Burgundy 2006 from bottle : Nuits-St-Georges

From Beaune the step up to the Côtes de Nuits is a big one. The quality jumps by an average of two points in twenty per wine on my scale.

The five flights of Nuits St Georges - forty five 1er crus in total - are of a uniform high quality and not a single dog amongst them. They have a gloss and silky concentration to add to big structures and fine tannins.

Flight one are the most southerly ( Premeaux ). All are Clos. I gave first equal place to Freddie Mugnier's Clos de La Marechale. It was packed with rich dark fruits, a wonderful complex middle palate and sumptous tannins

Flight two, and the first of the northerly Vosne-side Nuits. The top four in this group, which included Robert Chevillon's Chaignots, have an extra dimension. Herbs, minerals even floral violet notes and complete structures.

Flight three; more of the same but from the heavy weight Domaines of Vosne. The Nuits St Georges Aux Boudots of Domaine Leroy and the Nuits St Georges Cras of Lamarche take the honours closely followed by Nuits Boudots of Grivot and Nuits Cras of Comte Liger Belair. These are beautifully poised and polished wines of exceptional quality.

Flights four and five from the central Nuits vineyards lying just south of the town centred on the big three 1er crus: Cailles, Vaucrains and Les St Georges. As a group they have more richness and succulence than any other with dark berry fruits that explode on the palate. The Roncieres of Grivot and the Les St Georges of Chevillon being amongst the stars.

Burgundy 2006 from bottle - Day 2: Aloxe-Corton and Corton

Moving north of the Beaune / Paris motorway into the vineyards of Aloxe Corton proved to be a pleasant suprise. The wines in this flight were textured and structured and brimming with ripe black fruits. My marks are up with the best of the Côtes de Beaune. Tollot Beaut's Aloxe Corton Les Fournières took pole just ahead their Les Vercots and the Aloxe Clos de Chapitre of Follin Arbelet.


Two flights of Corton followed and were on the whole much more exciting than expected. These 06's have substance, acidity and grip and are still of youthful colour and nature. The charm and release of fruit will come with maturity in 3-6 years time. The first flight included all but the Grand Crus of Bressandes and Clos du Roi. Top marks went to the Corton of Follin Arbelet; pinot noir planted on limestone soil, most usually planted with Chardonnay. The result is an 06 of rare elegance dark ripe fruits and fine ripe tannins The second flight served to showcase just how good Corton is in this vintage, the Bressandes of Tollot Beaut being up with the best.

Rioja, the next big thing!

An absolutely wonderful bottle of 1999 San Vicente Rioja over dinner last night

convinced me even more, after my initial trip out to Rioja in June, that this is a region of great potential. This may sound strange given Rioja's huge popularity already, but there is definitely more to come from here. There are some very talented "modern" Rioja winemakers now who, rather like the top estates in Burgundy or Barolo, bottle up the produce of their finest single vineyards, each of which have their own climate and soil types, after careful hand tending and ageing in barrel with minimum intervention. Unlike traditionalists who uniformly age their best wines in barrel until the wine is ready to drink, the modernist does what any other top winemaker in the world would do and thats make a wine to be aged in bottle, allowing the subtleties of the wine to blossom as gently as possible. Coming back to the 1999, it was in remarkably good shape at 10 years old plenty of fruit, spice, bittersweetness, with great finesse and balance, I even felt that there was still a bit more to come from it. It was a sort of claret-cum-Burgundy-cum Barolo, a very interesting drop.

Barolo 2005

The release of 2005 Barolo is shortly upon us. I was so impressed by what I tasted way back in March, its a vintage that will appeal to both Barolo admirers and lovers of any fine, aromatic, sophisticated red wine. The quality of 2005 Barolo is excellent, when it comes from the quality producers. It is not a homogenous vintage like 2004, an easy year when anyone who did not make good wine should have considered hanging up their shears, it was a more challenging vintage that sorted out good producer from bad. So you can't just buy 2005s from any old producer but there are plenty of outstanding wines from the growers who traditionally make good wine, they display a vivid fresh red fruit profile, together with a richness, generosity and structure. They will drink well young and even if they have not quite got the density of 2004 they are definitely serious and intense enough to age very well in the medium to long term. Producers liken it to a mix of 2000 and 2001 or 1998. Some growers even surpassed their 2004s, Renato Corino is a clear example of this - stunning wines.

Burgundy 2006 from bottle - Day 2: Beaune, Volnay and Pommard.

Saturday morning started with two flights of Beaune followed by two of Volnay and a single flight of Pommard.

When tasting the 06's in November 07 it became clear that those Côtes de Beaune vineyards south of the Paris / Beaune motorway had received substantial rainfall pre-harvest. This was confirmed at this most recent tasting in that the wines of the southern Côtes de Beaune are of a different structure to those in the north.

The flights of Beaune showed elegance, charm and will make for relatively early drinking - now and over the next three years. Pinot Noir purity, sweet ripe fruit and a uniformity in quality was more evident in the second flight which included Beaune Greves and Beaune Clos du Roi. Tollot Beaut's Clos du Roi was in my top three followed by the Beaune Greves of de Montille.

The two flights of Volnay showed wines of greater variance in style and quality of wine making. Some nicely structured, others showing green and dilute qualities. The run away winner was the Santenots du Milieu from Dominique Lafon. Last year his 2005 was a close second. 'Not bad for a little Meursault grower ' was his reaction. His 06 success will no doubt be equally modestly acknowleged.

The Pommard Rugien's filled the top two places in my scores with Etienne de Montille's 06 showing power and brooding dark ripe fruits; one for the long term.

Burgundy 2006 from bottle - Day 1: Gevrey

Seven flights of Gevrey from 30 different sources. 64 wines in total.

Gevrey experienced exceedingly dry weather conditions prior to harvest so no dilution was to be found in these flights; three of 1er Crus and 4 of Grand Crus. Indeed there was remarkable consistancy of pure, well structured balanced 06's. Plenty of ripe dark fruits and good vineyard definition. Amongst the best of the lower lying vineyards was the Drouhin Laroze 1er Cru.

The second flight of steeper 1er crus included blacker coloured wines with high tannic extraction that blurs the vinyard definition and Pinot delicacy. Why Gevrey has this new wave group of growers persisting in making this style that in my experince does not age well or give any pleasure is a mystery and a shame.

Flight three includes my favourate two vineyards after the grand crus of Clos de Beze and Chambertin itself, namely Cazeties and Clos St Jacques. This flight really did in my book outperform the grand crus that lie below the Route des grandes vin . I awarded the Cazeties of Rousseau and the Clos st Jacques of Bruno Clair top marks.

Of the four flights of grand crus that followed the Latricieres showed real energy, mineral complexity and ripe red fruit qualities. Wines that will improve while being drunk after decanting. I scored the Drouin-Laroze just ahead of Louis Remy.

Flight seven showed why Clos de Beze and Chambertin are a cut above all other Gevrey Grand Crus. The 06's were fabulous with rich textures and packed with energy, beautiful fruit and structed tannins. My top mark went to the sumptuous Bruno Clair example with Rousseau and Louis Remy not far behind.

All in all serious wines that have clear vineyard definition, ripeness and purity of fruit - and the structure to age well over the next 6-12 years.

2006 Burgundy, the first look at the wines from bottle.

This weekend has seen me tasting 2006 Burgundy 1er and Grand Cru (red only) from the top Domaines and Negociants. The tastings have been held in Beaune over 3 days and have seen over 300 wines tasted blind in flights by village. There were ten tasters involved including the most important UK importers and UK journalists.
I started the tasting with high hopes for this vintage. Inevitably it has been over-shadowed by its predecessor and under appreciated in many quarters. First promoted as a top white wine vintage, the pinot noirs showed remarkably favourable qualities at the January tastings in London. The Cotes de Nuits centred on the Nuits vineyards -themselves showing wines of serious quality.

Watch this space as over the coming days as I will be posting my thoughts on the individual appellations.

A Harvest with Elio Altare

This time last year I would have been telling you that harvest is getting closer…now I can say that harvest has arrived much faster than expected and we started picking this morning!!!

For the first time in a long time (you have to go back to 2003 for such an early picking, when we started on the 27th of August, or 1997) we have to start thinking about crazy sticky work!

We had a very wet spring, after a long cold and snowy winter, then a very dry summer, so basically the weather has been “as it's supposed to be”. We have been doing all the vineyard work without any particular problems and a part of the green harvest in July in temperatures of 30°- 35° .

The other day my father Elio and I went through the vineyards for some routine sampling, and found a big surprise: The dolcetto grapes (always the first grape to be picked) already had a quite high sugar level, so we decided to start harvest this morning (the employees weren’t so happy when they found out!)

We will crush the first grapes tonight. They look healthy and juicy and we are looking forward to another great vintage.

I looove harvest, we all get very excited, the work gets hectic, there is a good yeasty smell in the cellar and you dont mind working 20h a day...but luckily is only for 2 months a year!!

More to come…

Silvia

2006 Burgundy: the first look at the wines from bottle.

This weekend has seen me tasting 2006 Burgundy 1er and Grand Cru (red only) from the top Domaines and Negociants.

The tastings have been held in Beaune over 3 days and have seen over 300 wines tasted blind in flights by village. There were ten tasters involved including the most important UK importers and UK journalists.I started the tasting with high hopes for this vintage. Inevitably it has been over-shadowed by its predecessor and under appreciated in many quarters. First promoted as a top white wine vintage, the pinot noirs showed remarkably favourable qualities at the January tastings in London. The Cotes de Nuits centred on the Nuits vineyards -themselves showing wines of serious quality.

Watch this space as over the coming days as I will be posting my thoughts on the individual appellations.

Altare kick-starts the first J&B winemakers blog.

The first of our Winemakers blogs is about to go live. And who better than one of Piedmont's most well respected and trailblazing estates, Elio Altare. Elio's daughter Silvia (second from the left) is very hands-on in the vineyard and has kindly agreed to give us the inside information on a harvest in Piedmont. With Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo all maturing at different paces, a number of Cru's to deal with, and full hand picking in operation this promises to be a fascinating insight into the hectic and exciting time a harvest can be.