Winston's Wine World

Ahhh Burgundy, the reference point of all pinot noirs.  What is it about this region that makes its wine so intoxicating and so alluring?  Is this a temporary infatuation or is this permanent love?

Frankly, Burgundy is a very complex region to understand.  Not only are there so many different villages, there’s also the different grading of vineyards within the same village… and we haven’t even begun talking about the producers yet.  Yes there are the famous producers such as DRC, Leroy, Rousseau, Mugnier which I think you need to be a billionnaire or win the lottery to be able to afford and drink nowadays (burgs being the latest Chinese craze is adding fuel to the fire) but somehow I doubt these wines score highly in the quality to price ratio.  Which is why I jumped when I was presented with an opportunity to taste some of these Grand Cru wines at a specially held dinner by BBR.  Since we are talking Grand Cru here, I have also taken the opportunity to add some of my other GC Burgundy drinking notes.

The wines for the dinner was shown in pairs by region, Corton Charlemagne for the whites, Musigny for the first red flight followed by Clos Vougeot.

First the pair of Corton GC

Benjamin Leroux Corton Charlemagne 2010 GC

Nose:  Lovely showy nose.  Honey, white flowers, pear and a hint of butterscotch

Taste:  A lovely balance with a good velvety texture.  Full bodied and relatively fruit forward.

Finish: A lovely 20 sec+ sweet finish

Patrick Javilier Corton Charlemagne GC 2010

Nose: Mineral with a hint of white flower.  This nose is a lot more subdued when compared next to Leroux

Taste: Light medium bodied, fine acidity with minerality lingering .  A more classic style

Finish:  20 Sec light finish

As the night wore on, the wine began to open up more and the fruits then decided to come out to play…

Mugnier Le Musigny GC 2007

Colour:  Light red ruby

Nose:  Compact and very herby.  Red fruits with a hint of Asian spice.

Taste:  Light to medium bodied, strong acidity but a good structure.  Hint of pepper and asian spice

Finish: 20 sec finish which I felty was a tad short given the quality of the producer and the vineyard.

This wine is light with good structure.  One can just about taste the red fruits but they were quite subdued and required time to open up.  Is this wine worth £400 a bottle???

Domaine De la Vougeraie Le Musigny GC 2007

Colour:  Deep red colour

Nose:  Sweet red fruits, hint of cassis and vanilla

Taste:  Medium bodied with a good velvety texture,  good fruit length.

Finish: 25 second sweet tannic finish.

A lovely wine which I actually prefer over Mugnier’s

Meo Camuzet Clos Vougeot GC 2002

Colour:  Dark Red with a hint of purple

Nose: Hint of vegetal dryness, red and black fruits with a hint of cassis

Taste:  Good and velvety smooth texture.  Medium Bodied and feels a bit hollow towards the end.

Finish:  Shorth-ish 15 sec finish.

Meo Camuzet Clos Vougeot GC 2000

Nose:  Hint of Vanilla, red fruits and boiled sweets

Taste: Good velvety texture, red fruits with a hint of Asian spice.  Ezxcellent balance.

Finish:  25 seconds of gorgeous fruity tannins.

What a lovely wine.  I was surprised that I prefered this wine to the 2002 and also to the Musigny’s.  My WOTN.

The following notes were from subsequent dinners which I was lucky enough to saviour some excellent GC burgundies.

Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne GC 2008

Nose: White fruits, white flowers and honey, hint of minerality and butterscotch.

Taste: Light medium bodied with good fruit following through.  Low acidity and good balance

Finish:  20 sec finish

Grivot Richebourg GC 2006

Nose: very dense nose, raspberry, hint of blackcurrant, black cherries, violet and vanilla

Taste: medium full bodied, good acidity, dense fruit with an excellent balance.  Sweet tannins

Finish: 30 second finish of concentrated fruits and sweet tannins

A lovely wine.  Shame it is so ridiculously expensive!

Tasted Nov 2013

Colour: Dark red, very youthful even though it has been in bottle for over 7+ years

Nose:  Black cherries, blackberries, hint of Vosne spice and vanilla.  Very young wine.

Taste:  Good balance, medium bodied with good structure.  The fruit was a bit subdued by the lovely tannins.

Finish: 30 sec+ Finish.

A lovely wine but it obviously needs another 5 years to bring out the monster inside!

In conclusion to the opening question, is Grand Cru burgundy worth it?  It ultimately boils down to a matter of choice and personal judgement.  The wines are very good but for the big name producers, the pricing of late has just been stratospheric.  Having said that, the fun and beauty is to try and find quality GC wines from the lesser well known producers and revel that one has picked up a bargain by getting very good juice at a fraction of the price of the famous producers.  Now that is definitely one of the reasons why I LOVE burgundy!