Met up with a few mates, at the place that shall remain nameless, on the way from Paris to Meursault. Had a big enough group where we could launch into a heap of good botts at prices that are downright charitable. Kicked off with a bottle of 2008 Boisson-Vadot Meursault ‘Les Chevalieres’ that was dense, compact and sappy. It had a bit of smoke to the aroma and was only just started opening up as the last dregs of the bottle were being poured. Two bottles of 2007 Coche-Dury Meursault were identical and brilliant village wine. There’s the usual Coche struck match as well as pure white peach and white flower notes. It has a rigid mineral spine and chalk laden finish. It just looks so youthful. A magnum of 2005 Hubert Lamy St-Aubin ‘Clos de la Chateniere’ 1er Cru was bright, energetic and youthful. The aroma was laden with citrus fruits and geological material. It had a fruit sweet heart and good shape in the mouth. The finish was cut by grapefruit acidity. The first red of the day was stunning. The 2006 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanee ‘Cros Parantoux’ 1er Cru is an exercise in restraint and cool minute detail. It has pure cherry fruit on the nose and plenty of flora, earth and mineral. You feel every rocky bump in the mouth yet it is cushioned by soft, pillowy fruit. It is a wine that is built on perfume that envelops the nostrils and mouth leaving a sensual impression once swallowed. The 2006 Armand Rousseau Chambertin-Clos de Beze is a much more muscular wine yet has fantastic flesh and balance. It has some smoked meat aromas along with red and black fruits. There is terrific volume in the mouth and not a hair is out of place. It has outstanding length of flavour. A 2005 Emmanuel Rouget Echezeaux is nowhere near ready, not even close. It is deep, dark and dense with slightly raisined fruit. It has some freshly grated ginger spice and a strand of liquorice threading through the palate. It is compact and chewy with great length. The 2008 Armand Rousseau Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Clos St-Jacques’ 1er Cru is a wine that is backlit by electric acidity. The cherry fruit is so crisp and precise. There is a hint of freshly tilled earth and some dried flower action. There is some grated ginger and a little sweet cedar. It has fabulous cut and flavours really fan out at the finish.
Our mate Walshy wanted to finish the day with an option wine for the table. He ordered the 2005 DRC RSV to which Madame replied ‘malheureusement, la cave est fermée’. She had had enough of our table of ‘cerise picking’ Aussies!
Our start to the first day proper was pretty good, a tasting at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti . Bernard Noblet was ‘en form’ and a spritely and fit looking Aubert de Villaine popped out to say hello and have a bit of a chat. We worked our way through the 2013’s from barrel. These were still going through malo and were difficult to taste (well not that difficult actually). This is a super low yielding vintage for the Domaine with yields around 18-19 h/l per ha and the wines are deep of colour and quite concentrated. The Corton shows great potential with lively red berry and pomegranate fruits and ample structure and grip. The Echézeaux already has a silky mouthfeel and a deep colour. It is crunchy and bright yet deep and dense. The nose is laden with floral spice. The Grands Echézeaux also has huge floral lift and is so pure. It has a strong chalky frame and good volume with superb balance. The Romanée St-Vivant was shy and perfumed. It had a myriad of spices on the nose and was cool and chiselled in the mouth. It is a wine of great finesse and harmony and really built through the palate. The 2013 Richebourg possesses a darker fruit profile with a dense sweet heart. There is a scent of gingerbread on the nose and it is a wine that is deep, crunchy, vibrant and extremely long. The La Tâche is one of the most powerful and explosive young Tâche I have seen. It has a stunning aroma of raspberry, cherry, pomegranate, violets and rose petals. It is powerful and exuberant with dense red and black fruits. It has extraordinary balance and should be stunning in several decades. With Romanée-Conti you often pay more for less and the 2013 is indeed much more retrained than the La Tâche. It is a vinous millefeuille of red fruit and mineral. It is feminine and seductive, expansive but tightly held. It is lacy in the mouth and finishes with the taste of cherry skins. Length of flavour is supreme.
We headed over to the other cellar for a couple of options. The first bottle pulled was corked, the second was superb and ended up being the 1999 Grands Echézeaux. I have read about Bernard’s displeasure at decanting red Burgundy but when he said the wine needed more air our friend Colin put his hand over the top of the glass and shook the absolute bejesus out of it. I thought Bernard was going to blow a gasket but he simply said ‘C’est une technique’. The wine was terrific, with an engaging aroma of black tea, moss, red and black berries and spice. It was so silky and youthful in the mouth and had extraordinary length. The next wine was sensual and Bernard said it was an aphrodisiac. I whispered to Heidi ‘how do you say, I’m horney in French’? She responded with ‘you don’t’! It was dark, smoky and sweet. With a palate that was vinous lace. There was some sappy lift and the wine had beautiful poise and balance despite its fabulous intensity. This will live for many decades still. It was the 1990 Grands Echézeaux. The final wine was the 2007 Bâtard-Montrachet. It was so thick and unctuous and had a nose made up of butter, citrus rind, smoke and ripe peach. It is a wine with a mineral heart and had so much volume and power without weight. It left an impression of almond butter once swallowed.
Mid-afternoon we hit Jean-Marc Bouley to taste with Thomas Bouley. He is certainly making some of the best wines in the Cote de Beaune and is passionate both in the vineyard and cellar. His 2012 and 2013 crops were decimated by poor flowering and hail but he allowed us to taste the 2012’s from barrel anyway. He believes in a long elevage before bottling and the wines showed great balance and freshness. Highlights were a delicious 2012 Volnay ‘Caillerets’ 1er Cru that was concentrated with red and black fruit. It was deep with a background of mineral and chalk and had good grip to the finish. He only ended up with a barrel of each of Pommard ‘Rugiens’ and ‘Fremiers’ in 2012 and decided to blend the two together to create a 1er Cru Cuvée ‘Léonie’. It is a beauty, loaded with dense black fruits and plenty of spice. There is roundness to the fruit but serious structure just under the flesh.
Finished the day by meeting Jean-Charles Le Bault de la Morinière in the Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne vineyard. We strolled through the vineyard as it caught the weak rays of the late afternoon sun and then hit the cellar to taste through a few gems. The 2009 Corton-Charlemagne has really tightened up over the past 12 months and now has the steely line of the vineyard coupled with some honeysuckle and citrus flavours. The 2010 Corton-Charlemagne is dense and tight with sappy white peach fruit and lemon pulp flavours. There is a hint of flora top the aroma and it is very long. The 2011 Corton-Charlemagne was the most approachable of the four young wines. It had a bit of toast and candied peel on the nose. It was generous with ripe peach fruit and a touch of citrus and spice. The 2012 Corton-Charlemagne is lightly smoky with ripe white peach and grapefruit fruits. It is rich, unctuous and layered and builds through the palate. There is a touch of salinity on the finish. We were talking up the 1988 Corton-Charlemagne and Jean-Charles trotted off to fetch one. It was exotic on the nose with notes of feijoa and rockmelon. There was some butter and cream and whilst it is rounding out a bit it still has great mineral line and superb length. We finished off with the 2011 Corton Rouge. This is serious wine with good detail and grip. Cherry, liquorice and red fruits are shrunk wrapped around a taut mineral spine. It is sappy with a light spice running through it.
Popped into Ma Cuisine for the obligatory yearly visit yesterday. My scallop salad was terrific, with four plump, sweet scallops perfectly seared and just undercooked. Colin’s asparagus was thicker than Jean-Michel Jacob’s fingers and they are like English pork sausages. They were not in the least bit stringy, had great flavour and made your wee smell funny really quickly. Cousin Lucy’s rabbit compote was superbly seasoned and Heidi’s snails with garlic and parsley were terrific.
For main course a simple entrecote served with roast potatoes for me was the essence of simplicity yet immensely satisfying. Colin’s Cote de Pork was juicy and bursting with flavour, Lucy’s pigeon was the goods as usual, silky, sensual meat that tastes so good with red Burgundy and Heidi’s steak tartare was excellent.
I’m not generally a big dessert eater but Fabienne’s tarts and French classics are irresistible. The girls had tarts, the boys had crème caramel and crème brulee.
A couple of very tasty bottles saw us through lunch. A 2010 Domaine Bernard Moreau & Fils Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Grandes Ruchottes has plenty of sulphur that knocks down the nose and palate and it starts as a concentrated sappy sphere of orchard fruit potential. About half way through the bottle the wines detail punches through the matchstick haze and gives the drinker a glimpse of how good this should be in a decade. Rich, detailed, plenty of mineral with floral nuance. It is deep, concentrated and long. A 2009 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny ‘Les Cras’ 1er Cru possessed ripe red berries coupled with violets and roses on the nose. It has flesh in the mouth but great restraint for the vintage. There is superb rocky detail and it is a strong enough red Burg to scythe through entrecote like a vinous knife.
That was the first place that came to my mind as well. It’s a restaurant I had known for a while before turning my Burgundy friends to it. For whatever they decided they would pay it a visit regularly
The 2012 line-up at Domaine Dujac is splendid. The wines have real flesh, purity and exquisite balance, however it is the charcuterie products of Jeremy Seysses that truly excite. He keeps a couple of very cute black pigs in the garden and when they get too cute he kills them and produces kick-arse pork products. A salami he gave us was wild, raw, meaty and a little bit dangerous. A jar of head cheese looked downright evil but tasted divine. Can’t wait to tuck into some of his pâté dr campagne for lunch back at Chez Hall (http://www.burgundyman.com) today.
The two devilishly handsome Jeremys
Ella Seysses looks filthy that I took the charcuterie away!
The rarest Dujac of all.
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