2009 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche
Really primary at first, dominated entirely by ripe berried and plummy fruit. There's a sense of remarkable juiciness and freshness to the fruit flavours though and with a little air it becomes more savoury, floral and spicy, all the while showing a wonderful textural finesse and silken touch on the palate. There's great balance here, and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop once the primary fruit recedes some.
2006 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche
Quite a contrast with the '09; the fruit's nowhere near as dense and ripe here, and the meaty, saline and floral flavours are much more prominent here. Again there's a sense of finesse and elegance to the texture that makes it very appealing to drink with fine grained tannins, and impressive length. Levet always seems to deliver, and I wonder if there's a better C-R being made these days.
2010 Henri Jouan Morey St. Denis
This is all about purity. There's a core of fresh red fruits conveyed with a lightness of touch and a finesse that brings Truchot to mind, and a gentle seasoning of florality and earthy elements that keeps developing with air. It's incredibly fragrant, one of those wines that's just perfect to sit and smell for a while, and drinking incredibly well now with the tannins very fine and most of the structure coming from the bright acidity. Flat out stunning wine - if this is how good the 'village' Morey is, there goes my wine budget.
2009 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds
Incredibly pure and fragrant from the instant the cork is pulled, showing a lovely scent of rose petals, fresh red fruits and more savoury earthy and stemmy notes that are echoed on the palate. There's a remarkable finesse and lightness to this with bright acids and the tannins very fine grained; it's wonderful to drink now even though there's the depth, balance and structure here to age superbly.
1990 Château Meyney
A superb bottle, one of those that seems to be opened at just the perfect time with the fruit still very bright and rich, but augmented by layers of developed cedary, earthy, tobacco and sous bois flavours, and the structure fully integrated. There's a sense of seamlessness here that makes it remarkably easy to drink, good complexity and pretty much everything I'd want in an aged claret.
1989 Château Gruaud Larose
Even from half bottle this comes across a little youthful and reticent at first. The first couple of sips come across rather astringent and tannic, but with time the structure eases and it shows a lovely combination of mature red and dark fruits, tobacco, graphite and cedary notes with a faint funky leathery topnote. Lovely, classic Bordeaux, though I'll be sure to give my next bottle some more air.