Burgundy in Bordeaux

[AlexR]

Can there be anything more tiresome and sterile than pitting Bordeaux against Burgundy? Along with Champagne, these are the two great wines of France and I confirm that it is entirely possible to like BOTH of them.
We’re not racist in Bordeaux .
A bunch of friends (15 to be exact), mostly in the wine industry, came over to my place for a tasting and dinner on Saturday.

The scores are uniquely my own and the notes are necessarily sketchy because you are kind of busy when you have that many people over. I am also a tough marker: 16 is a very good score from me.

WHITE WINES

1 - Beaujolais : 2010 Beaujolais Blanc, Chardonnay : récolté, vinifié à la bourguignonne et mise en bouteille par Jean-Paul Brun
Light in color. Flinty, lemony bouquet. Round, clean, and short, with muted pineapple flavors. Good acidity. A fun, rather than a serious wine.
14/20.

2 - Pouilly-Fuissé (Mâconnais): 2010, « Tête de Cru », Domaine J.A. Ferret
Lightish color and a very distinctive hazelnut and matchstick bouquet. Rich yet lively on the palate. Good long aftertaste. Had heard good things about this estate, which now belongs to Jadot. This was confirmed in the glass.
15 ½.

3 - Chablis : 2009, premier cru Mont-de-Milieu, Domaine Pinson
Very pale color with a not very expressive nose and some aromas reminiscent of cheese. Taut and mineral on the palate. Maybe not too angular, but could be more gracious.
14

4 - Chablis : 2004 grand cru « Moutonne », Domaine Long-Depaquit, monopole (straddling Les Preuses and Vaudésir)
More yellowish color and a soft, enticing bouquet of mint, gooseberry and hazelnut. Lovely balance on the palate. Fine varietal characteristics with power and a great deal of class. Give it another few years.
17

5 - Corton Charlemagne : 2002, grand cru, Domaine Jean-René Nudant
The color here was showing its age with amber tones. The wine’s profile is divisive: some people couldn’t get around the oxidation (not premox, and not exaggerated, but definitely there). The bouquet is that of an old, fine wine. Definitely not fresh, but classic. The wine has a nutty, subtle flavour on the palate. I was more charitable than most.
14/15

6 - Meursault : 2009 premier cru Sous Le Dos de l’Ane, Domaine Leflaive
This estate is actually in Blagny.
Brilliant medium-deep color. Understated, subtle, nose with a strong matchbook component. Fine and in no way heavy on the palate: zippy, with a lovely, lively balance and a long aftertaste.
15

7 - Puligny Montrachet : 2008 premier cru Les Folatières, Domaine Jean-Louis Chavy
Fine light golden color. Wonderful jujube nose typical of its origin and with subtle oak. Silky and elegant on the palate. “Sweet” and seamless, with a nice tangy finish.
16

8 - Chassagne Montrachet : 2009 premier cru Les Chaumées, Domaine Philippe Colin
More of a steely than a golden color here. Simple, straightforward. A notch down from the two previous.
14
RED WINES

9 - Fixin : (village) 2010 Domaine Méo Camuzet
Light, purplish color. One of the big surprises of the evening. Very fruit forward (candied cherry) and absolutely seductive. Lush, voluptuous, quintessential Pinot fruit, that melts in the mouth. Not big, nor long, but smooth and a pure delight to drink. And why wait?
Score (objectively) as a wine: perhaps 14
Factoring in the pleasure factor: 17, at least

10 - Gevrey-Chambertin : (village) 2008 Domaine Alain Burguet « Mes Favorites »
Medium-deep color. Deep forest fruit bouquet with some black pepper and briar pipe aromas. Taut on the palate and not rich, but needs time to show its true colors.
14

11 - Gevrey-Chambertin : 2003 grand cru Latricières-Chambertin, Domaine Trapet
Opinions were divided on this. The color showed definite bricking and the nose displayed coffee, caramel, musky aromas. It seemed tired, meaty, and odd on the palate. Some tasters thought there was a winemaking problem. Others, including myself, thought that the wine simply reflected the vintage and that there was nothing outright flawed.
12

12 - Clos de Vougeot : 2008 grand cru, Domaine François Lamarche
OK, pale color. Strong matchbook nose. Wine seemed disjointed, thin, and unbalanced, However, it should be given the benefit of the doubt because it could be a very different animal in a few years.
13/15

13 - Grands-Echézeaux : 2002 grand cru, Domaine Desaunay-Bissey
Light in color, this wine was showing its age. The nose was slightly off-putting and not clean, however the wine seemed much more attractive on the palate and is surely ready to drink now. A friend from the INAO cited it as one of the best reds of the evening.
13

14 - Nuits Saint-Georges : 2008 premier cru Les Cailles , Domaine Chevillon
Watery rim, but deep core. Oak ageing pretty obvious here, with a bouquet that is a nice blend of floral and fruity (blackcurrant). Less attractive on the palate. The most tannic wine of the evening. Scoring is severe, but this wine is far too young to rate and may just be going through an awkward stage.
13/15

15 – Corton : 2002 grand cru, Corton Perrières, Domaine Anne-Marie et Maurice Chapuis
Fuzzy color showing its age. Stong beetroot aromas on the nose that follow onto the palate.
Old-fashioned unsuccessful style, and not for me. Least enjoyable of the reds.
10

16 - Beaune : 2002 premier cru Cuvée Hugues et Louis Bétault, Hospices de Beaune
Excellent color. Subtle, feminine nose with crème de cassis aromas. Tealike tannin on the palate. Very fine, built to last. Delicious.
16

17- Volnay : 2005 premier cru Les Caillerets, Domaine Michel Lafarge
I’ve visited Lafarge three times. Love the people, like the wines, but have never been as enthusiastic as many Burgophiles. This wine was nevertheless a treat.
Fine color and an engaging nose, despite a wet cardboard component. Deep, brambly, weighty and serious on the palate. I’ll save my other bottle another decade.
16

With dinner we had a 2005 Beaune Grèves from Domaine Jacques Prieur (no notes, but one of the best wines of the evening), a 2005 Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots (far too young), and a 1997 Trapet Latricières Chambertin (just to compare with the 2003 in the tasting). The former was completely different and quite enjoyable to drink now.

Best regards,
Alex R.

[jmccready]

Good notes and info. Over the last several years Volnay has seemed to produce fewer disappointing Burgs than some of the other more prestigious villages. Or am
I wrong, or generalizing too much? And I mean wines with some age on them, say 10 years. JM

[Tom In DC]

How did you decide that the oxidation in the 2002 Corton-Charley wasn't premox? A representative CC wine would not have been dominated by oxidation at age 11 if it had been a pre-1995 (or so) vintage.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Obviously it was the dog that didn't bark.

I raised an eyebrow at the wine that scored 17 points for pleasure but only 14 points objectively. I can't countenance this sort of thing.

[AlexR]

Hound,

Think of it this way (warning: politically incorrect comment to follow): it's like comparing one's loving wife of many years who's educated, intelligent, witty, well-dressed, good-looking, you name it, to a lusty buxom young lass who turns your head 180° and who you'd love to have a roll in the hay with...

From my point of view, wine appreciation means that you can appreciate wines two ways: critically and more or less objectively, and then based on the pure and simple enjoyment factor.

As for the first part of that statement, I can rate wines highly that are not to my taste. For instance, I don't particularly like Condrieu, but scored Guigal's fairly high.
As for the second part, there are wines from the Beaujolais, Muscadet, etc. that are just lovely, simple, moreish delights.

Or, what about a grilled steak and homemade French fries as compared to an elaborate dish in a sauce?
The latter is more expensive, more subtle, more difficult to find but, dammit, sometimes the steak and fries is a real treat, and makes you glad to be alive.
There are times when you actually prefer it.

It is in this spirit I say that a wine can seem short and fairly one-dimensional, but you just want to lap it up!

Please read this article in the NY Times about Savennières : http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/dinin ... .html?_r=0
Here is a wine that is "technically" very successful, but off-putting to many people, including myself.

Best regards,
Alex R.

[AlexR]

Tom,

You've made a good point.
I don't have white Burgundy all that often.

I'd say that the darkness of color was minimal and that the oxidized element under control.
Therefore, I considered it a more-or-less natural evolution for a 12 year-old wine as compared to anything pre-mature.

I've had other white Burgundies that were much more Sherry-like than this.

Please tell me how to tell the difference between premox and "regular" oxidation?

Alex

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

We must part company, for while I can say a wine I don't like is good, I'm not confident enough to admit a wine I love is not good.

[Tom In DC]

Alex,

I agree that there isn't a clear definition of premox, because I think it's relative to the appellation and our expectations thereof. While I wouldn't find an oxidated 12 year old Macon Villages to be a candidate for "premature" oxidation as opposed to just getting long in the tooth, I do think a 12 year old Corton-Charley dominated by oxidative notes could be.

Does that make sense?

Ciao,
Tom

[AlexR]

Hound,

I hear you, but in fact you have not really represented my point of view. But that's OK...
To summarize, you can like a wine a whole lot more than a "clinical" appraisal would suggest.
Indeed, many of us have enjoyed wines with volatile acidity, which is an unacceptable flaw from an enological point of view.

Ever notice that some incredibly attractive women don't show up well in photos, or don't have anything like top model measurements?
I doubt even Marilyn Monroe would make it in today's advertising/fashion/cinéma world. She had big hips and generous curves. None of your skinny stuff!

So, I never actually said that the Fixin was "not good". 14/20 is a good score in my grading system (better than several of the other, more prestigious wines), Just that it tickled my fancy a lot more than its intrinsic qualities would suggest.
Had I given just a low to middling score, I would have denatured my hedonistic appreciation of the wine, as opposed to a cold-headed analysis.
Which explains the two scores.
I don't usually mark that way, but this wine was exceptional in its seductiveness - rather than through the prism of the usual canons of wine appreciation.

All the best,
Alex

All the best,
Alex

[stefan]

Tom and I have been thinking along the same lines.

You do know that an oxidized wine is prematurely oxidized if another bottle of the same wine from the same case is fresh. We had a case of '99 CC from Bonnay du Martray in which four of the bottles were moderately to badly oxidized, two were oxidized somewhat, and six were fresh; even too young. Since then I have purchased nary a bottle of BdM CC.