Browse Tag

burgundy

Capitain & Tennille

Capitain-Gagnerot 2004 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Les Gueulottes (Burgundy) – Sweet, candied peach, apricot. Soft, with abrupt fruit, and the finish is only long because it’s sticky. Ugh. (2/07)

Some people call me

Maurice “Domaine de Prieure” 2002 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune (Burgundy) – Sour and stewed. Herbs, bark, leaves, and dirt. Dried-out finish. (2/07)

Holy Roman

Louis Latour 2004 Corton-Charlemagne (Burgundy) – Very sulfurous, showing melon, underripe apricot, and cinnamon bark. Fat and obvious. This doesn’t appear to have positive places to go. (2/07)

Grancey Butler

Louis Latour 2003 Château Corton Grancey “Grand Cru” (Burgundy) – Pinot noir chewing gum, texturally. Thick tarragon, strawberry, and melon wrestling in the heavyweight class. Strong and over-polished. (2/07)

Solon, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight

Fourrier 2002 Morey-St. Denis Clos Solon “Vieille Vigne” (Burgundy) – Upfront but one-note throughout, and much that’s hidden here is likely to remain so for the next few years. The red cherry fruit is crisp and finely-honed, and it hums with persistence that’s almost amusing for the duration of it. There are hints and shadows of something darker and more metallurgical in the background, but that’s deep background at the moment. Let it rest. (1/08)

Crazy like a fox

Jacky Renard 2005 Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre (Burgundy) – Thick. Not dense, not concentrated. Thick. The wine’s got good regional character, with red fruit mixed with darker stuff, some earth, perhaps a touch of mushroom and a pleasant acidity. And the tannin is ripe and soft (thankfully so, as there’s so much of it). But this is sort of like drinking Burgundy through a pillow. A tannic, almost impenetrable pillow. Should plain old Bourgogne be such a struggle? I don’t know. (12/07)

Mâcon bacon

Guffens-Heynen 2000 Mâcon-Pierreclos “Le Chavigne” (Mâcon) – Quite woody, showing sweet melon and banana. Sickly spicy, with big, aggressive wood. Acidity doesn’t help. (9/07)

[map]Mongeard-Mugneret 2002 Echezeaux (Burgundy) – Massive but complex – in fact, the complexity itself is massive – with an earthy nose, and, and, and…well, this is the standard youthful Burgundy line, and you’ve read it before. This is a particularly fine example, and will reward age, but the quality is obvious now. (10/07)

Santenay Duncan

[label]Drouhin 2005 Santenay (Burgundy) – The first early-summer beets (both red and gold) given a cherried brightening, with a (not) surprising (for the vintage) layer of crunchy tannin, decent acidity, and a shorter finish than one would want, though there are certain high-toned merits to the latter. This is a lot of fun to smell (the aromas leap from the surface), somewhat less fun to drink, and fairly easy to forget. Nice enough, I guess. (9/07)

Ruchottes the sherrif

[bottle]Rousseau 1998 Ruchottes Chambertin Clos des Ruchottes (Burgundy) – Somewhat rough handling at first, but the inner quality soon emerges. And emerges. And emerges. The aroma is musky and somewhat brooding, and the palate comes in satiny chunks rather than silky smoothness, but it’s all good. Just a little coarsely-hewn. (10/07)