The Roulot was fabulous, but I was a touch worried about the Cote-Rotie when first popped.
Meursault les Tillets 2001, Domaine Roulot
The nose has some buttery richness – shades of mature Chardonnay. There is an incredible mineral creaminess to it along with plenty of lemon fruit and a strong toasty character. This smells quite dense, but is not lacking finesse or elegance. The nose, to cut to the chase, is incredibly serious for a village wine; it is arse-bitingly engaging. Its palate is really stupefyingly refined, with exquisite lemon fruit and star-bright acidity along with its buttery, toasty mature characters. This is a palate throbbing with vibrancy. It is really impressively long and suffused with complexity, but the main thing I love about this wine is its understated beauty. It is a carefully sculpted, minimalist wine, but it lacks nothing in terms of being a captivating experience. Top village Meursault which is up for drinking now, but if you’ve got a good cellar then it is not going to die for quite a while yet.
Riesling Grand Cru Pfersigberg 2004, Bruno Sorg
Lawks, a really appealing nose here: powerful citrus fruit and a splendid minerality to it. It has put on a touch of weight with age, but the fruit seems quite fresh and succulent. That minerality is downright delectable, this is a classy Riesling alright. The palate has a screaming slash of acidity running right through it which works rather well with its perfectly ripe, pure lemon and lime fruit. The minerality is quite delicious and persists for more than adequate period of time on the finish. This is distinctly delectable Riesling, again of a slightly minimalist genre, but then who really likes massively over-blown wines anyway?
Cote-Rotie 2001, Bernard Burgaud
Cripes, this reeks of shit. Unadulterated, raw cow shit. I’m going to let this breathe for a while and come back to it because at the moment this turd tenor is far from attractive. Ten minutes later the crap character has developed into arsehole aromas, which are less repugnant but I will leave it a bit longer. After half an hour it has blossomed into an exquisite, elegant set of aromas which have some meatiness to them but also an alluring floral character as well as a sophisticated dark fruitiness. The palate is really sleek, with velvety fruit and rigorous but polished tannins. It certainly has impressive length and, now it has had enough time to unfold, it is a model of harmonious style. Cracking Cote-Rotie that is up for drinking; just let the blighter have some air before diving in.
