Wojciech Bońkowski
Master of Wine

A day of burgundies

Posted on 12 May 2009

Virtual luxury

It’s been an engaging day of tasting here in Warsaw. Robert Mielżyński, one of our leading importers, organised a mini-fair of 6 estates from Burgundy, three of which are new agencies. It was an occasion to taste through some wines I rarely drink, and they were universally good.

Hélène Jaeger-Defaix opens another Chablis.

The Domaine Bernard Defaix makes very good Chablis. The winery lies at the foot of the Côte de Lechet vineyard (a premier cru) where its best holdings are located. From over 50-year-old vines, the special Côte de Lechet Réserve 2006 bottling has a brilliant fruity-mineral nose and an excitingly structured palate with big potential. It also shows excellent freshness and acidity in this warm low-acid vintage (of which Defaix has been one of the very best interpreters IMHO). This Réserve is obviously better than the Fourchaume 2007, still dominated by oak. The simple Chablis 2007, on the other hand, is really mouth-puckeringly acidic and greenish (as befits the vintage); it needs more time.
Continuing the white wines with Jean Chartron, this was a lesson on how to use oak. Even the simplest Bourgogne Clos de la Combe 2006 shows plenty of wood, but it is masterly balanced with plenty of acidity and minerality, and will still improve. There was a mild oxidative doubt about the Saint-Aubin Murgers des Dents de Chien 2006 (which in the end I liked), and the Chassagne-Montrachet Les Benoites 2007 was very tight and acidic. But the Puligny-Montrachet 2007 hit all the right notes: oak was but a discrete support, and there was an airy, almost flowery-perfumed exuberance to this otherwise solidly mineral piece of work. An impressive wine and actually good value (not a frequent thing on this tasting). Jean-René Chartron is also a great character to speak to.

Jean-René Chartron is usually merrier than this.

Frédéric Magnien makes a bewildering array of wines, but only the reds are represented in Poland. Their style is fairly easy to appreciate, fruity, generous, without pretentions to greatness. On show was the reliable and serious Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2006 and two 2005s, showing simpler and more mature than expected: the Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles Vignes a bit better than the Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Coeur de Roches.

Among Mielżyński’s latest agencies, Domaine Lucien Muzard & Fils from Santenay was new to me. This is red burgundy at its elemental, raw-fruity, croquant best, with healthy tannins and proud acidity. Thumbs up for the Bourgogne 2007 (good value) and the rustic Maranges 2007 which imperatively needs a grilled meat. More smoothness and elegance in the Santenay PC Clos de Tavannes 2007 and even more in the Volnay PC Chanlins 2007. The latter showed why Santenay will never be Volnay: quite fuller, with naturally ripe tannins and a sense of weight; another positive wine.

With Roger Belland we climb to another level. These are serious, concentrated, structured wines with a clear sense of minerality, in a style I’d define as intermediate: traditional elegance and airiness is coupled with very precise fruit, courtesy of the long cool fermentations. The Maranges PC La Fussière 2007 (another Maranges; more than I’ve tasted in many years) is peppery and tart-cherryish but the tannins are really nicely gauged. The Santenay PC Gravières 2007 showed a little simple and unexciting today, but the Pommard Les Cras 2007 (vines at 75 years) was really singing: dense and brooding, so sensual you almost forget about the underlying structure here. A rare example of a 2007 red that’s good to drink today. There was also the white Meursault PC Santenots 2007: grape-driven yet very structured and tight. Impressive but the price (60€ retail here in Poland) is really frightful.

The highlight of the tasting, for me, was Domaine Taupenot-Merme. Not only because of the very articulate and amiable Romain Taupenot, with whom I delighted in discussing the difference between pigeage and touillage (really geeky…), but also because of the more traditional, wonderfully elegant style of the wines. Pinot Noir allying power and finesse is an old cliché but these are really very complete wines. The Morey Saint-Denis 2007 (still a bit oaky) was brilliantly tannic, natural, effortless, with typicity and personality to spare. Corton Rognet 2006 is a big but unaggressive wine with that extra 2006 ripeness and warmth, though the finish is almost painfully dry today. For drinking soon, the Nuits-Saint-Georges PC Les Pruliers 2002 is almost perfect, with a lovely complex bouquet and that minor bit of greenness on the palate adding interest rather than upset; another very complete wine. Meanwhile, both the Mazoyères-Chambertin 2006 and Charmes-Chambertin 1998 should still wait. Both are statuesque, a little intellectual even, as befits a grand cru perhaps; both have a lot of tight earthy tannins on the end. But there were good surprises down the ladder too, with a vastly overperforming Saint-Romain 2006.

Romain Taupenot introducing his wine at lunch.

Robert Mielżyński was industrious enough to organise the lunch together with the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (see institutional website here) who brought chef Endre Gabrielsen along from Norway. I’ll leave you to read the complete menu below while only saying this was absolutely lovely fish, and there were some nice wine pairings too with the Jean Chartron Puligny 2007 nicely balancing the olive oil & dill cod with its structure, and the Taupenot-Merme Saint-Romain 2006 an adventurous but satisfying match with the pan-fried halibut.

This tasting was a very welcome change of pace. I almost never buy burgundy, and consequently rarely drink it. It is a very complex region, requiring pretty much a full-time specialisation to properly apprehend. This tasting showed how much I’m missing, but also how challenging it can be to fully reset your mind and palate to this style of wine. Especially in the reds, there is something about the cool acidic taste of crunchy tannins on the front of the palate that’s quite a distinctive physical experience, unlike any ‘other’ wine out there.

And then (I have to mention this) there is the issue of prices. The cheapest wine on tasting was 12€ (Polish retail), and over half were above 25€. While I delighted in the premiers and grands crus here, I won’t be able to afford them any more frequently than before. So this tasting was pretty much a virtual exercise, and now it’s time to step down to earth to my usual fare of Riesling and Chianti.

Norwegian cod poached in olive oil;
dill, apples, cucumber and cream of egg yolks.

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