2005 Nicolas Potel Savigny-lès-Beaune Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Savigny-lès-Beaune (10/17/2025)
Used this for Beef Burgundy, and had a glass or two left. Wasn't expecting much, but not bad. Very tertiary with menthol and earth mulch...the fruit is faded, but still some cherry skin...like the sandalwood and cinnamon spice when coaxed out...but overall, simple and thin. The perfect wine to cook with though! (85 points)
Posted from CellarTracker
So the perfect cooking wine must first sit in your cellar for almost 20 years before being dumped in the pot?! That’s a high bar…
Those Potel negotiant wines sold on a name, not on the quality of what was in the bottle. Wish I had never bought any of them.
Weren’t some of the bottles better than others? I remember some Clos des Chênes were good - if not great - especially for the price, at least for my young palate. And weren’t some of the Grand Crus good as well.
I did not delve into the GC bottles, but none of my village or 1er crus have been anything more than workmanlike. Didn’t have the Chenes.
In general, I am with David on this. But,… last year a bottle of Chambolle Musigny Vieilles Vignes was very good, and some bottles of Volnay have been better than mundane, even if they didn’t seem very much like Volnay. Overall, though, the wines seemed to move very quickly from ‘not ready yet’ to ‘oops, a little over the hill.’
We’ll see how the next beef bourg comes out with the 05 Vosne Romanee I’ve been saving! 
The avocado of wine!
I’m not sure what year he lost control. He was ousted from his name label in 2009 by Laboure Roi, but had started another label “Roche de Bellene” in 2008.
I have a 2005 Nicolas Potel Morey-St-Denis Vieilles Vignes in my cellar but it sounds like I shouldn’t expect much from it.
Nope.
I rarely drag a producer, but truly godawful wines that still have far too much presence in our market.
The Roche de Bellene wines are the mystery meat of wines - every single one that claims to be “2005 Gevrey-Chambertin” or “1996 Savigny-Les-Beaune” tastes nothing like it, and if that’s what’s in those bottles I’ll eat my own shoe.
My last bottle of the 2005 Potel Teurons. It didn’t disappoint. I bought several at a serious discount price
Have some respect for the man. Dancing on his grave is the ultimate lack of class.
Buzz only uses 120-day dry aged ribeye for his bourginon so that makes sense.
I didn’t say anything about him. The wines aren’t very good.
Did not know he died…same age as me. Sad. This is the second wine I’ve recently had of someone’s, just before, and just after, they died…
I’ve had a few bottles of 2005 Beaune Greves and Clos du Roi, as well as Volnay Vielle Vignes over the years. None of them have been bad, but they are certainly not exciting. I still have 3 or 4 double magnums left that I tend to bring to larger events with few discerning consumers.
I’ve often wondered about the quality in the selection of the rows within a vineyard that some of these shorter term Negociants made wine from.
Truly, Sean—I bought my last one of Roche de Bellene a number of years ago and vowed to purchase no more.
