I’m a bit of an insomniac, so naturally I’m sitting here at 3 am doing exactly what every sleep expert tells you NOT to do: staring at a bright screen.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking for a couple of days about what bottle should be my first TN post after being encouraged in the “Should WB try to attract younger members?” thread and, like with most things, I was overthinking it.
Thankfully, my late-night scrolling took me to this 2016 Burgundy thread, and I figured I might as well just let that guide me. So here’s my first WB TN post — at a time when I should be sleeping:
2016 Albert Bichot Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru ‘Les Amoureuses’
Bright ruby color. Intense nose with ripe strawberry, red floral notes, and a hint of spiciness. Palate is highly acidic but mellowed out a bit by oak, with well-integrated, fine tannins. Finish is long but a bit one-dimensional, with only red fruit at this point and no real tertiary characteristics showing yet. Nice wine but almost certainly 5-10 years too early. Also, admittedly, I don’t drink a lot of Bichot (have had mixed experiences), so there could be a stylistic element there that isn’t quite landing with me.
Excellent note! Gave me a very good notion of the wine, all the things I want to know.
Fyi, there’s a reason the Bichot wines tend to be more affordable. I don’t know which of their bottlings are negocient vs. estate, but the wines tend not to be very exciting. It’s a good way to be able to dip your toes in the waters of the more famous vineyards, but probably won’t rise to the level of the most sought after producers.
Yeah, I’ve never been blown away by Bichot — they’re always correct and “okay,” but I was definitely hoping for more as it was my first Amoureuses. Bichot does own its vines there, so it’s an estate bottling, but still didn’t quite impress me. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt though and assume it’ll improve, given how a lot of ‘16s seem to be aging slowly.
I’ve only had this wine once but my experience was the same as you. I think it was the 2009 IIRC and it was very clunky and one dimensional. I also found it quite heavily oaked, which doesn’t really suit my palate.
