a large dinner party of uncritical friends after a walked-up day at Commondale. But it is very good, as well as providing easy drinking. Fully ready to go. Wonderful QPR at £26 per magnum, en primeur.

9/10/2018 - Remony wrote:

Very odd chemical aroma and flavour. Akin to ethyl acetate. Have not encountered this before in this wine. Hope it is just an odd bottle. Not good to drink - discarded.

9/13/2018 - Remony wrote:

This is astonishingly good. Energetic, saliva-inducing wine, delivering thrilling fruit & acidity, in perfect harmony. Not really sweet at all - just as a Spätlese should be, but sometimes isn't. Fresh and delightful, and very more-ish. Knocks the spots off a bottle of Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese of the same vintage opened yesterday, at least at this stage of their evolution. [03 09, 7.5%]