Andrew Jefford – ‘The wines didn’t open the door to the magical kingdom of Burgundy bliss’

Back in July 2017, I wrote that ‘my first ever truly successful red Burgundy purchase’ was Pierre Labet’s Beaune 1er Cru Coucherias 2012 (bought for €34 a bottle). Richard Jefferys of Weymouth expressed some surprise about this (‘Letters’, September 2017 issue), and wondered if I might like to explain myself. Fair enough, sir. Here’s the unvarnished truth about my Burgundy-buying, red and white.

Preamble: I haven’t been able to buy as much Burgundy as I would like, and would hope, indeed, that Mr Jefferys is well ahead of Mr Jefford in the buying stakes. If this is a fault, I plead guilty.In 1995, I bought some of Dauvissat’s Chablis 1er Cru La Forest 1991 (£14.50 a bottle): Chablis perfection, and I was much encouraged. So I took a deep breath and bought, from a friend, two bottles each of Blain-Gagnard’s Bâtard-Montrachet 1989 and 1990 (£43.63 and £42.63), with two each of Rousseau’s Chambertin 1990 (£49.63), Tollot-Beaut’s Corton-Bressandes 1990 (£28.63), Etienne Sauzet’s Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet 1992 (£58.63) and Leflaive’s 1992 Chevalier-Montrachet (£85.63). The last of these was an expensive flop, while the Blain-Gagnard and Tollot-Beaut wines were fair, but didn’t open the door to the magical kingdom of Burgundy bliss, which is always what one hopes a grand cru will do. The Rousseau Chambertin, drunk at 15 years or thereabouts, was good rather than great. The Sauzet was delicious and came closest to justifying its price.

Encouraged by the British wine trade’s eulogies of 1996 and 1999 Burgundy, I bought a spread of cases of Dauvissat Chablis with my brother: Les Preuses and Les Clos 1996 (£20.75 and £22.22), 1999 Forest (£15.64) and later Les Clos 2000 (£26.82) and the Laurent Tribut 1er cru Montmains 2000 (£11.15). The 1996s were a grievous disappointment, thanks to premature oxidation and the unlovely qualities of the vintage: even unspoiled bottles were hard as steel knives. Good bottles of the 1999s and 2000s were worthwhile, but premox made the cases a lottery.

I bought two red 1997s: a village Vosne-Romanée from René Engel (£18.12), which was pure delight – the most successful purchase prior to the 2012 wine – and Comte Armand, Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux (£30.35): a wild, violent, indigestible wine and insanely tannic, even for me. The 1999 reds I bought were also a mixed success: the Jean Parent, Monthélie 1er Cru Clos Gauthey (£12.66) and Annick Parent’s Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens (£21.60) weren’t successfully bottled and never matched my barrel-sample memories, while Chevillon’s Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les St-Georges (£24.97) always struck me as bretty. Some Chorey-lès-Beaune village red halves from Tollot-Beaut looked good value at £6.06, but proved dead boring. The Pommard 1999 from le Royer-Girardin (£17.97) was correct and pleasant, and on the right day a little better than that.

Inspired by a great tasting at the domaine, I had lashed out on a case of Bonneau du Martray, Corton-Charlemagne 1999 magnums (£93.51) and of bottles of the 2000 (£40.67), but in the end sold them, terrified by the tales of premoxed bottles of these wines.

Money has been tighter over the last decade or so. Again inspired by a tasting, I bought three bottles each of Clos de Tart 2003 (£107.80) and 2005 (£134.78), as well as a half-case of Drouhin-Laroze’s Bonnes Mares 2005 (£51.33), but was forced by circumstance to sell all of these. I loved the 2009s, and three bottles of village Meursault from Bouchard Père et Fils (bought in France at €26.50) were succulently delicious: I wish I had a case. The village Nuits-St-Georges from Gouges (€31) and the village Vosne-Romanée from Grivot (£33.93), however, both illustrated the challenge of trying to make great wine from village-level vineyards: fair fruit, but not a lot of hinterland in either case.

I have in bond a case of Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier’s Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Maréchale 2009, gorgeous when I last tasted it in 2013. I live, Mr Jefferys, in hope.

What I’ve been drinking this month

Since we’re on a Burgundy riff, I got sent (as a sample) a bottle of the Antonin Guyon, Chambolle-Musigny Clos du Village Monopole 2013, acclaimed a coup de coeur (heart-throb) wine by the French press. The scents were a little muddled, but the palate was indeed juicy, fresh, singing: top-quality cherry fruit with some of the village’s nobility and grace to it. Little deep-level structure, though: that’s what always proves so elusive in village red wines.

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