I’m playing yet another week with the symphony orchestra in Porto’s Casa da Música, and invited a few colleagues from the orchestra for lunch at Traça, a restaurant just above the Palácio da Bolsa whose main attractiveness is allowing for corkage - a rare sight around here. One of my friends is a serious wino who kindly gifted the 2012 Cronológico we opened, while the other two wines were my contribution.
As someone who typically appreciates dosage in champagne, the 2019 Francis Boulard Mailly-Champagne Grand Cru Brut Nature was nevertheless quite satisfying for my taste, owing to the combination of elegant mousse, balanced acidity, appreciable volume and youthful, fruit forward aromas - mix of yellow fruits and berries. Nothing I would describe as austere here.
I was surprised at how evolved the 2017 Hudelot-Noëllat Chambolle-Musigny felt compared to my last bottle some 4 or 5 years ago; I remembered an exuberant, red fruited, floral wine and while today’s experience was excellent, I didn’t expect such a dramatic transformation. Most of the aromatics were mushroomy and earthy - a type of forest floor I associate with Dão reds, more incisive than autumnal - but with a treble line of bergamot that is inequivocably Burgundy for me. It had a fine acid core which was seamlessly integrated in its svelte texture - again, markedly less zippy than I recall. I wasn’t expecting to get this particular experience with this particular wine until a few more years into the future, so I will reconsider my rate of consumption for the remaining bottles.
I typically associate Folias de Baco, from winemaker Tiago Sampaio, with the overtly natty wines that make up a good deal of their portfolio. The 2012 Uivo Cronológico Tinto, on the other hand, is a seriously structured late release, with 5 years of oak and another 5 years in bottle. It has a foreground of gorgeous, plummy blue fruit with no overt Touriga violets or oaky aromas, as well as a minty hint of Douro balsamic. The palate is pure caressing velvet, and more than makes up for its medium finish.
For dessert, and after we went our separate ways, I took a walk to the Jardim do Morro and enjoyed the breeze of an atypically warm January day.
