Burgundy Offline Sydney

[Polymer]

Brett - Your friend can come, no prob. I actually made it for 11 people.

Reservations are under Kevin. I'll try to get there early as I want to try to negotiate a per person corkage so don't pull out all of your bottles just yet .

[Croquet King]

Ok my mates in. See you all there.

[maybs]

On my way and traffic is super light, so champagne will actually be early for a change!!

[TiggerK]

Home now.... Missing you guys already !!!

Praying to cork gods.

[Polymer]

Great night...the cork gods were very kind.

All of the wines were quite good..and we actually ended relatively early for an offline which was a nice change of pace...I didn't mind staying away from the tanks at Golden Century...getting out of there for 55 each all up was nice...

Good to meet PaulV.

mse - what happened to you?

[maybs]

Yeah really good night, wines all had something good or interesting about them, no cork or premix problems and was good to see a few with a bit of age on them too.

Definitely pleased to have left at a reasonable hour, feeling like I could actually be productive today food was good too Without any need to go crazy at all on the live fish tanks.

Will try and post some photos a bit later

[Croquet King]

What a great night - I learnt a lot from the discussion around the table.
Polymer did a great job organising and Kevin did a great job ordering food. Thanks to both of you.

The whites - amazing how different they were from each other and from Aussie chards.
The reds - they were all good and displayed something different. Was good to try grand cru, premier cru and village wines next to each other.

Somehow I had the impression that the village wines were not that good but the ones we had were more than acceptable.

I really enjoyed all the wines but my favourite 3 were:
Echezeaux, Morey St Denis, Faiveley

[Benchmark]

Sounds like a great night.

Looking forward to some notes.

[PaulV]

Excellent night - good company, lots of discussion and not a dud burgundy to be found. Thanks Polymer for organising.
Some short notes on the wines:

2004 Pol Roger - this is drinking very well at the moment in fact much more friendlier than the 2002 at present.Quite full bodied with nuts and brioche on the nose and palate. Great length. The acid is quite soft so think it will be an early drinker. If you have some no harm in trying.

2008 Domaine Paul Pilot Chassagne - Montrachet 1 er La Romanee - great start to the whites. Mid yellow but with hints of green. Complex rich exotic nose white peaches and citrus blossom. Quite a rich full bodied palate but with wonderful fresh acid and minerality such that you would swear it was a Puligny rather than Chassagne. Drinking Well now but can easily go another 5 years.

2007 Domaine. Bitouzet - Prieur Meursault Perrieres Another top White burgundy ready to drink. Nose was a bit dumb on opening but over time did display a touch of classic Meursault nuttiness. All the fireworks though we're in the palate where the lovely mid weight honey, walnutty notes blended with the soft acid typical of the 2007s. Excellent and Ready to drink.


2001 Pierre Morey Meaurault Tessons. - typical of the cool wet year of 2001 quite a funky nose. Some complexity though. Light to mid weight palate that was quite peppery though the fruit was quite flat and simple. Not bad length. Just holding together so if you have any time to drink.


Reds

Given the variations in villages and years we thought the best way to drink was travelling south to north ( though we screwed up and finished with a Pommard!)

2009 Alox Corton 1er Les Vercots. Lovely mix of red and black fruits on the nose. The palate was mid weight with lots of puppy fat fruit and wasn't as dry and lean as many Alox Cortona can be. Nevertheless at this stage the palate is a bit simple and linear . Hopefully some complexity will build with age - though don't think it will be a long keeper.


2001 Domaine Dubriel - Fontaine. Corton GC. Clos du Roi ( from the late Max Lake estate). Probably one of the best Cortons I have had. Stunning complex,stalky , sous- bois nose. Mid weight palate that drove the earthiness of the nose with serious minerality. Beautifully balanced and such an elegant pure GC. Top wine.

2011 Domaine Faiveley. Nuits St Georges 1 er les Damodes. Lovely feminine very red fruited nose. Plus some nice spiciness that reflected its position neighbouring Vosne. One of the best noses of the night. Palate unfortunately didn't match the nose while being mid weight in depth just seemed a bit four square. Could be going thru a closed grumpy state and may well fill out with time. One to leave for another 5 years.

2011 Domaine Dominique Mugneret. Nuits St Georges. Interesting tasting these 2 NSG together. Again nice red fruited nose but showed a lot more earthiness. Very simple palate and a shortish finish. Ok but no more.

2006 Maison Chanson GC. Echezeaux Wow what a complex , powerful , red fruited nose, coupled with lovely spicy lifted oak highlights. Fairly full bodied palate, easily the biggest burg here tonight but kept in focussed by wonderful complex fruit and acid. Excellent length . Still quite primary. Will be a real wow wine when it gains secondary characters. Best Echezeaux I have had where most have been a disappointment. Big tick for Chanson, not a house that I have had really success previously.

2003 Domaine Fourrier. 1er. Gevrey Chambertin. Les Goulots. From a very hot year, this had a surprisingly elegant nose with typical Gevrey animal earthiness, though also a touch of caramised fruitiness from the year. The palate was just below medium weight but did not meet nor reflect the class of the nose. Quite a simple linear palate with a slightly clipped finish. Not a bad 2003 but in context not a great Fourrier.

2008 Domaine Stephane Magnien. Morey St Dennis 1er Cuvée aux Petites Noix. A quintessential perfect cool year red burgundy. What a lovely transparent wine and shows that top winemaking in a very cool year can make lovely wine. Very lifted raspberry red fruit nose. Palate was light to medium bodied but with such lovely fresh fruit that was very pure and transparent. Beautifully made impressive wine ready to drink and probably won't get any better. For the lovers of lighter weight Pinot this was excellent.


2004 Domaine Violet Guillmand 1er Pommard La Platiere. Nice simple but earthy nose with no rot or green meanies which plagues this vintage. Unfortunately the palate was affected by rot with a very dry, clipped palate though the length was pretty good.


That's all folks. Be interested to read other people's impressions. Another education in the delights and pitfalls of burgundy.

Cheers

Paul

[Polymer]

My general comments...

Great night overall and really surprised at how well the wines were showing overall...

The Pol was showing very nicely...good acid but fairly ripe...came across with a bit of residual sugar, more so than I think I'm normally expecting..but I still really liked this..

Whites:
I think the Pillot and Pierre Morey were slightly advanced...the Pierre Morey more so as I've had this recently and this one was much more on the premox side...at the same time, they still showed quite nicely and actually did get better with more time. I agree with Paul that the Pillot seemed more like Puligny than Chassagne...
The Bitouzet Perrieres was looking pretty good overall. I agree with Paul, the nose was slightly muted but did get better with time with the palate showing good acidity (what I want but don't always get with Meursault) and good minerality...with a good hint of mixed nuts..

Reds: I personally prefer Nuits then Beune so this was a different experience.
I really liked that the Fourrier was a lot more elegant than what I see from a lot of 2003s....Maybe not as complex as what I'd expect from a 1er Fourrier but the texture was great.
The Faiveley I thought was showing quite nicely with good acidity and great overall mouthfeel. NSGs can sometimes be a bit too big and almost Beune like but this wasn't like that at all.
Magnien MSD - Like most of the Nuits tonight, the lighter body and better acidity, less ripe fruit and lower tannins was a big plus.
Chanson Echezeaux....Not quite as elegant as I would like to see anything from Vosne Romanee...much more powerful than expected but still had this nice spicy streak to it. Structure was there to go a long time.
Dubriel Clos Du Roi - I think this is sitting in a great spot right now. Slight tomato leaf which I think is common for a lot of aged burgundy but it wasn't overly that way...a good example of an aged Beune where the ripeness has fallen away and the tannins have softened...I quite like this..
Aloxe Corton - Still very much a baby...Not as ripe as I actually expected it to be but still a relatively big Burgundy in mouthfeel and texture. I wouldn't mind seeing this in 5+ years.
Dominique Mugneret NSG - I don't mind stuff from this producer but I have never tried this particular wine. Each time I've had wine from here they've been much better on day 2. This was probably showing a bit simpler than it would with more air.
Pommard 2004 - To me the greenies came across to me on the palate..which I think is odd because I'm probably on the less sensitive side of this. I think some people enjoyed this but to me it seemed like something wasn't quite right.

[Bobthebuilder]

great notes, thanks
any shots? (photos, not the paint stripper in a small glass)

[mse]

Hi Kevin,

I am really sorry that I was no-show. I got the date mixed up, I was thinking the offline was on 24/3/16, so I have safely assumed that I would check the forum at the last few days before the event. I did not realised that I have missed this event until last night.

Out of hindsight, I should have constantly checked the post for updates and actively replies just to assure the group in regards to what I am up to.

Once again I am terribly sorry to the fellow forum members on the reserve list who have missed out on this tasting because of me. -_-"

Michael

[pc79]

Excellent notes Paul & Kev. Looks like it was a great night!