Shameful Nuits and lovely lunch

Nuits should not be like this. No Nuits I really like, be it Mugnier, Chevillon or a one off from Dujac, is anything like this in personality. I think this was the first vintage made by de Montille from vines they got from Dujac (correct me if I’m wrong, Jeremy) and if the comparison is made de Montille should hang their heads in shame.

The only good thing about this experience was the lunch we chose to have it with. The was cracking. I’ll put a picture and a few words after my acerbic rant about the manifest failures of de Montille when they made this wine.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru aux Thorey 2006 from de Montille is rubbish!

Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru aux Thorey 2006, Domaine de Montille

Well, the nose is acceptable, but hardly inspiring. The fruit moves from ripeness to soup in perception all too easily and there is not the energy and vigor I’d expect from the vintage, appellation or producer. It just seems a bit stewed and flat on the nose. By arse, what an awful palate! The fruit is over-ripe and there is no tannin to speak of. What sort of freaking Nuits has no tannin? A bad one, I fancy. There is a shade of rigor in the form of acidity, but that’s only slightly spiky and does nothing to make up for the absolute lack of structure. What were they doing when they harvested and made this wine? It’s just so lacking village and vintage character. I cannot believe freak weather conditions so utterly ruined this wine in the vineyard, I think poor decisions were made when to harvest it and poor decisions were made in the winery. I’ve had the odd rubbish bottle from de Montille, but none so utterly removed from what it should be. Totally awful – I couldn’t bring myself to finish the bottle. That’s a pretty damning judgement on a supposedly good vineyard from a supposedly great producer. Only worth selling to people who don’t know better.

WP_20120819 1Lunch, on the other hand, was a real cracker – charged with character and enjoyment value that the wine lacked. It was a steak pie from the Manydown Farm Shop. Just look at how throbbing full of meat it was! The meat was really, and I mean really seriously, high-grade, and the sauce was rich and tasty. I love Manydown’s chicken and ham pie, which is crazily stuffed with high-class chicken, but this was so good I wonder if it eclipses that in my mind as best pie I’ve ever enjoyed. A cracking pie, someone like Keith Prothero (or anyone who enjoys food but has no culinary ability) should score some of these for when his wife is out playing golf.

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