Day 3: The Cote de Nuits
Another early start sees us heading north out of the predominantly white Cote de Beaune into the Cote de Nuit and the famous villages of Nuits-St-Georges (NSG), Vosne-Romanée and Chambolle-Musigny. Here there is more clay than limestone in the topsoil making it better suited to red grapes. First stop is to Jean Chauvenet in NSG where we are shown around by the charming Christophe Drag. Christophe owns just 9ha in 9 different appellations and makes superb wines in the characteristic masculine style of NSG. This was back to what we were expecting; proper dusty old cellars covered in mould and smelling yeasty. We tried several 2005 barrel samples which were fabulous and very dense, ranging from Bourgogne Rouge to top Premier Cru NSG's (there are no Grand Crus in NSG). By tasting our way through the various vineyards we could see the effect the different soils have on the wines; the fabled 'terroir'.
The North of NSG contains more clay and produces wines that are very red berry driven, whilst those vineyards to the south of the village contain a large proportion of sea stones in the soil and produce firmer dark fruit flavoured wines. The best wine, for me, was the Premier Cru Vaucrains 2005 which was structured and dense yet wonderfully ripe and juicy at the same time It had been a great visit, but tasting very young, tannic NSG's first thing in the morning is never easy, so it was with some relief that we headed back down south towards the village of Chorey-Les-Beaune which produces lighter and more fragrant wines.
We were visiting Tollot-Beaut, a producer we had not stocked up to now but had heard a lot of good reports about, so it was a bit of a trip into the unknown. An elevator ride down into their very deep (and cold) cellars woke us up a bit, where we tried several barrel samples of excellent Chorey-Les-Beaunes, Savigny-Les-Beaunes and an excellent perfumed Grand Cru called Corton-Bressandes from the slopes of the wooded hill of Corton. Lovely wines all of which had an elegant feminine character to them, yet still with rich fruit, like a good Chambolle-Musigny.
It was then on to Chambolle and to Domaine Digioa-Royer which I was really looking forward to having tasted some of the excellent 2005's during our En Primeur tasting in the shop. We were not disapointed; after tasting some interesting Passetoutgrain - a blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay - and some rather odd oaked rosé, we were on to the fine Chambolles. Digioa-Royer generally make wines that need some time to show their best, but such is the strength of the 2005 vintage, most of the wines were showing really well already, with some very juicy acidity and ripe but succulent tannins. The more seductive, feminine style of Pinot Noir that you find in good quality Chambolle is so appealing, however not all are soft and light; the 2005 1er Cru Les Gruenchers and Vieilles Vignes were very dense for Chambolles yet managed to maintain the inherant qualities of the village.
It was then on to the aristocratic, and beautiful, village of Vosne-Romanée to visit a super-star of Burgundy, Jean-Nicolas Meo at Domaine Meo-Camuzet. Unfortunately the one visit we did not want to be late for, we were, but only because the village is so immaculate we couldn't find anything due to a lack of helpful road signs. The Meo-Camuzet family produce Domaine wines (from vineyards they own) and wines under a negociant label they call Meo-Camuzet Frere et Souer. Both the Domaine and the Negoce wines were very good but there was clearly a jump in quality with the Domaine wines. For me this was the best visit of the whole trip; the wines were spectacular and we were spoilt rotten; being allowed to taste gorgeous 1er Cru Vosne-Romanée les Chaumes, 1er Cru NSG les Boudots, and the Grand Crus of Clos Vougeot, Corton, and Richebourg from 2006 and a couple of the 2005's. My tasting notes are made up of various capitalised 'Awesomes', followed by lots of exclamation marks. The best wines of the tasting, and the whole trip, for me were the Richebourg; which for a young Grand Cru was incredibly silken, and the Vosne-Romanée les Chaumes 2005 which showed all the wonderful velvety character Vosne is famous for and Doug described as "seamless".
From the silken wines of Vosne we headed north towards the powerful, masculine wines of Gevrey-Chambertin and to Domaine Drouhin-Laroze. We were again spoilt by our host and allowed to taste some wonderful 2006 barrel samples, including several Grand Crus. The 2006's reinforced our impressions of the vintage from further south; whilst not as great as 2005, they were all very good indeed, showing wonderful levels of fruit, fine tannins and very good structure. Most of the Grand Crus were very tight, almost impenetrable, but as expected for barrel samples of such great wines. For me the best wines were the Chapelle-Chambertin, which was outstanding although very tight, the Bonnes-Mares and the Musigny, of which they only have two barrels worth of wine. After the barrel samples we tasted a couple of 2004's to see the expected progression of the 2006's, finishing with an absolutely stunning Bonnes-Mares.
From the calm and sedate Drouhin-Laroze we went a short distance to another producer in Gevrey called Domaine Maume where we met the lively character that is Bertrand Maume. Bertrand has moved away from the heavy use of oak for his wines since inheriting the Domaine from his father Bernard and is making lovely full-bodied but juicy Gevreys that are very approachable in their youth. Bertrand is an interesting character who is obviously incredibly passionate about his wines and enjoys the odd party. He really could not do enough for us and kept bringing more and more wine for us to try including several older vintages to illustrate how he sees the barrel samples we tried will develop. Bertrand is blessed with holdings in some outstanding vineyards in Gevrey including many Premier Crus and the Grand Crus of Charmes-Chambertin and Mazis-Chambertin of which we tried several vintages including his 2000 which we had a bottle thrust into our hands as we left so we had to try the following day.