Barolo 2007 - Summary

I had already tasted a few cuvees of 2007 last year, the quality seemed unbelievably good at the time almost too good, too easy. So I came out here with a degree of suspicion, wondering how the wines had evolved, were they too opulent or had they faded in any way? The answer, resoundingly, is no. This is a special vintage. The wines are so inviting and alluring. So easy to taste. There is plenty of tannin but it is a sweet sumptuous tannin. The wines are as effortless as Barolo can be at this early stage but more encouragingly they show every sign of ageing well. They have more freshness than I expected and very ripe clear fruit flavours. As well as enthralling Nebbiolo lovers, this vintage, I am sure, will bring the region many new friends. That mix of approachability and ageability is what makes this special. When asked, growers themselves struggle to come up with another vintage to compare it with, 07 is unique.

I have aslo relooked at several 2006s out here and I am every bit as confident in them, if not more so, as I was this time last year. Of course they were more rigid and classic to taste upon release, though they are already shaping up well and in time could well prove to be the equal of 2007. For the time being, though, we should revel in the 2007s, they are a delight.

The season started early, summer was sunny and dry but never hot and whilst this aided ripening, the cool nights extended the ripening period. So even after an early start, vintage took place at the usual time - during the first week of October. Growers say that long, gentle seasons like this are the best, certainly 07's ripening conditions have resulted in wines of smooth, shapely tannins without sacrificing any power.

In early September 2011 we will present 2007s from all of the growers mentioned in this blog, our greatest ever offering of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero, it should prove a fitting celebration to the Piedmont and its great wines.

Burgundy 2009 - The Second Half

A leisurely weekend saw the buying team take in some 2009s from Sylvain Cathiard, Bruno Clair and Jean-Marc Millot, and more window shopping in and around Beaune's Place Carnot than I care to remember. The rest was good and, though it may not have seemed it at the time, was well needed. For the second half approached. 27 Domaines down, 20 to go until Thursday. Today was spent back in the Cote de Beaune. 8.30am at the affable Vincent Dancer (pictured)in Chassagne was a breeze, such were the poise and moreish minerality of his fine-tuned wines. The wines needed to be particularly good today, the weather has turned and gets fouler, colder and wetter by the minute. Fortunately the wines "turned up on the day", as a premiership football manager might say. Again the cooler zones have proved themselves successful in 2009: Rully, Monthelie, Aloxe Corton and Pernand Vergelesses chez Suremain, Follin and Rollin were all pure, unbridled pleasure. The day finished on a massive high, Ghislaine Barthod has produced one of the most thrilling line ups so far.

Since Saturday there have been some magnificent wines but there are three that stand out, all from the cooler zones of their appellations - Vosne En Orveaux 1er Cru Cathiard, Gevrey Clos St Jacques 1er Cru Bruno Clair and Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Fuees Ghislaine Barthod. Three different wines but all ethereal, haunting and with spine-tingling elegance. If these three don't sit amongst the critics' top spots, then the world is a very unjust place.

Burgundy 2009 - First impressions of the Cote de Nuits

There aren't many vintages that would have me leaping out of bed for a tasting in Pernand Vergelesses at 8.15 at the end of a hard week's tasting, but 2009 is proving to be one of them. The last two days have been a tour around 11 Domaines, 2 in the Cote de Beaune and 9 in the Cote de Nuits, among them Chevillon, Leroy, Rousseau, Roumier and Mugnier to drop just a few names. Again, as in the Cotes de Beaune, the key seems to have been picking early in 2009, most Domaines finishing by mid September. Also the cooler terroirs seem to have done particularly well, Latricieres, the high Chambolle and Gevrey vineyards, the cooler parts of Chambertin.

Burgundy seems in rude health, not only are the top growers making good to excellent wines every year but the average age of these top growers seems to be dropping. I have seen two such young stars in the last couple of days. Christian Gouges' nephew, Gregory, has made superb 2009s that mix classic Henri Gouges structure with a fair dose of finesse and baskets full of fruit. They should age seriously well whilst being more approachable in their youth. Its true that THE highlight so far has been an Henri Gouges Les St Georges 1958 thats shows remarkably vivid, youthful fruit, but rather selfishly I want to get some pleasure out of my 2009s and not leave that luxury soley to my children!

The other star is Arnaud Mortet who has arguably been even more successful. I was blown over by the definition and finesse his 2009s show, equal to the intensity the Mortet wines habitually demonstrate. This is a balance never before achieved at Domaine Denis Mortet.

The wine of the day goes to Chevillon's Vaucrains, it left me stuck for words, I have never know it be so expressive and yet retain such concentration and power.

Saturday morning promises the chance of a lie in, Vosne-Romanee at 9.30, followed by Marsannay and then again back down to Nuits. More of that and another taste of the Cote de Beaune on Monday.

Burgundy 2009 - A taste of Cote de Beaune

November has come around all too quickly, but so much the better! For the autumnal colours and bright skies are a joy here in Burgundy, and the temperatures are unusually balmy. The first three days of our trip has been spent in the Maconnais and Cote de Beaune.

My expectations were, tentatively, high. These 2009s that appeared so flattering and round in May, will they have lasted a summer in barrel unblemished? The answer is resoundingly yes. Initial reports seemed to indicate a great red vintage but I have found that there are some incredible whites too. Dominque Lafon thinks is the best vintage he has made for white wine, whilst not everyone can say that there plenty of beauties up and down the Cote nonetheless. Certainly those who have picked early, before grapes became too overripe, have made wonderfully balanced Chardonnays, admittedly less racy than in 2007 or 2008 but with absolutely tremendous balance: Silky, ripe, fresh and strong mineral identity, and, it must be said, huge length of flavour even at villages level.

I have not made it to the Cote de Nuits yet but this seems to be a quite excellent vintage for Cote de Beaune reds, particularly Volnay. My tasting with Marquis d'Angerville was exhilirating. Whilst you can not really say for all of the wines that they are better than 2005, I think you can for the Champans, it was simply breathtaking. And as a whole range, from villages upwards, I think they are a hair ahead of 2005. In general the Pinots have the silkiest of textures without losing precision or characteristic varietal bitter-sweetness.

More updates from the Cotes de Nuits on the weekend and over the coming weeks look out for video interviews on the 2009s with some of Burgundy's top growers.

Sheer Montrachet Magic

Its wines may well cost an arm and a leg, but Montrachet or "Le" Montrachet is one very special vineyard. Last night at an informative tasting and dinner with the hugely articulate and congenial Drouhin winemaker, Veronique Drouhin, a group of us tasted some lovely wines, red 2006s from both Cotes, a super Vaudesir Moulin des Vaudons 2008, not to mention a stunning barrel sample of 09 Clos des Mouches white but the star of the show was Montrachet Marquis de Laquiche 2007. Intense rich yet fine, taut and weightless, it totally flooded the senses and just went on and on and on... It does really take you to another level of wine enjoyment, too much of this and almost all other white wine would start to seem very ordinary.

Would you give someone your last BaRolo?

Not judging by our customers response to the 2006s on Monday. Despite the strike, customers were scrummaging ferociously for a sip of the best La Morra, Serralunga, Monforte and Castiglione Barolos money can buy. This is proving a really classic, structured vintage yet with enough generosity and fruit to allow us an exciting glimpse of even greater things in store. Wines from Gaja, Voerzio(pictured), Altare Scavino and Clerico, to name but a few, must make this tasting of Piedmont's best one of a kind in the UK

Two other highlights were Terre Nere's 2008 Etna Cru wines, arguably their best vintage so far, and a flight of undoubtedly the greatest ever wines to come out of Toro, the 2009 Teso la Monja wines were extraordinary and surely await high critical acclaim.

Rhone 2009 - The Septentrional Slog

After two days of Meridional marathon in the Southern Rhone, I embarked on an even more gruelling two days in the Septentrional North. I have visited 7 producers both yesterday and today(thursday)taking in the best of Cornas, Crozes, St Joseph, Hermitage, Condrieu, Cote Rotie and that well known Vin de Pays, Seyssuel! I have seen all of our regulars such as Chave, Domaine du Coulet, Domaine du Colombier, Perret and Rostaing to name a few, as well as keeping an eye on the regions young (winemaking!) talents, people such as Semaska, PJ Villa and Stephane Ogier. That makes 26 producers in 4 days. Now, before you all sarcastically get your violins out, actually this has not been such a tall order. Glancing at my schedule upon arriving late into Marseille on Sunday, I thought I had gone perhaps a touch o.t.t., but in fact the style and quality of this vintage has really made it feel rather effortless.

Whilst 09 is a small vintage in the south because of the very few bunches of Grenache that had formed on the vines, in the north it is a vintage of quality and quantity like 1999. Some producers in Cornas prefer the elegance of 08 to the richness of 09, remember that this appellation's sheer, exposed and well-drained slopes produced very good 2008s. 2009s in Cornas are enormously rich and intense, some top the charts at 15 degrees alcohol, too much wine for some people perhaps, but I am sure they will earn great critical acclaim in some quarters. Domaine du Coulet have made an incredible Gore Cuvee this year. St Joseph is particularly high performing, i think, perhaps some of the most balanced wines of the vintage, Perret's Grisieres is sublime and Villard has made the vintage of his life, in my opinion. Rene Rostaing was ebullient and rightly so, all three of his Cuvees were exemplary. Clusel Roch will be releasing a very serious Grandes Places aswell as a separate bottling of, for the first time, La Viaillere which that i thought remarkable and one of my personal favourites of the trip.

For anyone who remembers and still has examples of that great 1999 Northern Rhone vintage, I tasted a Grandes Places 99 with Brigitte Roch. On the basis of this 99s are every bit as wonderful as they were on release. Really impressive, one of the greats, but worth holding onto for at least another 5 - 10 years, it is still so young.

Aalto 2007 and Ossian 2009

Aalto is the impressive collaboration between former head of the Ribera DO Javier Zaccagnini and Vega Sicilia's winemaker of 20 plus years, Mariano Garcia. It is the result of blending the best parcels from 7 different communes in Ribera del Duero, vine age a minimum of 40 years old. Not only does each commune have its own unique terroir, be it sand limestone or clay soils but just as importantly, if not even more so, each commune tends to have its own very unique clones of the Tinto Fino grape that make totally different wines to eachother.

Ribera has had a wet,cool Spring and early summer, the landscape looks so lush, green and floral, such a difference to the desert I visited this time last year. I am here to see the restless Javier Zaccagnini and taste his 2007, to be released in September this year. It was a very extreme year, really dry but cool aswell, no bad thing for this usually rather hot climate. It did mean a great deal of work in the vineyards to ensure proper maturation of the grapes, but ripen they did. There is no PS in 2007, it has all gone into the main Aalto blend, which is as a result incredibly complete silky and complex, with a very moreish and refreshing acidity so typical of this cool vintage. 2007 might not have the blockbuster richness of a 2005 but the balance, refinement and drinkability will make for a very serious bottle that can be approached early or after several years bottle age and it should work tremendously well with food.

We then head south to Ossian in the southern zone of Rueda. I used to call this one of my favourite whites outside of Burgundy, now i just call it one of my favourite whites. 2007 and 2008 were phenomenal vintages, cooler years perfectly suited to the style of wine made here. 2009, though a richer vintage, clearly betrays the benefits of Ismael's (pictured in one of his 250 year old vineyards) and Javier's experiences since their first Rueda vintage in 2005. The continuing refinements and improvements they have made has resulted in a sublime, silky, long and concentrated wine. The scary thing is they are still learning. No where else in the world does the each barrel of the same wine taste so different (according to the vineyard plot it comes from) and they are still trying to understand why. The wine is 100% anicent vines Verdejo yet the barrels range in flavour and style from Riesling, to Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc depending on the plot you taste. This makes for an unforgettable and incredibly harmonious blend.

Follow me to the Rhone next week, where I will be casting and eye on the 2009s.

2009 Toro and some smart Rioja

Nothing like a nice Rioja to revive the senses after a 4 hour drive from Priorato. Well, certainly, if its one of Marcos Eguren's. The Egurens are the vinous Kings of Rioja, if not all of Spain. Their wonderful San Vicente was one of the original modern Riojas, hand made from a low yielding single vineyard La Canoca in the Rioja Alta zone, which produces the region's most subtle, elegant wines that combine fresh acidity with fine fruit and tannic backbone. It is regularly voted best red wine in Spain, by the Spanish great and good, and you can see why.

2007 was a small, cool and late harvest, picking did not finish until the beginning of November in some vineyards. An absolutely wonderful vintage not a rich blockbuster, far from it, but intense, fine and fresh. I always have a soft spot for San Vicente Rioja, i don't think there is better value wine in Spain, the 07 exemplifies its typically sophisticated, nuanced style. However for sheer quality Amancio was something else. Another single vineyard wine but most of the fruit goes into other cuvees, only 8% of the vineyard's grapes, the creme de la creme, are used for Amancio. All flowers, high notes, minerals and forest fruits, understated yet so powerful. It will be a wine for ageing, if a still far too young but equally impressive 2002 is any indication.

Further south in Toro the Egurens have been busy fine-tuning their Teso La Monja wines. They sold their Numanthia Termes estate in a bid to make something more elegant. Their idea was to buy only high altitude, mainly north facing vineyards ranging from 40 to 100 years old, with a view to prolonging the vegetative cycle and make a more refined style of Toro. 2009 conditions were great and combined with the experience gained from the two vintages already under their belt, has made for staggering results. They are not as massive, thick or extracted as the Numanthia Termes wines were but they are even more intense, more floral finer and longer. In general the best Toros taste like very good wines but without any particular identity that marks them out as specifically being Toro. This is where Teso la Monja excel, they are quite simply sumptuous seductive and unique. Dios mio! their top wine, Alabaster, left me breathless - smooth silky floral but with a marathon finish. As soon as journalists and wine trade professionals have had a chance to taste, it will surely not being long before its consider one of Spain's true greats.

Nou Wave Priorato

So to the land of El Bulli and FC Barcelona, Catalans show as much flair in the kitchen as they do on Nou Camp's glorious turf, the region has become a must visit for the most serious of gastronomes. The wine is catching on, too. Home of Priorat and its rugged, slate-rich hills. A unique land where red grapes are grown on dangerously steep, crumbling hills of slate.

The region is rediscovering its identity after the unwieldy, heavily oaked Cabernet Syrah and Merlot influenced wines of the nineties. Over the last 10 years the region's top producers have concentrated on the land's more traditional grape varieties, in particular the area is awash with seriously old vines Garnacha and Carinena (Grenache and Carignan.) Ok so the wines of Priorat are never going to be shrinking violets, but from today’s top producers they are definitely unique, potently moreish wines with an unmistakebale mineral streak running through them. There are about a dozen top flight producers and I have come to taste three of my favourites: Vall Llach, Mas Martinet and Mas Doix.

I am here to taste 2008s and 2007s. Two very different vintages. 07s remind the contagiously enthusiastic Sara Perez (of Mas Martinet) of the 2004s, full of richness , velvet texture with a nice but very gentle thread of acidity running through it, wines for hedonists. 08s are altogether more ethereal, in one of her more artistic moments Sara describes 2008 as a “clouds” vintage, by that I think she meant a vintage of high tones, as opposed to the more obvious but immediately seductive 07s. I adore the finesse and terroir complexity of Sara’s wines, characteristics that are perhaps more marked in 2008 than 2007, they don’t always wow the journalists because they are not all upfront, but how incredibly fine they are and they age wonderfully. The glorious, wild cherry-infused 2000 Clos Martinet that I tried at the estate will attest to that. The Vall Llach and Mas Doix offerings were exquisite, too, albeit in a slightly different style to Martinet, super sumptuous and silky yet with wonderful bright mineral lift. I believe that a certain someone across the Atlantic concurs, both of their 2007s are in the Wine Advocate’s top 10 of the vintage.

Viva the revival!

Loving the Loire!

A trip to the immensely diverse Loire valley provides a welcome respite to the rife speculation surrounding Bordeaux 2009 prices and England's chances in the World Cup. I am here to taste the new red white and rose 2009s and take another look at some of the red 2008s in bottle. My (already very great) admiration for some of the Loire's top growers has just got greater. Not only does their fervent passion see them produce excellent wine in even the most challenging of climactic conditions but they also have a distinct awareness of market realities and the standard of competition that exists in the form of Bordeaux Burgundy and the new world. I can't think of any other region that has so many growers who know so much about the top wines from the Cote d'Or or the Cru Classe of Bordeaux!

Much ground has been covered already: Coteaux de Layon, Saumur Chanmpigny, Bourgueil, Chinon, Montlouis, Vouvray and some Touraine wines in Noyers sur Loire, so it makes picking out highlights difficult. One of them has to be the first day with the large and charismatic Jo Pithon (pictured.) After a rogue bat briefly interrupts our tasting in Jo's cellars I taste one of the Loire's great but unknown whites, 2008 Anjou Coteaux des Treilles, a vineyard with volcanic soils that has a strata of coal several metres below the surface. Seek it out. For me it is one of the Loire's top dry whites along side Taille aux Loups Remus and the Pouilly Fumes from Didier Dagueneau.

Another high point has been the reds, namely the 2009s,(surprise surprise!) but also the 2008s. The 09s are intense ripe and suave, dense but with finesse and what's more there is no talk of raising (already very reasonable) prices by 50 or even 15%! Yannick Amirault, Domaine de la Butte and Joguet have all performed extraordinarily well. Even all of their 2008s were showing quite brilliantly - all ripe fruit and silk - not as massive as the 09s but they are certainly no weaklings and are beautifully refreshing to boot. So 2009 is one of the "greats" for Loire reds like 2005 or 2003. It also looks very promising for the sweeties, too, the best since 1989 according to Huet's Noel Pinguet.

So much pleasure its almost exhausting, and I haven't even got to Vincent Pinard, Lucien Crochet, Francois Cotat and Didier Dagueneau yet, thats for tomorrow.

I'm putting my head on the block here, but what I have seen over the last few days underlines the huge strides the Loire has made in the last 5-10 years. The valley is the source of some of the world's great red and white wines whether from perceived "great" vintages or not, its now becoming foolish to ignore them.

On the Road to Chablis

As I leave the Cote d'Or the clouds part and out comes the sun. Bright blue skies see me all the way up the autoroute de soleil to junction 21, Nitry. I head, with great anticipation, into the rolling hills of Chablis' big country and its long straight roads, a spoiling programme that includes Fevre, Brocard, Moreau Naudet, Vincent Dauvissat and Laurent Tribut lying before me.

I taste the 2008s which are all in bottle, even Dauvissat's Clos at long last! Well, they are as great as they were last November, perhaps even more thrilling. They have an electric acidity, a lush ripeness, great mineral Chablis character and huge power without ever comprising finesse or balance. Any 08 from a reputable grower should be snapped up.

The 2009s will I am sure be more controversial. They are very powerful wines but just about the most easy and enjoyable to taste before bottling than any other recent vintage. No doubt their low acidities will be talked about by some, but they are intense and show very fresh, clear fruit flavours, surely owing to that kimmeridgean clay minerality, and for many the alcohols aren't too high either, between 12-13 degrees natural. They, of course, have very smooth, friendly textures but show some structure, too, it will be interesting to seem them after a summer's elevage but for now they look very seductive.

The grape escape: 2008 Burgundy Revisited and a peek at 2009

Narrowly avoiding the ash clouds that nearly prevented my annual escape from the London Wine Trade fair, I head to Burgundy for a chance to re-taste 2008 and take an early peek at the already well-reputed 2009s.

Most Red 2008s are now ready to be bottled and though, admittedly, its a perfect time to taste, they look fabulous, even lovelier than from barrel in November. It may not be a totally homogenous vintage but there are so many great examples of red 08s from the top producers. Every grower I have spoken to this week considers it a genuinely top vintage for Pinot Noir and I have to admit I am totally seduced, too. Such a balance of Pinot purity, freshness, ripe fruit and roundness, with a nice little tannic kick. Freddy Mugnier himself describes it as "a vintage I adore, like 2001 but better, more refined." Anyone who has been lucky enough to drink any of the quite glorious Cote de Nuits 2001s recently will know this is praise indeed.

Then there is the small matter of 2009. The most flattering vintage I have tasted at this early stage, more so than 1999, even the likes of d'Angerville's Clos des Ducs and Liger-Belair's La Romanee, the most serious of wines, were impressively forthcoming; whilst Cecile Tremblay appears to have made a sensational range from top to bottom. There is still plenty of time and elevage to go for these 2009s, I will see in November how the summer has treated them so lets not be hasty, but it has to be said in their current state they are difficult to resist: Suave, very fruity and with a smooth texture that belies their great power and persistance. Mostly it seems a decent size crop (fingers crossed this is reflected at allocation time !!) Picking date was a fine balance as fruit ripened at a pace, so it is feasible there may be one or two disappointments more than with the extraordinarily reliable 2005s, we shall see, but there will plenty of absolute crackers to feast on I have no doubt.

Hew's Views: The Full Roundup

Hew's Views: The Full Roundup from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

Bordeaux 2009: Hew's Views ,The Right Bank

Further thoughts on the vintage, this time the wines of Pomerol & St Emilion, from our Chairman Hew Blair...

Hew's Views: The Right Bank from Justerini & Brooks on Vimeo.

More Barolo 2006 and the rest - Days 3 & 4

Great Barolos, Serious Soaves and excitment in Valpolicella

Excuse the radio silence, two and a half days of tasting young Barolo followed by a three hour journey east towards Treviso can take it out of you. Day 3 was a very spoiling one, visits to Roberto Voerzio, Paolo Scavino and Gaja. Our tasting with Enrico Scavino was sensational, a producer seemingly at the top of his game. After a brooding start to life, the 2005s seemed to have quickly come a long way after a couple of years in bottle, they will drink quite beautifully before too long, while we wait for the 2004s and 2006s. Their 2006s were intense, structured but always showing Scavino polish, they will be up there with the vintage's best. Gaja was everything I expected, great wines of huge intensity and length of flavour. The 2007s were luxurious and heady, the 2006s more restrained but highly sophisticated. However, the single most impressive array of wines during the Piedmont leg of our trip hail from Roberto Voerzio. From Dolcetto to Barolo, these are naturally made and very intense wines produced with unstinting attention to detail. The picture shows bunches from their Barbera Pozzo vineyard, they cut the bottom off all of their bunches, as the finest grapes are to be found at the top or "ears", where ripening takes place first. There is no La Serra 2006, the Voerzios weren't happy with the wine's aromas during ageing and so sold it off, this tells you all you need to know about them. The rest of their 2006s are impeccable - precise, ripe and definitely built to last.

A long hike east takes us off to the pretty Colli Asolani to our Prosecco producer, Dal Bello, a thoroughly refreshing change from young red wine that gets day 4 off to a good start. Then we head west again to the hills of Mazzano in Valpolicella and its quite breathtaking views. 450 metres above sea level in the hills overlooking the town of Negrar are the Vivianis, a charming husband and wife team. Such pure, elegant and drinkable wines, be it simple Valpolicella classico, Amarone or Recioto. They have cast their spell. A very exciting find, I feel. Finally we end our trip with a visit to the affable and quite brilliant Gini family. 2009s are richer than 2008s but show great acidity and finesse too. Any wine lover can not fail to be enchanted by these fruity, zesty Soaves. La Frosca proves that Italian white wine can genuinely be great: Along side the young vintages we tasted a 1997. Like a mature Riesling on the nose, all honey and minerals on the palate but still youthful and refreshing , with a remarkably long, mineral finish. Exquisite.

Alas, like all good things, my short but sweet taste of Italy must come to an end. Now back to earth, via Milan Malpenza.

Loire unveils 2009

The Angers wine fair drew to a close yesterday. An annual event to showcase the Loire's newly-released vintages, Angers comprises over 500 growers from the length and breadth of this huge river valley and as such provides an excellent stage to show off the region's great progress in quality and its thrilling diversity. The event reinforced how much more there is to the region than Sauvignon Blanc. At a table of over 100 of the Loire's top wines, including prestigious producers of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, it was two Chenin Blancs that absolutely blew away the rest of the field, Remus from Domaine de la Taille aux Loups and the even more intense Anjou Les Treilles from Pithon-Paille. Those looking for the next big thing in the world of fine white wine, look no further than here.

The show's main event, however, was of course 2009, and yes they think its great. In Sancerre and Pouilly Fume they generally consider it to have the ripeness of 2003 with the freshness of 2006 and 2007. Also further west in the Touraine there are some glorious dry and off dry Chenins. The reds are perhaps even more impressive, summer heat and drought conditions were similiar to 1989. Growers talk of an "Outstanding" Cabernet Franc vintage, Jacky Blot of Domaine de la Butte in Bourgueil rates it more highly than 2005. I will be heading to the Loire again towards the end of April to taste more extensively and assess in more depth just how good these really are.

2008s from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair

At the beginning of this week we welcomed into our cellars Louis-Michel Vicomte Liger-Belair (pictured with his father) to present us with his fledgling 2008s. The tasting was a huge success and demonstrated just how great this Domaine has become. As Louis-Michel himself pointed out, it can take 5-6 years for work in the vineyard, particularly the soils, to have their full effect on the resultant wines. Over and above vintage style and variation, there is without question an additional qualtitative progression here right accross the range. I found the 2008s very much in keeping with Louis-Michel's pure, softly extracted yet very serious style - they were gentle but powerful, silky smooth yet racy, all in all they were impeccably balanced. This revering taster, at least, would place these in THE top echelon of Red Burgundy. Our customers seemed to agree, 6 of the 9 wines have already sold out!

Chateauneuf's overlooked vintages

Tasting with the affable Vincent Avril today was fascinating.

The final blend of 2008 Clos des Papes red looks very smart, silky pure and refreshing. He likens it to the 1999 which we tasted, too, this was drinking well - elegant moreish, and very fresh after 10 years so this bodes well for the 2008 which he thinks is better. The 04 Clos des Papes red is still very young but offers such vitality, ripeness and polish, a wonderful wine from this shamefully overlooked Chateauneuf vintage.

Julien Barrot at Barroche has made a lovely "signature" cuvee in 2008 rich velvety but fresh with almost Pinot like aromas, a real beauty. There will be no fiancee or pure in 2008 so all the goodness from those pure 100 year old grenache vines has gone into the signature blend, making it all the more special.

Burgundy 2008 Part Deux - Days 4 & 5

Visits with Roumier and Mugnier reinforced the findings of our earlier tastings with Drouhin, Meo-Camuzet and Ghislaine Barthod, where we discovered many very fine Chambolles. Clos de Marechale deserves a mention, Mugnier's great vineyard work here(pictured) seems to get increasingly evident each year, the 2008 rivals Nuit's best. Musigny seems to be a Grand Cru that has excelled in 2008, examples from Roumier and Mugnier were glorious and that of Leroy outshone, on the day, their other vineyards Richebourg and Chambertin. Vosne, too, seems to have had its fair share of highs in 2008, Cathiard's wines were fabulous. His and Leroy's stunning Romanee St Vivants have mirrored the success of Frank Follin's earlier in the week. At Clos de Tart we had our usual, fascinating, tasting of the four components of the Clos de Tart blend. Embryonic they may have been, but the potential to be one of the vintage's most powerful wines is certainly there. Cecile Tremblay followed, a young grower who is already starting to excel. 2008 is clearly an excellent vintage for her and a step up from her 2007s. Chambolle Feusselottes and Chapelle really impressed but most surprising of all was, perhaps, the high quality of the two villages wines Nuits and Vosne. The final tasting of our two week long Burgundian visits was with Domaine d'Eugenie, and what a way to finish. Even more than Tremblay, this is a Domaine that has made enormous strides between the 2007 and 2008 vintages. With their brand new cuverie in place and the winemaking team finding their feet, they have managed to produce superb results, each wine/ terroir is very clearly defined and the expression of Pinot Noir bittersweetness comes through very strongly.

So the trip draws to a close. It has not been too tiring a journey, which says alot for the vintage. At their best the red wines are fresh and light in tannic structure rather like 2004 in their light tannic structure but much more elegant and with a totally different, considerably riper, fruit profile. The wines are not massive like 2006 or 2005, but they are so well balanced that they should age gracefully. Burgundy lovers will adore them for their purity and Pinot juiciness. The whites are flamboyant, exotic yet racy and will give great pleasure straightaway, Chablis, in particular, is a great success. It is a small vintage for red and white wine in terms of quantity, though there are one or two exceptions many Pinot producers made even less 2008 than the already rather small 2007 vintage.