Apparently down in Biarritz they were basking in sunshine and swimming in the sea yesterday, well its not quite as hot as that here but it has been another fine day in Burgundy, clear skies beautiful colours and a balmy 19 degrees. The picture shows the view through the gates of Bachelet-Monnot's fine Boutiere 1er Cru vineyard in Maranges.
It was a mammoth day that started at 8.45am and finished at 8pm, tough but then again tasting with coche dury into the night is not such a hardship.
We tasted mostly white wine, it is clear the vintage is a very good one for whites, riper and more exotic than 2007 though not always as fine but with similarly racy acidities.Quantities are much smaller however because of the north wind concentrating the grapes.
Difficult to pick a highlight as there were so many great whites, coche dury was excellent but to be expected, there were superb ranges from Sauzet and Pierre Morey too, but forced into a corner it was tasting with the bachelet monnot brothers, they are young but already making top flight wines, we expected good wine but nothing as great as their 2008s. The Batard was the best we tasted. Jobard was not far behind, Francois' son Antoine is making the wine here now and has clearly taken the wines to another level.
