The 2009 was provided by Peter Sidebotham of Hand-Picked Burgundy, pictured here, who is always a generous and charming dinner guest. He also provided a Rhys Family Farm Vineyard Pinot 2009 which I’ll briefly comment on after the Chambolles. Lovely to see you, Peter, and many thanks!

Chambolle-Musigny 2007, Domaine G. Roumier

This nose is the Platonic ideal of ‘lovely’ – if you wanted to sell the idea that Burgundy is scrummy to a neophyte you’d let them sniff this and they’d instantly be smitten. The fruit is absolutely charming and attractive: ripe and pretty with no hint of excess, over-ripeness or heaviness. Super-Chambolle fruit; just elegant and refined. The alcohol is in perfect balance and there’s no silliness with loads of new oak either. It’s just a nose of complete joy which is making me grin my new unforced, fundamentally jolly grin each time I stick my hooter in. The palate is not short of delight either. It’s silky smooth with refined tannins and a totally pretty fruitiness. I like its hint of creamy earthiness too and it has enough acidity to keep it balanced. Pretty long as well. Let’s not fart around, this is a deeply pleasurable wine to drink, it’s making us all happy and you could ask for little more from a village Chambolle. I think I’ve got more in my long-term cellar and I am breaking the bleeders out next time I visit – this is just tits now. Just goes to show that if you buy from the right people there is no reason to be sniffy about so called lesser vintages. My arse has been charmed off me.

Chambolle-Musigny 2009, Domaine G. Roumier

Editor Daniel and I were told this was Roumier Chambolle village with the instruction to spot the vintage – when I first smelled it I thought it was some much more powerful vineyard, the words Bonnes-Mares drifted through my mind. However, further sniffing and tasting showed it simply to be really ripe – we got the vintage right first guess. The fruit is very ripe indeed, almost fruit-cakey, and super-charged with a big whack of booze. Peter and I thought this could well be over 14%. There is something attractive, if more lubricious than winsome, about this nose, but at the moment it is just a bit of a belter; it’ll be better after a lot more time in the cellar. But there is nothing really wrong with it, though, it is just a big job. Some of us can manage lubricious big jobs with ease. There is complexity and minerality, and again no silliness with new oak, just one hell of a lot of very ripe fruit and quite a lot of booze. The palate shows this richness of fruit and alcohol very strongly. There’s no booze burn, but as I’m enthusiastically drinking it I feel a warm glow coming to my being. There is earthy complexity and about enough acidity, but the balance comes more from the fruit/tannin structure rather than Pinot’s more normal fruit/acid interplay. It’s quite tannic although the tannins are very, very ripe. I do like it, I just don’t think it is really showing hilariously well at the moment. This is a bit of an odd thing to say about a village wine, but I think this is one for serious cellar time and it’ll make intriguing old bones. Keep yours, I’ll keep mine a long time, and drink your bum-bitingly fun 2007s now.

Fascinating comparison. I loved the 2009s from cask but didn’t remember them being quite such wines of heroism. I feel part of this expression is simply a character of its developmental stage, though. I bet if I popped one of my 2009 Bonnes-Mares now I’d be wowed, powed and zapped. Finally:

Family Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009, Rhys

The nose here is one of expensive Pinot Noir. It’s not heavy or dense, but round and well-upholstered. The alcohol is in good balance and there is some minerality to it, but it just seems a little on the… erm… plump side to totally charm me. I think it’s good, but I think it’s good from someone I’m not the biggest fan of. The palate is lovely and fruity, with reasonable earthiness and a good acidity that keeps it lively, but it is just a shade rich and I think it could do with being a tad more expressive of its complexity. I was presented this blind and I thought it was good Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru from a producer who doesn’t really tickle my fancy. Once all was revealed I could see why it was not Burgundy and I think I liked it more for being ‘not Burgundy’. It’s pretty damned expensive stuff over here in Blighty but if this is the kind of thing you like then this will be precisely the kind of thing you like. I think, as far as US Pinot goes, the Brooks Janus 2007 I had after recently did it for me more in the elegant and restrained style I like when I’m not feeling excessively lewd and obsessed with doing it with caliphyigian beauties.

Purely for the sake of whining, two of the other bottles we opened were corked: A Maximin Grunhaus Abtsberg Auslese 2001 and a Clusel-Roch Cote-Rotie 2001. I’m still severely vexed, I don’t mind telling you.

The other celebration passed a few days ago, the 10th anniversary of Editor Daniel moving into Elitistreview Towers to stop me doing bloody stupid things like the above. I spent a lot of that time too bloody minded to accept the help that was freely being offered and so still occasionally behaved like a fool, but Dani has kept me alive, cared for and happy in ways I don’t think either of us were really expecting. Thanks Dani, you’ve been carer-tastic and supreme-human-being-licious. You’ve also done sterling service removing the most horrifically offensive bits of my writing. Speaking of which…

Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese 2001, Joh. Jos. Prum

A tightly-wound, intense nose with only hints of maturity. The fruit is ripe but incredibly fresh and vibrant – indeed the major impression from the nose is one of vivacity. The slate-minerality is pure and focussed and, whilst it is definitely linear and direct, it positively throbs with complexity. There are intellectual thrills on the nose and it is also simply gorgeous in a transparently desirable manner. Hell’s bells! What a lot going on on the palate! Where to start? It’s pant-pooingly acidic, that much is certain, and it’s tooth-fizzing, tonsil-scalding ferocity is wonderfully enhanced by a stunningly pure, forcefully intense minerality. Yeah, it hurts quite a lot, but it is improving pain. Actually this makes me begin to wonder if one day I might enjoy someone giving me a good seeing-to with a cane, but I’ll save that discussion for later. The fruit is perfectly ripe with a suggestion of being buxom, but such is the focussed purity of the acidity and minerality this seems perfectly in balance and even it’s impressive amount of sugar seems almost hidden. It’s harmony is sublime and it’s charged with life. I could think about this wine and analyse its brilliance for an age, but I’m more in the mood to throw myself into it’s electro-sex-ravishment experience and revel in an wine that may be able to ask deep existential questions but it equally happy to get its kit off and get down to the business. I have no doubt you could age this for incredible periods of time, but I have no regrets about popping and enjoying this bottle at this juncture.

As an aside, 2001 is a truly great, mind-bendingly brilliant vintage for M-S-R Riesling: I bloody love them. 2009 was a great vintage but they don’t quite have the nervy, high-voltage thrills of the 01s. I think, indeed I’m pretty sure, the 2010s do. This wine was such a success I think I may open one of my Erben-Thanisch Berncasteler-Doctor Auslese 2001s soon; that’ll be electric sex pants turned up to 11!

Over to James:

I felt more fireworks at the (Haynes, Hanson and Clark) tasting on Monday but there can be doubt that it confirmed the excellence of the vintage – even though a number of the samples were shaken up and not tasting well. I got there a little late and didn’t attempt to taste the full range. I also took a degree of the day’s frustrations with me – not helped by the £25 entry fee! By the time I got there (about half way through the advertised time slot) many bottles were finished (most top reds – whether because they were good or otherwise). I think next time I will go back to front.

Whites

Barraud whites showed well. Macon had weight but plenty of acid – the 2 Pouilly-Fuisses both delicious – the Alliance is a lighter, racier style, the La Roche a bigger, broader wine but still with good focus. I liked all of these very much.

Fevre alongside Droin very interesting – when young like this the absence of wood really pushes me to join team Fevre as they seem to have so much more definition and purity. The Fevre wines really sing with citric fruit and the vintage gives them a directness that appeals enormously to me as a lover of the more linear white wine. But is their Clos really twice as good as Christian Moreau’s (it is almost twice the price)? The Fevre Vaillons is fabulously good – but over 20 sheets a pop. I think I will shut my eyes and pay for Vaillons.

In the Cote d’Or whites, the Fontaine-Gagnard (I’d wanted to try these for a while) tasted much better than Chavy etc, but nothing to my mind got anywhere near the excitement and energy of the Lambrays Clos du Cailleret or the Olivier Leflaive Domaine wines – although what was on show was a lower end of the spectrum than the mainly Grand Crus (Thierry Brouin said he considered the Clos du Cailleret a Grand Cru anyway – or perhaps this links to his pricing!).

Reds

Very pretty Bourgogne from Hudelot-Noellat. This was very light but all their wines were super elegant with nice texture (Vosne villages, Suchots and Clos Vougeot all respected the hierarchy – although the latter as so many Clos Vougeot wines didn’t really seem a Grand Ccru). They may be into whole cluster fermentation as all were very pale? Expressive wines though – a very attractive range.

I was keen to try the Comte Armand wines. Auxey 1er Cru was as delicious as expected and well structured. Really stylish. Clos des Epeneaux was all necked by others by the time I got there. Am sure it is fantastic. Given the brilliance of all the wines I’ve tried from this address since the mid 90s, am tempted to splash out for it on trust even though it isn’t cheap…

De Courcel Pommards were both superb – as I understand they were last year. Great, very ripe dark fruit, but real energy and depth – the Rugiens had an amazingly silky texture and suppleness. Best wines on show for me by a distance.

All Gouges samples were too sulphury and shaken up for me. I found them very hard to taste.

Only Arlot red on show/not all drunk was the Bourgogne Chapeau – good for the money, much more serious than the Hudelot-Noellat Bourgogne.

Bruno Clavelier’s wines showed very well. His wines have a lot of oak influence at this stage and exotic coffee/chocolate flavours but the fruit and balance seemed terrific and from memory his prices are still not too scary. Very stylish.

Fourrier wines clearly very good this year as ever- most of these had been slurped dry – even given not all of them were great samples. Seems a year for his style.

Frederic Esmonin wines I liked a lot. They are not up there with the very best but they are well made, pretty transparent and I commend his very reasonable pricing!

Enjoyed another chance to try Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Chaignots from Mugneret-Gibourg vs. Mugnier’s Nuits 1er Cru Clos de la Marechale. The former is a richer, fuller wine but still with great style and silky texture. But the Marechale is so delicious too.

The new Pousse d’Or wines I found overworked. For Volnay there was also some quite bold extraction. I would need to be persuaded that these deserve my money if not my attention.

I really wanted to try the Benjamin Leroux wines. The only one I got to was a Gevrey 1er cru and it was quite a peaky, sulphury sample. Let’s be honest – I would like to have liked it more. I blame the sample.

I didn’t retry the Thomas Bouley wines but Jeremy Seysses says he has heard good things about him and OW Loeb are very positive indeed. Maybe that was a sample problem on Monday.

The quality of the village level wines in general was striking. They consistently had good ripeness and concentration. There is still reward for trading up but what pleasure to be had at the lower end!

Howard Ripley’s website is here.
Many thanks James, I am sorry I wasn’t there with you!

To be honest, I’ve never really believed those who say you should trust your merchant’s advice; I’ve worked for too many people who’ve ordered me to sell crap Claret and piss-poor Pinotage to anyone unfortunate enough to take it, for that idea to really sound reasonable. However, with the almost uniformly superior quality of producers they represent, particularly in a vintage like 2010, you should be happy to take pretty much anything HH&C have to sell you.

Some sort of summary might be in order, I suppose. The unifying quality across all the wines seems to be one of harmony. The wines have good fruit, ripeness and weight, even from villages famed for their ‘direct minerality’ (aka unripeness), but there is no shortage of acidity or integrated mineral action. Whilst the 2009s are charged with lubricious pleasure, the 2010s have plenty of sculpted elegance without lacking any enjoyment value. If I were to be drawn to vintage parallels I suppose this combines the very best of both 2001 and 2002. Yes, it is that good. And it is that good for both reds and whites across all quality levels. There is a lot to love here.

It is certainly a winning vintage for Chablis. At the bottom of the pile the generics from Christian Moreau (£96 for 12) and Daniel Dampt (£97.04 for 12) were most drinkable at very reasonable prices. However, you would be misguided if you did not pay a couple more quid per bottle and get some of Dampt’s 1er Cru Cote de Lechet (£118 for 12). This was the most utterly desirable young Chablis I’ve had in a while and, if you like the unoaked, direct, sharply fruity style, you will love this. A joy to taste now and it has what it needs where it needs it in order to age. The Grand Cru to age is Moreau’s Les Clos (£269 for 12), a confident, structured wine of style and class that has a long-fun-filled future ahead of it. Chablis may make demands on your cellar quality, but if you’ve got the equipment these two will reward your choice in house/winefridge-ware.

White St-Aubin rarely lives up to it’s promise of being almost as good as its quality neighbours whilst costing far less. Consequently, the wines of Francoise and Denis Clair were rather surprising. The most modest of the three 1er Crus on show, Les Frionnes (£166 for 12), was a delight to drink whilst the top 1er Cru, En Remilly (£199 for 12), was a properly serious wine with good mineral complexity and definite style for only a little more money. You could buy any of the three I tasted and feel you had done well with your sponds.

Pierre Meurgey of Domaine Champy always strikes me as a fellow who is eager for a good time. The two whites he showed gave me an awful lot of fun. A village-level, albeit named vineyard, Pernand-Vergelesses Le Combottes (£158.50 for 12) simply should not be so enjoyable. Rather than the normal painfully green and tart character of white Pernand, and all too often red Pernand as well, this had good fruit and plenty of roundness to match it’s direct focus. It was very enjoyable and at this price will make a lot of drinkers very happy. He also showed a Corton-Charlemagne (£385 for 6), normally the least charismatic of the Cote de Beaune white Grand Crus, and for want of a better word this was tits. Please do not tell Christophe Roumier this, but I’ve never had a Corton-Charlie so themed on unadulterated pleasure. If you want a really flash, really fine, really gratifying white Grand Cru that won’t leave your bank account wheezing this is the red-hot tip.

Now we get on to the serious villages. You probably don’t need me to say that Jean-Marc Roulot makes cracking Meursault at all quality levels; the Tillets 2010 (£210 for 6) was just delicious, but then so was his Bourgogne Blanc (£148.50 for 12). I have, on one occasion when it’s had a few years age on it, guessed that blind as a reasonably good Meursault Premier Cru. His wines are a steal for what are fulgurating entities of brilliance.

In Puligny I was really taken with Sauzet’s village (£315 for 12) and 1er Cru Les Perrieres (£268 for 6), both had the poise and elegance one hopes for from the village. Considering their not-excessive prices, had plenty of freshness that suggests to me they’ll age well and throbbed with impressive complexity these are well-worth considering. Domaine des Lambrays’ 1er Cru Clos du Cailleret (£335 for 6) struck me as being pretty much as fine as 1er Cru Puligny can get, but Lambrays have no problem selling their wines these days so pricing is rather aggressive and I feel I can suggest some better targets for you to throw serious money at.

Of the white wines on show by far and away the most impressive range were the Olivier Leflaive Domaine wines. They have recently reclaimed some vineyards from Domaine Leflaive, continued farming them biodynamically and employed the undoubtedly talented Franck Grux to make the wine. M. Grux is a lovely chap who wants his wines to show as being lovely, fresh, complex and age-worthy. He makes them in a slightly reductive style with no hint of oxidative characters in any of the cask samples I tried. These wines will improve in a manner that very few white Burgundies can these days. More to the point, they are burning stars of stellar intensity that will only leave you spell-bound with delight when you try them.

Certainly, if you want some of the very best white Burgundy money can buy you will not go wrong with his Grand Crus. The Batard-Montrachet (£695 for 6) had me muttering incoherently as I tried to express what I was experiencing, ludicrously fine. The Chevalier-Montrachet (£895 for 6) was vastly better and left me dumb-struck by it’s utter beauty and extreme finesse combined with brilliant Grand Cru power and definition. I think I may have had one or two Grand Cru whites better than the C-M, but as I tasted it my entire being was charged with its brilliance and for a significant period the outside world simply ceased to exist for me. If you are a lover of fine things who can manage sensory overload then these two will blow your mind in a style (I imagine) no illicit substance could ever achieve.

You don’t have to spend that much, though. The two Puligny 1er Crus, Pucelles (£325 for 6) and Folatieres (£295 for 6) were supremely refined and sculpted wonders of joyful brilliance. They were better than the Lambrays Cailleret I mentioned above and cost less money. I’ve drank a really stunning amount of wine from these vineyards and these two just keep pushing all over experiences of them out of my mind. There was a Meursault 1er Cru Blagny “Sous Le Dos d’Ane” (£195 for 6) of similarly coruscating wonder that was a perfect example of the vineyard. It was also a bargain.

Finally, there is the cheapie. Sod the price, though, the Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos Saint-Marc (£165 for 6) made me question all my years of devotion to Ramonet. It was a wonderfully enjoyable construction of incredible elegance and complexity that will make me expect greater things from every Chassagne I taste from now on. You have to love everything about it unreservedly and at £165 for 6 bottles I really question the relative importance of food. It is great it is so affordable, but it is really is great that it is trouser-detonatingly topping. At this price the ‘Amazing’-dial is turned beyond eleven.

I wrote a tweet about this yesterday. Reliving this tasting and going through my notes for the purposes of writing this article is actually remarkably moving for a lover of the very best Burgundy. After writing about those Olivier Leflaive Domaine wines I need to go and sit in a dark room for a few minutes.

On to the reds and once again Francoise and Denis Clair’s wines bowled me over for their relatively humble appellations. The Santenay Clos Genet (£144 for 12) was a highly enjoyable example of Pinot whilst the two Santenay 1er Crus (Clos de la Comme at £189 for 12 and Clos Tavannes at £199 for 12) were properly serious wines, with ageing potential, that I thought would have a remarkably pleasure-providing drinking profile. The fruit/tannin/acid balance on these was just a delight.

The jolly Thibaut Marion has recently taken over Domaine Seguin-Manuel and what he does with Savigny-Les-Beaune frankly staggers my prejudiced and opinionated mind. His Vieilles Vignes (£139.50 for 12) was Pinot Nor at its most enjoyable and accessible. It may age in the medium term, but when it is so joyously pleasurable at this age I’d just drink my case the afternoon I received it. He also showed a 1er Cru Lavieres (£169 for 12), Saigny’s best 1er Cru. It was indeed a big step up in terms of structure and complexity, but again was bursting with the uninhibited delight of Pinot and the very best pleasure Savigny can deliver. These wines were both utterly drinkable, will not require decades in the cellar and won’t cause irate text messages from your bank; I highly recommend them.

Another delightfully pretty Savigny followed, 1er Cru Aux Fourneaux from Domaine Chandon de Briailles (£215 for 12). I’ve found Briailles wines to be a tad on the linear and lean side in the past but this was just happy drinking and, yes, I drank. I most certainly drank the Corton Marechaudes Grand Cru (£505 for 12) – Corton just should not be so engorged with pleasure. It was really fruity, really fun and fit for frolics. It did have a really good structure and I felt it would age well, but was just taken with its loveliness. Lovely, isn’t that a good thing? Claude Drouhin who was showing the wines was particularly pleased with her Corton Bressandes (£580 for 12). This was more structured and rigorous, made for long-term ageing, but once again the fruit was utterly delicious and totally in harmony with its tannins and acid. I rather liked it as it was, but it’ll be terribly good when fully mature. Despite owning quite a lot of their wines, I’ve had mixed experiences with this producer in the past, 2010 is the very best vintage I’ve tried from them.

Four excellent reds from Domaine Champy followed starting with a fun Chorey-Les-Beaune (£125 for 12) – I could knock this back all afternoon. You may have gathered my general views on Pernand-Vergelesses but the 1er Cru Les Vergelesses (£185 for 12) was ripe and fruity with a bracing backbone of acidity. Quite balanced and it slipped down a treat (yes, this was right the end of the tasting loomed, my back was in agony from standing up all day too). Their Beaune 1er Cru Aux Cras (£225 for 12) was just as winsome as one wants from a Beaune, but had good structure and I liked its complexity. They had a scrummy cask sample of Corton Les Rougets Grand Cru (£455 for 12) but I must admit I was still thinking a bit about Claude Drouhin… I mean her wines (see picture above).

Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg rarely fail to deliver and their Vosne-Romanee village (£340 for 12) was clearly singing. Quite exotic and classy, whilst being sculpted and utterly elegant it delivered a complete Vosne village experience. They’re not quite as screamingly cheap as they were a few years ago but if you want pretty much the best Vosne village this is the wine to go for. Also on show was a Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Chaignots (£245 for 6) and it was clearly extremely refined and highly attractive. I enjoyed it no end but my eyes kept drifting to the bottle on the next table…

Freddie Mugnier’s Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Marechale (£415 for 12) was a screaming, howling beauty. Terroir is somewhat in the winery and Mugnier’s Nuits does show a hint of Chambolle character, but for me this was not only the best Marechale he has ever made but probably the best young Nuits I’ve ever tried. It had it all: finesse, structure, style, class, fruit, harmony, tits out fun, intellectual involvement, everything! I heard a couple of people saying that it wasn’t showing very well as I tasted it and I had to sternly rebuke them. Freddie M.’s wines rarely show badly and this was a throbbing pleasure of the most fulfilling kind. Irresistible.

Before my back gave out I tried the Lambrays reds. The Morey villages (£345 for 12) was a wonderfully satisfying Morey of super typicality and definite class; if you like Lambrays Morey you should get this as it’s the best I’ve had in years. Personally, pleased as I am M. Brouin now has no problems selling his wines I find his pricing policy a tad aggressive and having as I do chums in Morey good enough to sell me wine each year, my money will go elsewhere. Harder to resist was the mind-warpingly intricate and refined Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru (£455 for 6). This is a Grand Cru to sell favoured relatives to obtain and every bottle you open will have you writhing around the floor groaning and anointing yourself with it in ways you really should try to avoid at dinner. It was bloody brilliant.

I’m really vexed that nearly dying last year resulted in me missing my annual trip to Burgundy and tasting at all my friends’ domaines. However, this sample of the vintage shows me that when I go back this summer and try some of the wines in bottle there will be much hugging of chums. There was much hugging of my contact at Haynes, Hanson and Clark who invited me along to this event; I couldn’t have wished it would be so good. Lovers of Burgundy should be afraid of 2010. Really quite afraid. When you try wines this wonderfully fine you’ll want to spend very large piles of cash.

Contact details:
Haynes, Hanson and Clark, 7 Elystan Street, London SW3 3NT
Telephone: 020 7584 7927
Fax: 020 7584 7967
Email: london@hhandc.co.uk

Oh yes, after a long day on my feet my back was screaming at me. My teeth were also not in the best of condition thanks to plenty of tannin and acidity. So what better than stopping at Herman ze German!

For bratwurst, Fritz-cola and painkillers.

A guest review of the Howard Ripley 2010 Burgundy tasting will follow in a couple of days.

I popped this with some Beechcroft beef burgers to celebrate feeling almost slightly less appallingly ill and the incredible meaty flavour of the burgers worked a treat with the soft bum-action of the Bandol. I could almost forgive the glaring winemaking faults in the wine, that had Editor Daniel and I engaged in deep oenological discussion, but they are faults and so I am going to be rude about them. If someone made a Pinot this Brett-y they’d deserve a punishment worse than Pinotage.

Bandol 1997, Chateau Pibarnon

OK, Let’s not mess around here, there is a definite poo character to this nose. I say horse, editor Daniel says cow, but farmyards are not even a sniff away. Now it is easy to be seduced by Brett, the evil beer-yeast that causes this aroma, especially when it is Bandol, but it’s a fault, I tell you, a wine-making fault and it shouldn’t be there. It causes unpredictable ageing profiles and some Brett-y bottles can smell more of poo than my en suite after a curry. That is not an attractive image, is it? It’s not even an attractive aroma profile so I want to stop thinking about the image now. However, even though wines can have faults, and let me be abundantly clear this wine does have a fault, they can still have some enjoyment value. There is soft, dark fruit, a leathery complexity and good earthiness. It also smells of poo! Do you hear me? POO! I may be getting less tolerant of this in my almost middle age, but this wine would have aged better and gratified me far more deeply if it were not quite so themed on poo. The palate is also poo-ridden, but that fruit, together with soft tannins makes it extremely enjoyable with meaty burgers. I know saying something is ‘a food wine’ is the poo-iest cop-out on the planet, but this really went well with serious meat action. Those unbound proteins and the tannins of the wine harmonise very well. Good length and pretty complex too, but when a lot of that complexity is in the form of a myriad variety of animal poo then I just find myself edging away in a polite but subtle manner (after pouring another glass when no one is looking). It’s a good wine, but it could be a lot better. I think I should try ageing some more recent vintages of Pibarnon. Since the 2001 vintage they’ve cleaned up their winery no end and, whilst the general view is they don’t age, I bet with a few years under their belt the Brett-less Pibarnon’s are just sex-licious.