Corsin 2006 Saint-Véran “Tirage Précoce” (Burgundy) – Golden fruit lightened by air. Supple and relatively simple, despite a little trailing edge of spice. Good structure. Drinkable. (5/10)
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burgundy
Gofeet
Goyard “Domaine de Roally” 1999 Mâcon-Villages “Tradition” (Mâcon) – Vivid and beeswaxy, commencing in a linear fashion, growing rounder and fleshier around the waist, and then tapering again into the finish. Dry honey, chalk, crystals. After an hour or so, there’s a hint of butter. A really, really good wine, and my best bottle of this yet. (3/10)
Gouges airs
Gouges 1998 Nuits-St-Georges Les Chênes Carteaux “1er Cru” (Burgundy) – Great galloping thunderstorms of sludgy tannin greet the unwary explorer, but after an hour – or three – there’s actually a slowly-maturing Burgundy in here somewhere. Gritty reddish-black aromatics are layered with grayish-black earth, but always there’s that dense tannin. (1/10)
Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Ampeau
Ampeau 1989 Savigny-les-Beaune (Burgundy) – The pulse and throb of subsurface earth provides a foundation for a deep, glowering wine hinting at both animal and berry in equal measure, and both in the best possible sense. It’s maturing, for certain, and the beautiful aromatics one desires from aged Burgundy are already in evidence, but I don’t sense any hurry in the wine, and so cannot recommend any sort of panicked rush to open what one might own. A very, very pleasant wine. (12/09)
Raspberry beret
Faiveley 1993 Mercurey La Framboisière (Burgundy) – Very tannic when uncorked, and while this fades somewhat over the course of the evening, it never recedes enough to bring the wine into full balance. Despite that, the fruit…faded for the first half-hour or so, but making a gradual recovery familiar to fans of aging red Burgundy…is fairly dark and purple-toned. What it isn’t is very strong or fleshy, so it’s hard for me to judge if it’s going to last until something more aromatically mature develops, or whether it’s just fading. What I do know is that this bottle will likely never find balance with its tannin. And here’s an important caveat: the owner of this bottle (not me) thinks that there’s a possibility it experienced some minor heat effects at an earlier stage, so the above descriptors may have little or nothing to do with an intact bottle. (12/09)
Gevrey Sinclair
Jadot 2006 Gevrey-Chambertin (Burgundy) – Surprisingly harmonious at this stage and given the in-your-face nature of the structure. But harmony there is, which I suppose bodes well. Soil is rich brown and light dusk, fruit is fulsome and berried, and both tannin and acidity are hard to miss. At the right price, this could be a solid choice. (8/09)
Mime rocks
Drouhin 2006 Meursault-Pierrières “1er Cru” (Burgundy) – Ah, chardonnay. How I haven’t missed you. But then again, this is white Burgundy, and there’s plenty to like here…spicy minerality, soft wood, good balance…if one is inclined in chardonnesque directions. Which, for better or worse, I’m increasingly not. (7/09)
Thunderball
Jadot 2002 Savigny-lès-Beaune La Dominode (Burgundy) – Pointed, razor-leafed raspberry and a fair bit of tannin. A sharply-formed wine, perhaps a little brittle at the moment, but with lovely fruit within. Promising. And also, a question: what’s with the “è”? (7/09)
Milly first
Cordier 2005 Mâcon-Lamartine-Milly “Clos du Four” (Mâcon) – Light oak spice, good weight, fine balance, but this reminds me why I just don’t buy, drink, or enjoy oaked chardonnay; there’s just nothing here that can’t be attributed more or less to the wood. (7/09)
Bad, bad, but not brown
Leroy 1983 Volnay (Burgundy) – Pretty. Very, very pretty. Showily so. And strikingly youthful; the structure’s resolved, but the fruit is still fairly primary and direct. Maybe boring? I don’t quite know what to make of this, but admittedly my palate is completely exhausted at this point. (7/09)