It was Lent, it was a traditional time for abstinence. But it was also the day of a Michael Palij MW tasting. And this tasting was certainly not for those who had vowed to give up alcohol until Easter! For his riposte to Jasper Morris MW’s brilliant OWC white Burgundy tasting (September 2011), Michael’s tour d’horizon, red Burgundy style, included no less than four Grand Cru red Burgundies, six other examples of the region and bookending the whole with a succulent Cremant de Bourgogne and an extraordinary Marc de Bourgogne.
As Michael freely admitted, Burgundy is a challenge – he had conscientiously avoided close study of the area for this reason, until his MW exams hoved into view! (He also admitted that his first visit to the region, in 1996, and a stunning 1985 Chambolle –Musigny, made him regret his neglect!) Why a challenge? Complexities of soil (clay, limestone etc) and a fight for space with the marble quarries that dot the area, complexities of ownership (Clos Vougeot has 60 ha and 80 owners), a marginal climate – few years are easy, some are horrendous and a tendency for most producers to ‘follow the herd’ when it comes to production styles and techniques are just a few of the reasons.
Burgundy is not necessarily easy drinking and it is certainly not cheap drinking. Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 1990 is now up to £17000 a bottle and if you’re not feeling quite that extravagant then you could go for the 1961 – only £3000 a bottle!
The task Michael had set himself was to make three sets of comparisons with just 10 wines:
Same village, different producers
Same producer, different villages
Same producer, different quality levels.
Michael also wanted us to experience a variety of vintages, so we tasted examples of 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2007. To use Michael’s own words, ‘The greatest tasting at this price’ that’s ever been held in the UK ‘ was his goal.
Our first close encounter of Michael’s Burgundy kind was not red at all - it was Veuve Ambal’s top cuvee Cremant de Bourgogne (what is it with widow’s and champagne?) rich and biscuity with a degree of complexity astounding in a wine that cost just 14€ a bottle. Like many of the other wines for the tasting, it was brought back to the UK by the dogged and intrepid Michael and Graham Harding, who had braved snow, freezing cold in the vineyards and a degree of resistance from producers to ensure they brought us the best wines they could find – and as Michael said, even in Burgundy, frequent stress on ‘Le Club du Vin d’Oxford et son President’ paid dividends!
The red burgundy experience started with three wines from Nuits St Georges, covering two producers and two different years, selected to illustrate the influence of the wine maker, differing wine making techniques and the influence of age. All three wines come from an area no more than a kilometre apart, to the right of the town of Nuits St Georges and abutting Vosne Romanee. The wines of Nuits St Georges tend to be chunky, more rough-hewn and more powerful than those of communes such as Volnay.
Wine 1, the 2006 Jean Chauvenet, was made by Christoph Drag for his father-in-law Jean Chauvenet. Drag, a reserved and meticulous man, is passionate about the precision and quality of his wines. The wine had been cement macerated and subjected to no more than 20% new oak. In appearance, it was a rich red with just a hint of pink at the rim. Oak spice dominated the first impressions with plentiful red and black fruit. Sweet and full in the mouth with good minerality and powerful tannins. Broad in the mouth with a long finish. More restrained on the nose than wine 2.
Wine 2, Bertrand Ambrosie’s 2006 Vieilles Vignes had a rather more evolved bouquet with somewhat more edge to it. It proved plumper, richer and with more tannins on the palate. A touch more elegant (though some felt it a little thin) with sweet fruit and a touch of herbs in a slightly bitter finish. This wine has rather more new oak – up to 100% - during its 14 months in foudres. Michael’s view was that this wine was unlikely to evolve much further.
Both 2006 and 1995 were, in their way, tricky years and presented similar challenges for the wine maker, albeit for different reasons. 1995 had rain in the autumn; 2006 suffered from a cold start to flowering leading to millerandage.
Wine 3 was another Chauvenet wine, the 1995 Jean Chauvenet, which is now in the last decade of its life. Brown-hued, this wine was initially a touch dried out with the tea leaf quality on the nose which one finds in older Pinot Noir s, but the fruit still had an elegant plum character, which improved as the wine rested in the glass. The levels of fruit, tannin and alcohol had all kept good pace during the ageing process to produce a wine that gives an indication of how wine 1, the 2006, from the same producer, will age.
The second flight, again a triple, was from a single vintage, 2007, and a single producer, Bouchard, but from three separate areas: Volnay, Beaune and Corton. 2007 was a warm winter and the vintage was early (10 days ahead of the 2003) despite a cool summer, which forced the growers to wait for the grapes to obtain full physiological ripeness. Volnay is considered to be typified by elegance and delicacy, Beaune ‘unabashed hedonism’ and to be ‘all about fruit’ and Corton more power and intensity.
Bouchard, one of the largest of Burgundy landowners and producers, has been owned by Henriot, the champagne firm, since 1995. At the time of the purchase standards were low and slipping – despite Bouchard having a share of almost every significant vineyard in the Cote d’Or. Ruthless declassification of poor wines, huge investment in a new winery and new vineyards has pulled Bouchard back up to the forefront of Burgundy producers, though Michael took exception to the makers’ characteristic use of 60 to 65% oak on the three wines we tasted, and which he felt masked the differences in terroir.
Wine 4, the 2007 Bouchard Père & Fils Volnay 1er Cru Les Caillerets had a charming perfumed bouquet of red currants and strawberries with just a touch of coffee to give it edge. This wine is from the Meursault end of Volnay – as the plentiful maps used in the tasting showed.. The land here is pebbly, hence the name, the wine had both silky texture and a hint of minerality and provided an antithesis to the Nuits St Georges tasted earlier, being more aromatic and less structured.
Wine 5, the 2007 Bouchard Père & Fils Beaune 1er Cru Grèves ‘Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus’ was one of the stars of the evening for many members. Beaune is more full-bodied, more hedonistic than Volnay and more powerful than Corton. The Enfant Jesus is rich and sensuous, meaty on the nose with rich red and black fruit and a distinct tang of tobacco leaf. Full-bodied (meaty) and concentrated, this is a wine for keeping. It’s probably 5 years from being fully ready and Michael estimates will keep for another 15 after that.
Wine 6, the 2007 Corton Grand Cru (the first Grand Cru of the evening) was more powerful and intense on the nose – a symphony of red fruit in Michael’s words – with an overlay of mint and red currant leaf to add elegance, perhaps due to the influence of the mainly limestone soil. Concentrated, this is a wine that will give years of pleasure but may reach a reasonable peak by around 2017/2018. For others, this was the evening’s star!
Following from the ‘same producer, same year, different areas’ element, we moved on to two wines from the same individual, the same year and the same area - two very fine 2002s from Domaine Arlaud in Morey-St-Denis. As Michael sighed, ‘this is what pinot noir is all about’! 2002 is considered a good and under valued vintage. (A tip to all those out there with deep pockets and good cellars!)
The 15 ha of the Arlaud domaine have been organic since 2004 and bio-dynamic from this year (2012). Cyprian Arlaud, a young, thoughtful winemaker, adopts a similar minimum intervention approach to the wine-making. Both these wines spend a long time on the skins, with only 3-4 pigeages before racking into cask. Arlaud use a maximum of 35% new oak, providing a clear contrast with the style of the Bouchard wines.
Wine 7, the 2002 1er Cru Les Ruchots, from the Chambolle side of Morey-St-Denis, was sweet and soft on the palate, with a good concentration of fruit, few tannins and good acidity and very long, (as was Wine 8) but was the more restrained of the two.
Wine 8, the Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, comes from the Gevrey-Chambertin side of the appelation where there is more limestone and the wines are considered to have more structure and tannin. Both wines had a meaty / gamey tang to them but the nose of Les Ruchots was of black cherry and blackberry with herbal notes whilst the La Roche had more coffee and chocolate with a hint of liquorice on the nose to balance a core of blackcurrant and black cherry. Michael described this as a wine that has as many layers of complexity as there are layers in an onion.
Wine 9, the 1999 Louis Jadot, Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru was produced closer to Morey St Denis than wine 10 and was the lighter red of the two with a silky, perfumed nose, defined but fully mature tannins and a certain earthiness. Not as generous in the mouth as the Close de La Roche (wine 8) and less complex, but fully mature.
Wine 10, the 1996 René Engel, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru is considered one of the world’s best wines. ‘Edgy, not perfect’ was Michael’s assessment. `Of the two it was a darker garnet red with an initially challenging nose – a whiff of sulphur, perhaps even a hint of ‘brett’ before a complex Pinot Noir bouquet of tea leaf and nicotine leaf, red currant and raspberry, Bovril and mint kicked in. On the palate it was gamey, herbaceous and with hints of tobacco.
Below – Michael with the ‘tatty old packaging’ in which one of the world’s greatest wines is supplied
Summing up the Pinot Noir experience Michael talked of fragility and complexity. The vines and grapes are disease-prone, susceptible to sunburn and prey to every passing insect. Pinot needs to surf a wave of ripeness; too hot and it falls apart, too cold and it sulks. It needs a long growing season with lots of light but not too much sun. Aptly, Pinot Noir has been called Red Riesling.
But before any wine remaining in our glasses met the ‘spittoon of destiny’ there was one final rite – a sample of Joseph Cartron’s 10 year old Marc de Bourgogne Hors d’Age. Cartron is the man who has only recently finally persuaded the powers that be to establish an Appellation Controlee for Marc de Bourgogne and this was a superb example of what you can achieve if you make your spirits from the finest of grapes. A deep amber in colour with a honeyed, caramel nose with herbal notes and extraordinary smoothness and power coupled in the mouth, this was as remarkable in its way as the Burgundies we had savoured in the previous two hours.
This was a remarkable tasting – and as Michael confessed, in coming home to the Club, he realised we are the only audience that makes him nervous. He need not have been. We all (even the ‘old Burgundy hands’) experienced something new and exciting!