Larks ahoy!

I was only planning to go to three or four tastings when in Burgundy in July. I have contacted Domaine Arlaud, Domaine Roulot and Domaine Roumier to make bookings already. Then I got a call from the friendly winemaker who will be acting as one of our hosts saying that she wanted to join us on our tastings and suggested a few places she’d like to visit. Going to a tasting with a charming, beautiful winemaker (especially one who speaks French) will be great. More larks for me!

She has suggested we go to Vincent Dancer (a relatively new producer with a reputation for making refined wines), Anne Gros (a brilliant producer of Richebourg who also looks incredibly foxy in the picture on her website), Rousseau (hooray!) and Comte Armand. I’ve wanted to visit Comte Armand for a while; their winemaker, Benjamin Leroux, seems to have a gift of landing on his feet in every vintage. When in 2001 most of Pommard was hit with hail Leroux managed to produce a great [link2post id=”1512″]Clos des Epeneaux[/link2post] that I am proud to own two magnums of as well as some bottles. I know of at least one winemaker in the Côte de Nuits who is a bit sniffy about Pommard, he claims they are not as lovely as Burgundy should be. I have to disagree when I have had such good wines from people like Armand and de Courcel. Even in bonkers 2003 the de Courcel wines were quite brilliant.

Since I’ll be staying in the Domaine Dujac guest accommodation for most of the time I look forward to a tasting there. I consider them to be the best producer in Morey St Denis. Long time readers may have thought my favourite Morey producer was Domaine des Lambrays and it is true that I have a soft spot for their wines, but Dujac is really the way forward. Anyone who has tried their Clos de la Roche 1991, Clos St Denis 1995 or Bonnes-Mares 2001 must agree they are a top producer. I still might try and score a bottle or two of Clos des Lambrays 2004, though, they are good wines.