This was a gift, I was told it had good fruit. I think this is what you want from 2000 red Burgundy.

Pommard Premier Cru Grands Epenots 2000, Pierre Morey
Quite a pale brick colour. The fruit on the nose shows some mature softness. It is quite ripe, in the style of Pinot which seems to head toward HP Sauce/Bovril aromas. This is not over-whelming so it doesn’t seem to be a problem. There is some spice to the nose as well, but it is doesn’t seem amazingly complex. The palate has soft fruit, with a reasonably bright and lively acid/tannin structure. Again, the palate isn’t so complex, but this seems like a fruity, perfectly acceptable bottle of Burgundy. Nice enough, but it is not going to set the world on fire. Time to drink.

After the awfulness of the wines we’ve popped so far tonight this is quite the treat. It really developed over time; decanting white Burgundy, especially young wines, is often a great idea.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Referts 2004, Louis Carillon
The nose of this has developed from being a bit closed and oaky to displaying quite an elegant, stylish set of aromas. This smells properly harmonious and charming, with enough mineral and fruit complexity to keep you very interested. All of these aromas seem pure and refined, there is real beauty here. I like this nose a lot. The palate is a model of balance, with lovely lemon fruit, brilliant acidity and, something I really like in good white Burgundy, an attractive savoury character. It is really tasty, a great drink that just begs you to drink more and enjoy its charms. There is a lot to love in this wine; its harmony, elegance and class mark it out as a properly good bottle of Puligny.

Last New Year we opened three bottles of Champagne, and they were all buggered. It seems a similar thing is happening a year later. OK, the Dancer wine was merely boring rather than faulty, but we didn’t want to drink boring wine so we popped a bottle of Paul Pernot Puligny Folatieres 2000. It was the most corked wine I have ever encountered; smelling utterly vile. So we’ve tried another vintage, the 2002, and on pouring it has an incredible collection of stinky, reductive, rotten egg aromas. Even after a good shake and much time in a decanter to try and get rid of this complete nastiness it is still more horrible than I feel capable of expressing. I am too disgusted by this to taste any, but Daniel has and says it is horrible.

When discussing the day’s wines via text messages I have been reminded that Vincent Dancer makes wines for enjoying sooner rather than later. I wonder if that is the problem with this.

Meursault Premier Cru Perrieres 2002, Vincent Dancer
The nose is very buttery and fat, with an oaky character which I find rather unsophisticated. There is some nice fruit and minerality underneath this, but basically this nose unbalanced and crass. The palate is hot and fat, and its elements don’t seem terribly harmonious. It doesn’t seem to have any obvious faults, but there is something really flat and dull about this. Where is the balance and beauty of this great vineyard? Not in this bottle, that is for sure.

In our quest to elucidate more about the Cote de Nuits villages we can move up a level to the Premier Crus. This time the poll question is: Which Cote de Nuits village has the most consistently high-quality Premier Crus? Not just one or two good ones, but tits quality across the range. If you feel you have more to add than a simple vote then please feel free to add a comment.

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If you want to have a look at some maps of the Burgundy villages to help you decide you can go to the bottom of this page where there is a good list of Burgundy maps provided by Louis Jadot.

Yesterday I popped some rather good wines for a lunch party. Bille Cuvee N-F 1996, Donnhof Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube Spatlese 2002, Meusault Charmes 2000 from Lafon, Rene Engel Echezeaux 1999, Burguet Gevrey Mes Favourites 2003. And The Kid brought a bottle of Beaucastel 1998. Guess how much of these I swallowed? None. Bugger.

I’ve caught a stomach bug and eating and drinking have been making me explosively ill. I sniffed and had small tastes (which I spat), but I was generally feeling too ropey to make comprehensive assessments of each wine. However, I offer some thoughts.

Lafon’s Meursault seemed up for drinking. Not that oaky at all with great harmony. There was one hell of a lot to love in this wine. Peter ‘The Kid’ who claims not to like Lafon’s wines just lapped it up.

The Echezeaux started a bit closed and not very giving. The palate also seemed a bit tough. However, we decanted it and left it for a while. It blossomed into a refined, elegant, sculpted model of beauty with real Grand Cru presence. The fruit was ultra sophisticated and mega lovely. Rest in peace, Philip Engel, you’ve provided so much pleasure.

The Burguet Gevrey Mes Favourites was an intense experience, but the balance was just fine. I got this to see what my mother thought of 2003 red Burgundy and she was impressed. I was impressed, for a village wine this was really quite complex with one hell of a long finish. Not the most extreme example of 2003 wine, but with plenty of personality to keep you intereted.

Finally there was The Kid’s bottle of Beaucastel 1998. It had a wonderfully soft, scented nose of grilled meat, plummy fruit and some peppery spice. Really earthy. Hilariously complex, but no shit at all. This is one of the cleanest Beaucastel nose’s I’ve experienced. I think all that Bret in Beaucastel makes for a lot of bottle variation. I’ve had massively shitty bottles of this. The palate was also scented and soft, with a refined tannic structure and plenty of fruit. Again, I’ve had Beaucastel 1998 recently and it has been a lot more closed and tough than this bottle. This was a totally fantastic bottle of wine: beautiful and charming, interesting and thought-provoking.

And I couldn’t bloody drink any of it. Pissflaps.

It has been ten days since I posted my poll about which Cote de Nuits village makes the best village-level wines. You can see the results here. It seems that Chambolle has won with exactly half the votes. I’m not entirely surprised.

The best Chambolle-villages from Roumier and Mugnier are truly fine wines which smash beyond the humble village quality level. Both are amazing expressions of place and beauty. Barthod is good and I’ve had slightly idiosyncratic but undoubtedly good Confuron-Cotedidot Chambolle. Dujac Fils et Pere Chambolle is one of the best purchases we make each year; a bargain for the quality. Village wines like this are easy to love, and I can totally see why half of us went for them.

In second place was Gevrey. This is probably a really good option, there is variety and class in Gevrey. I don’t drink Gevrey terribly often, but a bottle of Alain Burguet Mes Favourites 2003 I popped last night was an amazing, if moving toward large-scale, expression of confident beauty. I didn’t actually drink any because I have an appalling stomach bug, but my sniffs and tiny sips were greatly rewarding.

Morey next, which we have discussed endlessly, then Nuits with a single vote. Nuits would probably be my last choice, but I admit that is because I usually drink 1er cru Nuits and rarely village wines.

I was slightly surprised that no one voted for Vosne, but then I remembered the prices of the stuff… Remember when you could get Rene Engel Vosne for less then twenty quid at Berry’s? Wow, those were the days.

Many thanks for voting. I’ll be thinking of a Premier Cru related poll and post one in a few days.

This was one of the first wines I reported on. Back then I said it needed food with unbound proteins and it seemed to work a treat with braised oxtail tonight.

Dominus 2000
There is an explosion of ripe, sweet blackcurrant fruit on the nose. Dare I say it, is this a bit earthy? It certainly has some cedar wood spice which, given the huge alcohol and fruit levels on this wine, make it smell like fun Claret. It seems to have digested most of the new oak that was so obvious four years ago. The palate is massive, fruit and alcohol are there in abundance. There is also a surprisingly high level of acidity in this, which stops this falling into the ‘soupy’ trap which these big wines are often caught by. This may be a massive wine, but it approaches being balanced. That being said, I think a couple of glasses will be enough after today’s heroism on the drinking front.

In addition to some Cedric Bouchard fizz I was given this lovely Chris Keenan pot. It is one of the best things I’ve seen by him in a while.

The inside burns with a vivid, evil radiance.

It has been a mixed day for wine. Oxidised Sorg and Weinbach (bloody Inedit 2000 of all things, I was vexed) started things off. This was followed by winemaker of the moment (Cedric Bouchard's) Inflorescence fizz. It was brilliant, especially considering it is a hilarious bargain, but painfully acidic. Then the amazing Roulot, and his wines really are amazing; I'd sell my mother, to an understanding buyer, to keep my Roulot allocation. She is aware of the pursuit of pleasure and the delight of beauty so I'm sure she'd understand that entirely (possibly). So where could we go from there? Grand Cru, of course! However, as I have followed the development of this BBM, from what is a well-regarded producer, it just seems a bit weird, simple and painfully less good than the Roulot.

Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2002, Paul Pernot
The nose has shown some development as I have decanted and swirled, hoping it might get a bit less one-dimensional. It started off with pure but very simple lemon fruit. After a while in the decanter it had the most typical Pinot Gris nose, which was a bit odd. Now after about an hour the lemon fruit has come back and there are shades of matchbox wood. None of these things seem like really impressive aromas for flash Burgundy; quite mundane, indeed. When I first had a taste of this it had such a pronounced astringency it was perilously close to being tannic; again, this was more than a bit odd. After an hour it is a bit less austere, but it still seems like hard work. There is none of the explosive excitement and compelling complexity I want from Grand Cru white Burgundy, this is merely ordinary Chardonnay at best and totally fails to live up to the names on the label. I feel let down and disappointed. The Roulot Tessons, only a village wine, whips the arse of this; I'm so pleased to have a glass of it left to savour.

This may only be a village wine but it is out where the big dogs eat. I love the finesse of Roulot's wines.

Meursault les Tessons Clos de Mon Plaisir 2002, Domaine Roulot
This has hints of buttery fat on the nose, but is supremely sculpted and totally beautiful. The creamy minerality is highly attractive. Indeed, everything about this nose is highly attractive. Seriously complex too. This is racy and exciting, in the full flow of charming life. The palate is fizzing with fine acidity, with a good Chardonnay weight. There is plenty of that complexity on the palate, with amazing harmony and quite crazy length. Yeah, power up! This is what we like. Well done M. Roulot, please never stop selling me wine.

OK, not quite christmas day yet but with a bottle of Burgundy to hand every day feels a bit like a holiday. This was an absolute bargain.

Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru 2005, Comte Armand
This has a tightly-wound nose of brooding intensity. There is really quite a lot to it, but it is clearly going through a bit of a closed phase. But that fruit, yeah! This is the nose of proper Burgundy and manifestly has more to give in the future. The tannins are a touch on the austere side, but there is so much fruit, lovely, ripe fruit, that the balance is there. I suppose one should really be expecting big tannins from this village and this producer but, honestly, it is really well balanced. This in not at its most flattering phase of development; I think it would have given one hell of a lot of pleasure when it was fresh (although it must have been quite intense) and will again in… oh… seven more years time. Given its bargain price this has a really long and pleasure-giving life ahead of it. If you pop a bottle now give it a good shake in a decanter and eat with slabs of lovely meat.

It is wines like this that back up J-Dog’s suggestion that Burgundy is a bargain region for good wines.

When I was at Oxford I could not resist buying Ramonet wines, I bloody loved them. I was always a bit surprised that none of my chums really found the wines to be as exciting as I did. I think this is quite exciting.

Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru les Ruchottes 2001, Domaine Ramonet
It doesn’t smell oxidised, hooray! It has the correct Chassagne flat Champagne aroma, but also lots of nuts, butter and lemony fruit. Its creamy minerality is really compelling. There are hints of oak, but it is really sophisticated and integrated. This is a stylish nose which is really doing it for me. The palate has quite a lot of density and weight, but there is a lot of good acidity here and a really powerful mineral tang so this doesn’t seem over-blown. It has a really pleasing texture and the concentrated lemon fruit and minerality persist for a long time on the finish. It is hellishly complex. I always like the acid/fruit balance in Ramonet wines, even when they are big and bold this harmony keeps them vibrant and enjoyable. This is Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru of ‘limpid pool of radiance’-quality which you should be drinking now. Pop a bottle with your Christmas goose.

My last poll about Burgundy was a pretty poor effort. It has been pointed out to me, and I agree, that we need more in-depth analysis to determine exactly what constitutes the best Burgundy. Burgundy is such a rich, multi-faceted font of loveliness that it is just so hard to say this one village, vineyard, vintage or whatever is the best. So, to refine our thoughts let us focus on the bottom rung of the ladder to start with. The question is: Which Cote de Nuits village makes your favourite village-level wines? I am asking in a general sense rather than about individual producers. What I mean by this is that there is more than one producer of, for example, Morey villages, and if if you are only really thinking of that one producer perhaps you should be voting for another village.

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My poll question is as simple as that, pick your favourite Cote de Nuits wine village. Simple question, bloody hard to answer. I have had lovely, sexy, thrilling wines from every village, how can I just choose one?

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We are told the Grand Cru Brand is best for Pinot grape varieties? Does pretty well with Riesling too. This is a vivid, lively example of utter pleasure.

Riesling Grand Cru Brand 2002, Domaine Albert Boxler
The nose, ah the nose. It has so much earthy minerality and yet bursts with clean, ripe citrus fruit. This is a really expressive and compelling nose, it smells like a wine made from pampered vines from a great vineyard. Sure there is some scale here, but finesse as well; it is enjoyable to sniff. There is a lot of that complex minerality and earthiness on the palate and the fruit is well integrated in this earthy, acidic, slightly astringent structure. The astringency is very slight and adds to the complexity of the tastes and textures. These facets of the wine are indeed very complex and persist long, long after you have swallowed. I don’t think you need to keep this wine any longer. It is not old, quite fresh in fact, but running the risk of such a great wine being oxidised is too high a price. You want to drink and enjoy these wines before they get shagged out.

Every time I have a Boxler wine my love for them increases. The man can turn his hand to any Alsace varietal and make one of the top examples of the region. Sure the Rieslings are best and most spell-binding, but if you go to a tasting chez Boxler you would be a fool to turn down any wine offered, be it Grand Cru or generic.

I popped this bottle before my dinner guest arrives to check if it needed decanting: I feel it does.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Chaignots 2005, Alain Michelot
There is a lot of ripe fruit on the nose, cherries and blackberries I’d say. There is also a mild hint of something a bit reduced and stinky about this; I’ll give it a good swirl in the decanter. Very earthy in that almost slightly green way which I associate with Nuits. Cripes, now that is a serious tannic structure, on the right side of drying though. There is plenty of the good fruit and earthiness from the nose present on the palate as well. Certainly this is a bit of a young, tannic beast, but it is clearly well-made from good ingredients, the balance is there.

I’ve got one bottle of this left which I was planning to put into my mass Nuits Premier Cru 2005 tasting off in the distant future. For the price paid I feel one bottle is not enough. I’ll score some more.

I had planned to open three bottles of Cornas when Peter and John visited last night, turns out Peter brought along two bottles of Cornas as well. They were all quite cleaned up examples of the style.

Cornas ‘Domaine de Rochepertuis’ 2004, Jean Lionnet
There is plenty of fruit to this nose, it seems just ripe. There is a vague hint of greenness as well, but that works quite well with the earthy and fruity aromas. I find this quite an attractive nose, it is understated rather than opulent but the characters are all in good harmony. On the palate the tannins are a little rough, but hey this is Cornas! The fruit is there on the palate and it has good length. I think this is more than complex enough, an attractive little number.

Cornas 2003, Joel et Eric Durand
A massive nose of ripe fruit and alcohol, it is a bruiser alright. This is a very polished and round nose, opulent in a way the first wine was not. It is also very clean. Attractive as this nose is I am not sure it bursts with complexity. The palate is very ripe and round with a warm alcohol finish. It is generous, giving and fun. Very clean too. 2003 made some crazy wines, hard to make a decent assessment of producer style from a 2003.

Cornas ‘Domaine de Rochepertuis’ 2003, Jean Lionnet
The fruit here is getting perilously close to being jammy, this is another big, opulent nose. I think there is complexity here as well, though, so this does seem good. The palate is bursting with ripe fruit, but those tannins seem a bit tough to me. Bitter, almost. When it came to the first quick taste everyone else said this was their favourite wine out of the first three, I didn’t see that myself.

Cornas ‘Domaine Saint Pierre’ 1996, Paul Jaboulet Aine
Crivens, what a nose! Soft, mature fruit, earthy complexity and a real sense of class. This smells very pure, focussed and refined for a Cornas, really cleaned up. Really classy too, the elegant refinement is just so pleasing. Much like La Chapelle 1996 this seems to have avoided 1996 syndrome, the acidity is just fine. There is also real elegance on the palate. This is soft and mature, but complex and classy, a brilliant Cornas.

Cornas ‘Domaine Saint Pierre’ 1995, Paul Jaboulet Aine
This smells complex, profound, deep and classy. Ripe certainly, but everything is in total balance. This is really masculine. I am totally compelled and beguiled, when we get to smell wines this good our feeling of privilege can only be enhanced by drinking the wine. And now I have had a sip I feel great. This is an amazing wine. Up for drinking I’d say, but no real rush.

Sorry to my international reader, but these Champagnes seemed such bargains I had to alert my UK reader.

Cedric Bouchard has made some of the best Champagnes I’ve had. Inflorescence was amazing, I was stunned by its complexity and purity of expression. It cheered me up no end when I was ludicrously insane. I had Les Ursules for the second time last weekend and it was mind-expandingly good (especially after a shit meal). I can think of few Champagnes that are better than those two, but they are all much more expensive. Both of these wines can be purchased from Vine Trail at prices that redefine the word ‘bargain’. You want to hit their site and buy these wines as soon as possible*.

There are flasher things from M. Bouchard, and it turns out you can pick them up at The Sampler in Islington here in London. If you go here and scroll down to ‘Roses de Jeanne’ you will see some really quality kit.

La Boloree is a single vineyard Pinot Blanc from the great 2005 vintage. It must be the most expensive Pinot Blanc ever made and sold. All who try it say it needs time but is an amazing wine. I’d love to try it.

La Haute Lemblee is a tad more of a conventional blanc des blancs Champagne being made from pure Chardonnay, again from the 2005 vintage. Once again, this gets rave reviews. I will buy two bottles, one to try and one to age. The top geezer Jeremy wants me to score him a bottle as well so save three for us will you?

The Inflorescence ‘La Parcelle’ 2002 vintage can also be purchased from Berry Bros for a few quid less. I’d love to have a bottle of this, I am sure 2002 will be a great vintage and I want to age a wine which I think will deliver incredible pleasure in the future.

The only Cedric Bouchard/Roses de Jeanne wines I have had have been blanc des noirs, which is an incredibly rare wine style. This strikes me as a bit of a shame as those few I’ve been lucky enough to try (largely Bollinger Vieilles-Vignes Francais, which I admit is a rather flash) have been great; a style I have really enjoyed. Pinot Noir is just such a great grape even when it is white and fizzy.

*I should say I report on the wines from this merchant only after I have secured some, the partner having purchased three bottles of each for me as a chrimbo present. He loves me so much. They also sell the wonderful Mourvedre-tastic Collioure Clos du Moulin from Domaine du Mas Blanc which is a must buy whenever one sees it.

On our jaunt into the provinces we stayed at Cheltenham’s Hotel du Vin. They had this wine (and Inflorescence) on their wine list for a very reasonable price. It was amazingly brilliant.

Champagne les Ursules Blanc de Noirs ‘Roses de Jeanne’, Cedric Bouchard
The nose has an incredibly livid expression of fruit, lovely pear fruit we feel. It is powerful, stony and dense, but compelling, thrilling and vivacious. Smells fantastic, a very vinous and complex Champagne that has a depth of character rarely associated with fizz. It is extremely elegant for a wine so packed with stuffing. The mousse is totally fine, not as fizzy as Champagne usually is. The mouthfeel is polished and classy, with incredible complexity to back up its charming side. There is so much to this, it is a truly, amazingly, penetratingly good bottle of Champagne. Daniel tells me it is one of the best bottles of fizz, and certainly best value, he has ever had.

M. Bouchard says he does not really like making sparkling wine, bit of a drag inheriting Champagne vineyards then. He wants to start making more and more Coteaux Champenois still wines. Bonkers, I tell you, totally bonkers. When someone makes as good fizz as this he should not be messing around with weirdy still wines.

We met ‘The Kid’ Peter at the Greenwich Union for a couple of pints then came back to horrible, horrible Woolwich for a spot of dinner. We drank extraordinarily well for a random occasion.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg L31DII 2002, Domaine Albert Boxler
Wow, a nose with the purity and freshness of mountain air. There is a lot of fruit here but the great, lively character just keeps it seeming fresh and vivid. The minerality on this nose, and there is a lot, is totally focussed – focussed on giving me a good time it seems. This is a vibrant, exciting nose in the full flow of pleasure-giving life. The palate: Wow. The fruit is beguilingly fresh and the minerality is so piercing. Like the nose it is just throbbing with life. Yes, it is very ripe and has a hint of sweetness, but with the delicacy and finesse this wine has you won’t need to drink it with foie gras. It is really, really lovely, and not falling apart in the slightest. This is the kind of Alsace Riesling we all hope to drink regularly.

Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 1999, Domaine Arlaud
This is a nose of dark Pinot fruit, ripe with hints of meatiness and spice. But above and beyond that it has a very pure and beguiling expression of charming, fresh fruit. This nose is up for displaying its life and clearly it has a long life ahead of it. Really, really attractive. So is the palate. A good, solid tannic structure which is on the right side of rigor and has loads of really lovely fruit. Yeah, this is a proper bottle of Burgundy alright. It has the beauty, love and raw tits sex action we want from decent Burgundy. There is multi-layered pleasure here and I am enjoying this no end. Yeah. Cyprien Arlaud has serious talent when it comes to making the good stuff and we should all try and buy as much as possible.