Three interesting bottles
Alex and Nina came over this evening for some producer from our local charcuterie, boulangerie, cremerie and boucherie.
Gen put together an amazing spread of foie gras, a sublime boudin noir, superb rillettes de porc, pâté de compagne, artichaut, poulet rôtie, salade de celeri remoulade, epossies, vieilles mimolette, langres, lots of baguettes and four tartes from the best place in Paris: a tarte au citron, tarte aux fruits des rouges de bois, a chocolate and pear tarte and a strawberry souffle. Superb food.
With this, a Pierre Gimmonnet & fils 1er Cru Blancs de Blancs Special Club 1999. This was a heavily worked style with lots of rich chardonnay character: honey, almonds, butter and preserved lemon. The palate was correct but uninspiring. Not a very exciting champagne. C’est la vie.
Next, I presented a Bertagna Clos de Vougeot 1995. Upon opening this wine was thin with a mean oxidative note. Four hours breathing in the bottle absolutely transformed it into a rich, brooding, powerful wine, lots of lifted rhubarb, cherry and raspberry. After another 2 hours it took on a yeasty flavour which was displeasing.
Alex presented a bottle blind. I picked this as a Faiveley from Gevrey and punted for Bèze. I was right. This was a very strict, ungiving wine and I didn’t think it could be from a very ripe vintage. I went for ’98 but it was a ’93. A very strange bottle for the vintage, I would never have thought it could really be a Faiveley Clos de Bèze 1993. I think the fruit richness might have been stripped by a small amount of brett. The nose was very earthy, almost muted, but with a core of chocolaty oak (which is what suggested Faiveley to me). The palate was tannic but not as intensely tannic as some Faiveleys can be. A puzzling wine.
