Some brief notes I’ve been slow to put up from the New Year break. A bit of an ’07 horizontal and I wanted to try the Blain Gagnard range again, having not bought their wines for a while until 2014. Mostly had the wines over dinner across two days for each bottle, with excellent company and even some foraged food.
Blain Gagnard Chassagne Montrachet Caillerets 2014
This ended up being the only “ready” (or nearly) wine in the BG line up, and really quite lovely. Rich fruited, nice creamy texture, some salty acidity – as you’d expect, really good structure in a great vintage. Generous but always fine and elegant. Nice textbook Chassagne 1er.
Blain Gagnard Criots Batard Montrachet 2014
Paler and really quite backward. Some exotic fruits and only hints of honeycomb at this stage, dominated by stony structure. Impressive weight and extract.
Blain Gagnard Batard Montrachet 2014
Also very backward and pale. More mealy, nutty than the Criots and really impressive structure again. Spice and lemon complexity grows on day 2, great intensity and depth. At this (too early!) stage of life it doesn’t give much up to the Montrachet. Potentially great.
Blain Gagnard Le Montrachet 2014
Again, very backward and pale. More mineral than fruit driven, very savoury. Lots of material here. Still very wrapped up and tight on day 2, certainly powerful and concentrated. White florals have emerged, but continues to rest primarily on textural and mineral impression.
The three GCs really seem to have been built for the long haul here. I’m hoping that’s not just a 2014 anomaly, and it does rather stand out against the 1er, so I’m guessing that it’s quite deliberate. Really impressive extract. In hindsight, I should have maybe picked 2015s as the “checking the range” vintage!
Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Champ-Canet 2007
Good colour, lovely Puligny nose – minerals, white florals and a touch of vanilla and fruit sweetness. Same sort of profile on the palate, good acidity and persistence. That hint of sweetness / exoticism is really quite charming. In a perfect spot now, time to finish your cases.
Carillon Puligny Montrachet Perrieres 2007
Perfect colour with that sort of green tinge. More savoury and minerals focused than the Sauzet. Lemons, salt, excellent palate impression and acidity. Qualitatively perhaps a small notch up from the Sauzet, though probably more a stylistic preference. Day 2 sees a little caramelisation creep in, just adds a touch of richness, still fresh and likely a longer plateau ahead than the Sauzet.
Giaconda Chardonnay 2008 (VIC, Australia, cork closure)
I had a bottle of this, which I slated in a TN a few months ago. Thought I would throw another bottle into polite company as the ringer. This bottle was far, far better and cleaner, showing an acceptable level of sulphur compounds, well within my tolerance. Blind guesses started very much in the CdB. Good colour, nose shows a bit more oak and heat than the Pulignys (but then, I knew what the wine was). White-fleshed stone fruit, nuts, very textural on day 1 and quite strong. Showed its origin and warmth, exotic flavours more on day 2, perhaps a little clumsy next to the classical white burgs, but good richness. Recommended based on this bottle, though probably time to drink up given day 2 showing.
Roulot Meursault Charmes 2007
Continues my unimpressive run with Roulot’s 2007s. I have yet to have a great bottle, especially sad given how good 2008s and 2006s are. Colour is fine, perhaps a touch lighter gold than the Carillon. Fine nose, but really a bit light. Yellow-fruited, some flinty and creamy complexity. By far the least intense of the wines and the fastest-fading finish. A decent wine and I might have been pleased enough with it were it from a large négociant. Didn’t improve day 2.
Dauvissat Chablis Les Clos 2007
Still a relatively light gold colour. Really intense nose, chalk, florals, shells, lime. Stunning flavours too – really quite muscular on first opening. Then it became more lithe, regal and long. Even better on day 2, some white fruit, more pronounced floral / herbal notes, still lots of seashell, salt, nettles and lime. Really quite brilliant.
