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I must apologize to Mr. François Bitouzet for my poor shot of him in the photo above. Nevertheless, I was lucky to get one shot before my camera’s battery died. I want people to see how young and confident he looks.

François and I met last Tuesday at the store. He immediately impressed me. Just twenty-five years of age and already in charge of his family’s domaine, which is based in Volnay, but with good holdings in Meursault, as well. In fact, François lives in Meursaul near Dominique Lafon's house. François mentioned that this is his first trip to the US. His father, Vincent, who recently ceded winemaking to his son, had never been to the US at all, despite sending their wines to the US for the past thirty years.

Domaine Bitouzet-Prieur makes a splendid range of Volnays and Meursaults that are not, for the most part, in the vin de garde style—I mean this in the best sense. Sure, the Meursault-Perrieres made here needs time, like fifteen years minimum on a great year. At a get-together dinner last summer, Neal Rosenthal, the domaine’s US importer, opened a magnum of the 1996 Meursault-Perrieres. The wine was still tight, with maybe another decade to go before blossoming.

Yet, the domaine’s other wines are usually ready to drink within a few years from release. The style is relaxed, not so forceful, but lively and gorgeously balanced. Take the 2004 Meursault Les Corbins that François poured—a joy to bask in its youthful fragrance, freshness, delicacy, and openness.

François ages the wine in barrel on its fine less for 12 months, then racks and ages it for another 6 months before racking another time and bottling. The oak regimen is 25% new, 25% one year, 25% two year, and 25% mix of older barrels.

I love the freshness and purity of his wines in their youth, which resonate even in the pair of 2003s we tasted: the Meursault Clos du Cromin and the Volnay village from a parcel below Champans.

With age, the delicacy and freshness remain, but the wine takes on a more meaty flavor like in the very lovely, beautifully concentrated 2001 Volnay les Aussy 1er Cru (2001 is proving to be such a fine vintage) and in the more fragile 2000 Volnay Pitures 1er Cru, from a parcel next to Pommard and near Clos des Ducs.

Aging Burgundy can be overvalued. François showed me that young is great. I see little reason to tamper any further with the deliciousness of the young wines we tasted. Before we parted, François quoted me one of his father’s favorite sayings: “better to live with memory rather than regrets.”

Posted by Alex Bernardo at 10:27 AM | Permalink

Like a lot of wine enthusiasts these days I and my friends at the BNO (boys’ night out) have been troubled by the escalating prices of our favorite beverage. Call it the euro strengthening, the failing dollar, the Chinese and Russian buying spree, the sub-prime collapse, etc. etc. as factors for the price inflation. But one thing is clear we’re not gonna take it lying down. Solution? Buy “off-years”.

If nothing else it's clear that the BNO has contributed immensely in us becoming experts on finding gems overlooked by the score pimps (to quote Matt) allowing us to buy even more wine even in these inflated times. This night of the Burgundy Off-Years is Exhibit A.

Kudos and thank you to Steve for the hospitality and the great food. I swear you can't eat better beef in the Peninsula than at Steve's. It was simplicity itself—prime rib from Pape’s grilled in the outdoor rotisserie for about an hour—yet brilliant. With the crunchy salad, his signature potato fritters, and the slow-cooked croutons Steve yet again proves he's the master of the yummy, no foo foo kinda food that Kevin always clamors for.

As for the wines, there were 6 of us vs. 9 bottles opened. An equitable and democratic ratio. A couple of bottles barely escaped sentencing. The 69 Chambolle and the 97 Clinet Pomerol.

So here are my impressions. Another refreshing Prosseco starter, with the Drusian Prosecco NV, on another warm evening. Nice call. Its fruitiness went well with salty Marcona almonds.

The 1989 Jadot Corton-Charlemagne was the color of young Sauternes, and started out with marzipan, fino sherry, and roasted nuts; then exploded with citrus and pear, buttered corn and minerals. Wow! Comments: "great with the sushi" (I totally agree) "regal" (Kevin) "opulent and sporty" (Steve) We score it 4

2000 Groffier Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Hautes-Doix. Loads of ripe cherries, earthy spice, cola nut. Great energy. Seductive as one might expect from Chambolle. And though deceptively soft-flavored I expect it to evolve for many more years. My only knock is it lacks a bit of grace for a premier cru. Comments: "just beginning to enter peak" "big surprise upside" "expecting green (for 2000) but very approachable" "won't get any better". (Kevin). “I felt the 2000 Groffier is that fine blond 18-year-old lass by Steve's river (a creek actually) who will be giving us her tender side for the next 15 years.” (Matt) We score it 3+

2003 Clos des Lambrays Morey St. Denis Les Loups. Fleshy, meaty, lush concentrated stewed fruits with noticeable oak and seems to lack enough grip. But way too young and may yet surprise. Comments: "California wine" (Lenny)". Group score 2+

1982 Henri Jayer Echezeaux. Super elegant and amazing focus and length. Well-evolved mature flavors of tart cherries, mushroom, game, soil, and beets. Fantastic sustained flavors, freshness and grip that never let up or faded throughout the evening. It may lack flesh but not intensity and spirit. "Wine of the night" (Lenny) and I concur. And this is an off year for Jayer 4+

1972 Bernard Grivelet Chambertin Clos de Beze. Impressive concentration and power for a wine approaching 40 years from an off year! Its why Chambertin gets the big bucks. Fleshy, flavorful, and great with the beef. Comments: "Mister Ed horse draft going on" (Matt, who else?) 3

1973 Louis Latour Corton Grancy. For bouquet this was hands down the most pleasurable. A combination of cherries, balsamic, cedar, peppercorn. The fruit is drying somewhat and the tartness is starting to dominate. "Better 10 years ago" (Kevin), but there is still ample flavors and the elegance is nice. 3

1983 Santenay Leroy. Darkly colored, muscular, lean, sinewy, and firm. What it lacks in charm is made up for by its energy and graceful flavors. I score it 3

1978 Martin Ray California Pinot Noir. This was darkly colored and still appeared strong but it was showing hints of TCA and the VA was starting to take over.

Posted by Alex Bernardo at 04:15 PM | Permalink

OMG! The Emperor has turned into a Burgundy curmudgeon! Read.

While I would never give up a DRC for any of the California Pinor Noirs Robert Parker cites, he does list some of my favorite names like Calera's Selleck (many vintages from the late '80s to mid-'90s along with those of Williams Selyem's were my California Pinot Noir epiphanies), Williams Selyem Hirsch, and Rochioli Russian River.

Why, just last week I drank a 2000 Rochioli Russian River. It was fresh, powerful, and deliciously spicy. Would I trade a DRC for it or a de Montille Volnay Taillepieds or a Barthod Bourgogne Rouge Bons Batons? Not a chance. But I did love that Rochioli and I still have a few bottles I'm looking forward to opening.

Posted by Alex Bernardo at 09:17 AM | Permalink

I'm honored to introduce to you our guest blogger, Eric Lecours, a dear friend and a person whose passion and palate for wine, particularly Burgundy, I admire.

In his debut post, Eric gives us insights into the 2007 vintage and he describes the unique winemaking approach of the highly regarded vigneron, Etienne Grivot of Domaine Jean Grivot in Vosne-Romanée. As an aside, I mentioned to Eric that for winemakers like Grivot once they learn the rules of winegrowing they throw them out the window!

Picking Decisions

I thought I'd shoot off a quick note to you, as thoughts are still fresh in my mind. I met with Etienne Grivot this morning at 10 am to discuss his approach in general. One thing that is truly remarkable to me is he uses no analysis whatsoever of his fruit in deciding when to harvest. I must have asked him two or three times. He is convinced that you can't take samples that are representative of a vineyard. The only way you could truly do this is to sample from each vine, which is practically speaking impossible. His general marker is the date of flowering. Harvest is roughly 100 days later. There are a number of factors but basically he tastes through the vineyards, chews the skins, seeds, looks at how the skins color his saliva. He watches the barometer, temperature. Observes the health of the grapes.

He tries to pick during the waning moon. 100 days landed around August 24th. He waited to start picking until the 4th. Many started picking on the 25th or 26th, Saturday and Sunday. He chose to start on the 4th to ripen the grapes further and to pick with the waning moon. Further, he chose to start picking on a Tuesday to prepare the team, the cuverie, etc. on Monday. He doesn't like to start on the weekend as each year there is a learning curve. It is better to start slow and steady. The order of picking is generally the order of quality of the parcels. Thus he starts with the white, then the bourgogne red, the village, etc. Richebourg was picked on the last day, September 10. It was perfect. It hung to achieve 13.4% potential alcohol and a pH of 3.3. There is a general order of picking as I noted but if clouds were on the horizon, the order would shift with the Grand Crus coming in first. Regarding the picking date, he doesn't want to hear what his neighbors are doing. His decision is made by him and him alone. (This reminds me of wine tasting. I can't truly evaluate a wine if I hear what others are thinking about it first.) The last day of picking quality wines was September 10. There was a new moon on the 11th. He finished with some Gamay he sells in bulk.

Regarding 2007, this is a vintage of the vigneron. In 2005, everyone in Vosne made great wine. In 2007 if you farmed right, picked right, there is no reason why you couldn't have had long hang time, physiological and phenolic ripeness. In fact, without the overripeness found in some of the very hot years, the wines can truly represent their terroir with no lack of density. After exhausting him with questions, we tasted through the 2007's and the 2006's gc's. The Richebourg and Clos Vougeot are so different. The Richebourg is truly aristocratic while the Vougeot shows its GC power and Vougeot spicy chartacter. It's hard not to like the wine. The Suchot is a stand out as well, wow.

We finished off with a lunch in Chambolle and ran into Bernard Gros there. We had the 02 Echezeaux. Etienne asked me what I thought. I answered, that I thought the food was great. He was referring to the wine!

Posted by Alex Bernardo at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)