I watched The Firm on BBC iPlayer last night after getting back from a wine tasting. The programme was supposed to reflect how the credit crunch was affecting the legendary retailer Berry Brothers & Rudd. The reality of it was far from that. It was an hour long advert for this company, with a tale of how the exchange rate and the lack of wealthier clients are causing BBR problems with the latest en primeur campaign.
There were soft focus camera shots of wine being poured, a whispering narrator who was a fraction away from having a trouser accident when he was gushing over the dusty cellars and old bottles and tales of the credit crunch spoiling the lives of everyone dealing in Bordeaux. The lesser conclusion of the programme was that the high profile clients, probably the same wan… bankers that got the world into the problems it now faces, are not buying as much as they used to. The main focus of the piece, however, was that the 2007 vintage of Bordeaux sucked and no matter how you try and dress it up, as the old saying goes, you can’t polish a poo!
Please don’t think I’m criticising Berry Brothers. Far from it. I think they are an outstanding company and a traditional wine merchant which is to be celebrated and cherished. I also think it is a masterstroke for whoever at BBR agreed to have Auntie Beeb’s cameras follow their staff around as they got an hour long advert on Britain’s non commercial network.
And while the programme skirted around the issue, I don't think had great emphasis was on the fact that although 2007 for Bordeaux was poor, there are some good wines out there from Burgundy, and, in the tasting I attended before watching the show, I had experienced some.
I was shown a selection of Burgundian wines from Louis Jadot. All coming from the 2007 vintage, my main observation was that these wines were very drinkable, and here I shall focus on the whites. The vintage was initially similar to that of 2006, a very good flowering following a warm April. When the rains came in July and August, things deviated from the previous year and only cool winds in September saved the harvest.
We started off with the
Clos des Prouges Pouilly Fuisse. Retailing at around the £20 mark, this has a lot of buttery oak and masses of cedar on the nose. Lots of ginger and tobacco sweetness and some mango pith. The palate is quite alcoholic, but has lovely tropical fruit and so much new oak you think you are licking a barrel. Very gutsy, and whilst being a bit unbalanced, it has nice acidity. At twenty pounds it is too pricy, but it is a decent wine and if someone else is picking up the tab, this is a nice foody wine. 7/10
The
Santenay Clos de Malte followed. A very nice nose, pineapple with a little smoke lining the edges. The palate has a spicy element, quite a bit of noticeable alcohol and burnt toast. It has pleasant fruit, but is a bit thin on the finish. It is a nice drink but should be £12, not £18. 7/10
Things get better with the
Savigny les Beaune Les Vergelesses. At £22, we are seeing a massive improvement in balance from the earlier wines. Pineapple and mango on the nose, subtle wood creeping through; a delightful aroma. The palate is balanced, with well integrated oak and lovely fruit. A lighter wine, a little sweet tobacco and good acidity. Very nice. 8/10
The next wine was appley!
Saint Aubin le Murgers des dents de chien is a very good wine, lots of green apple on the nose and richer, red apple on the palate. Some cinnamon towards the finish, which entertains you for quite a while. A little heat at the end, but a very nice wine. At £23, this is, along with the Savigny, a wine you should buy as it offers very good value for younger drinking. 8/10
At £33, was the
Beaune Greves Les Clos Blanc, Domaine Gagey. This had nicely spiced oak, some mango and papaya moving through the nose with nice tobacco and clean mineral aromas. The palate was very interesting, a good round mouthfeel, wonderful balance and a lot of juicy fruit n the finish. This is a seriously good wine and it doesn’t cost the earth. 8.5/10
Another white tried was the
Meursault Genevrieres, Domaine Louis Jadot. It had a sweet vanilla oak aroma, lots of ripe mango which was a little over the top. The palate was a bit fat, over ripe tropical fruit, a bit of Opal Fruit (Starburst for those of you under 25) mouthwatering fruit flavour. It was also quite boozy on the finish, and with all this considered a £47 price tag was not making me want to go out and buy some. The other problem this had was a lack of acidity, which doesn’t bode well for longer term aging. 7/10
A totally different wine was the
Puligny Montrachet Les Referts, Domaine Louis Jadot. A staggeringly beautiful aroma, Soft sweet fruit, mixed with old oak and then lovely buttered toast spread with honey. Lovely balance, both pineapple and apple mingling together, this is a wonderful wine. Add in the fact that it is only forty quid and this shows very good value for money. 8/10
Moving on to it’s grander sibling, the
Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles showed lighter, fresher fruit, lots of lime and lemon on the nose with lots of green apple on the palate. Some smoke comes through on the finish, after a lovely, clean, balanced palate. It is a better wine than the Referts, but at £75, it I not worth nearly double the price of the lower priced wine. 8.5/10
Chassagne Montrachets, when done well, make me into Homer Simpson. I cannot help but uttering the words “Mmmmmm, Chassagne Montrachet”, and spoke that very phrase when I put this next wine to my nose. The
Chassagne Montrachet Morgeot Domaine duc de Magenta had a beautifully soft aroma, with pear, lime and apple coming through. The palate was more of the same fruit, with gorgeous balance, toast coming on with cigar smoke and ginger. A very, very good wine, and stunning for forty pounds. 9/10
If you believe that if a wine is three times the price of another, it should be three times better, you will be severely disappointed with the
Batard Montrachet. Don’t get me wrong, this was, I think, the best of all the whites, but it is pricy at £145 a bottle. Very nice nose, a lot of apple and lemon pith with sweet, juicy melon on the nose, this wine shows how elegant Chardonnay can be. The palate is alluring, you want to drink more, and more. Possibly more than that, with very soft delivery, a touch of alcohol being eased in so you don’t notice it and clean, mineral flavours at the end of it all bringing super balance with good acidity and a long, long finish. 9/10 was my score without knowing (though roughly estimating) the price!
The final white, the
Chevalier Montrachet Les Demoiselles Domaine des Heritiers Louis Jadot was brilliant, and with a price tag of £200 (actually £197, though what retailer would put it out at such a price, they would all round it up) it is in a realm where only people who do not have to think about money can drink this on a regular basis. Brilliance, balance and beauty was what I wrote in a somewhat flamboyant and over excited way, but on going back to it, I found another word beginning with B – blemish! It is an outstanding wine, but has one problem, a touch of a hallow element on the mid palate which I hope fattens up with a few years in the bottle. Creamy aromas, some smoked mango are very nice, then the full palate, softly delivered spicy mango, lemon and apple. Then cedar, and great acidity cleaning your palate as the wine goes on and on in your mouth. The little dip just gives the nod to the Batard Montrachet, but as this wine gets older, I hope it fills out and this could be a wine that stands head and shoulders above it’s peers and says “I am brilliant”. 9/10 (potentially 10/10?).
Almost being written off by people who haven’t tried them and are tarring Burgundy with the same brush as Bordeaux, the 2007 vintage, for whites, could be a hidden gem. Certainly, they are not going to last forever, indeed a decade may be too long for a majority of these, but for good quality, drinkable wines, where you are not having to pay the inflated price that you normally do for mature wines of this calibre you would do well to look at some of these wines. A bit of a mine field it might be, but the proof is that even in a less than good year, Louis Jadot can polish a poo!
Coming soon, Louis Jadot 2007 Reds
With reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton on it's books and one of the best cars on the Formula One grid, McLaren Mercedes is surely one of the front runners to win the F1 championship this year. Alongside Vodafone and Mobil, they have Diageo as one of their sponsors, and their Johnnie Walker brand will no doubt benefit hugely from being associated with one of the oldest motor racing teams.
