Weekend Drinking 20-22 May
- Thread starter Adam Holland
- Start date
- Location
- London
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A few nice things the last two days.
Last night with some charcuterie and cheese we opened the first of a pack of Bolly GA 12 Rose. At first it was a little too cold but as it warmed up it took on some real character. The red fruit laced nose balanced with some lovely orange peel. The palate is very dry and fine. Not quite as vinous as the last few vintages yet it still has that lovely Bolly structure which is so nice.
Today at lunch at Les Nymphéas in Rouen (lovely food and nice garden) we enjoyed a Latour-Martillac Blanc 2007 off the list for a very reasonable €50 (the rest of the list being rather oddly very over priced). I had some trepidation given the problems with premox however I needn't have feared. This was lovely. Lots of lime marmalade and dried pineapple on the nose with super zingy and tingly acidity on the palate with a rich full bodied palate. There was the merest hint of oxidisation on the finish but with some St Haart oysters followed by a roulade of Dover Sole this was really lovely with both dishes bringing out a real creaminess on the palate. There really is no mistaking what this is and its a very pretty wine for the price.
For dinner we again had some charcuterie and cheese and opened a Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre 2017 picked up from a small merchant here in Rouen for the princely sum of €110 (the cheapest price in the UK seems to be £250IB!?). I decanted this into a pan an hour before dinner (our small studio apartment lacking any other kind of decanting implement) and I'm glad I did. Super tight on the nose, even after an hour it still is giving little away. However the power and finesse on the palate is really quite something. This is remarkably tightly coiled with great energy and verve. Give it five years and the nose should have come round a treat. Very, very good on potential but a little too young tonight.
Lunch in Le Mans tomorrow before finally arriving in Tours with the first of eight tastings on Tuesday AM.
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- Location
- St Albans
The Balfour still rosé is good too.
- Location
- London
Thank you for the note. My goodness, people have clearly lost their marbles. I just looked up Arnoux prices, and they are ridiculous across the board. There are some cases where very nice wines have ended up being chased by a lot of money, because they are among the very best of their type. But this is emphatically not the case here.
- Location
- Aldeburgh
Incredible. That’s almost unbelievable. Any only a BR too !
’95 Rousseau CdlR - PnP. Gorgeous bouquet from get-go. Tannins mostly resolved, sweet tannins and good acidity, drinking so much better than previous bottle. Good length and complexity, a touch of dryness at backend. Reached plateau and drinking great but no hurry to consume this with its excellent overall balance. Rousseau always delivered.
’02 Sauzet Chevalier - Greenish yellow in color. Good nose and a little bit sweet to my surprise, could use a little bit more acidity. Good complexity and length, delicious now but no hurry.
’90 Clerico CMG - Sadly this is slightly corked but drinkable. Tannins partially resolved, excellent concentration and complexity, should be decent for good bottles.
- Location
- Aldeburgh
My first time of having this Chateau. Very much open for business, would loved to have put this up against something like Figeac. Regardless of its standing very enjoyable.
- Location
- Southern England
Tio Pepe En Rama 2022 and 2020 Tempier Rose for us this weekend. We are currently living without a kitchen and only a garden hose for water so these brought an element of civility to the chaos. Good accompaniments to BBQs of various sorts over the weekend.
- Location
- London
The new regime at Arnoux-Lachaux do now very much appear to be making wines that are the very best of their type. That was certainly not the case previously.
- Location
- Bangkok
The wines are even better post 2010 or so.
I attended a dinner in Bangkok with the very genial owners and was super impressed.
- Location
- Bromley
Francois Chidaine Les Choisilles 2017. This was absolutely stunning. I love dry Loire Chenin and this is very much from the top drawer. The intermingling of flowers and honey with just the perfect ripeness. There is brilliant acidity keeping everything super clean and very moreish. Must get some more!
- Location
- Berkshire
There’s a new design label that actually does improve on the previous version.
- Location
- Glasgow
A couple of favs this weekend and my first Greek Viognier, which was absolutely gorgeous. I cant remember the last time I had a Chenas and this was very good. Note to self to drink more.
- Location
- London
2017 Vernay Cote Rotie Blonde du seigneur. With a bit of Viognier, very peppery, too young and stronger than other vintages but very balanced, it softened with time and went very well with Veal sweetbreads prepared with a 2005 rivesaltes and cream based sauce and probably the last fresh morels of the season. A treat
- Location
- London
When is that from? I certainly feel I have tested the old regime to destruction. By the way, the prices of back vintages have all gone up in line with the new. So flog all that boring village wine they used to make for ££££££…
- Location
- London
2015, I believe. I have had as little pleasure as you from the earlier wines but somewhat annoyingly the 2017 Echezeaux is really pretty close to being as good as wine gets, making me thirsty to try others as the prices ascend to the moon. The Charles Lachaux negoce Aligoté 18 is pretty smart too, though not £3000 smart.
- Location
- European Union
This ages very well. Think I still have an 09 somewhere. I need to keep it that long to get over the oak!
- Location
- Cheshire, uk
Apparently, the 2017 vintage is when the changes he made started to show and the wines moved up in quality.
I think there was some considerable pick up before. A bottle of village Vosne 2016 in November 2021 shared with others in Luxembourg seemed to inspire much posting on WB by one of my fellow diners who hadn't encountered them before. I generally disliked most of the previous generation of wines, with a couple of exceptions, 1992 (!!!) RSV being the best I have tried. I was first drawn attention to the quality by Klaus-Peter Keller writing about the 2015 Echezeaux on social media, but I didn't buy any A-L until buying 6 bottles of 2017 Echezeaux. I would have bought a lot more 2018 and 2019 but allocations are even harder I believe to get than DRC from C&B. It also seems that release prices are going to increase massively (again!) for all the wines, including the negoce.
The main criticisms - other than price - I hear about the recent wines are that
(i) they are too forward;
(ii) the very top wines may be not be as relatively as good as the mid range.
I am not sure about these criticisms, all I can say is the 2017 Echezeaux seems brilliant as Tom says, confirmed by another very recent bottle. And as it is drinking so well now, why wait?
Fwiw, for a different viewpoint, if one looks at Alllen Meadows' latest scores for the Echezeaux, I am not sure what this says about (a) BH, (b) scores in general or (c) the wines. (It does make me wonder why I bother to keep subscribing though.)
2010 = 91-94 (barrel)
2011 = 93
2012 = 92-95 (barrel)
2013 = 93
2014 = 93
2015 = 93
2016 = 93
2017 = 93
2018 = 91-94 (barrel)
2019 = 93-95 (barrel)
Here is a very fitting way to enjoy the 2017 - served at cellar temperature and rechilled in ice by the sommelier to keep the aroma beautifully focused.
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- Location
- U.K.
Thanks for the notes and pics @Paul Day .
My understanding is that Charles became involved with the domaine in 2012 and by 2015 he had fully taken over management including conversion to biodynamic practices and increasingly training to the high wire and going for higher canopies from there onwards.
For those trying to collect, I would buy 2015 onwards, being the fully Charles Lachaux period and would certainly not buy anything prior to 2012 - and well done to those flipping the ancien regime to the uninformed label chasers trying to jump on the band wagon.
Also re Charles Lachaux label, a not widely known fact is that the Bourgogne Aligote is from a Domaine A-L vineyard in VR, so perhaps a négociant wine in all but name. Whether it justifies current market price is of course another matter!
My understanding is that Charles became involved with the domaine in 2012 and by 2015 he had fully taken over management including conversion to biodynamic practices and increasingly training to the high wire and going for higher canopies from there onwards.
For those trying to collect, I would buy 2015 onwards, being the fully Charles Lachaux period and would certainly not buy anything prior to 2012 - and well done to those flipping the ancien regime to the uninformed label chasers trying to jump on the band wagon.
Also re Charles Lachaux label, a not widely known fact is that the Bourgogne Aligote is from a Domaine A-L vineyard in VR, so perhaps a négociant wine in all but name. Whether it justifies current market price is of course another matter!
- Location
- Glasgow
Thread drift!
Many moons ago I worked in the old Grill Room in the Cafe Royal as a waiter. We had a rarely used Duck press, its use reserved for particular customers. About three days after one such use we were mystified by a most unpleasant smell in the room. After much hunting and my keen sense of smell I found the duck caucus still in the press!