2007 Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Blanc de Blancs "Heurtebise"
Great stuff. Incredibly precise and refreshing, layered with fresh citrus and pear fruit accented by bready, doughy, chalky and vanilla cream notes. There's wonderful balance here, great persistence and a sense of real vibrancy to the flavours.
2008 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans
A stemmy character dominates for the first couple of minutes, but quickly fades into the background as an intoxicating floral fragrance develops. This really transforms and develops with air, unraveling more nuances with a core of incredibly fresh red fruits framed by fresh earth, bright florality and stony mineral accents. There's a sense of real purity and lightness here, and even though it's incredibly young it's absolutely stunning to drink now with the tannins very silken and a really bright acid spine beneath the fruit.
2009 Larmandier-Bernier Coteaux Champenois Vertus Rouge Premier Cru
This was served along with a rather heavy-hitter lineup of top Burgundies, and more than held its own in the company. With air a stunning fragrance develops; stemmy and spicy elements, a vivid stoniness, bright florality and sappy red fruited flavours all coming together seamlessly. There's a sense of real finesse and textural polish here, fine grained tannins and bright acidity keeping everything very lively, fresh and precise, and stunning length.
2008 Coche-Dury Volnay 1er Cru
This shows a fair bit of oak initially, but it calms down and integrates nicely with some time in the decanter. This doesn't have the near-ethereal finesse and purity of the de Montille; it's richer, darker fruited and more powerful, but superbly balanced and only keeps getting better with air, with the last sips being the most compelling.
2008 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Clos de la Roche
Wow! An absolute knockout. So, so young, but absolutely thrilling right now. An incredible fragrance from the second the cork's pulled, and remarkable depth on the palate with incredibly pure Pinot fruit, higher toned floral and spicy accents and more savoury earthy and brothy elements coming together seamlessly. There's a sense of real power here, but at the same time a wonderful finesse and polish to the flavours and amazing persistence.
And with some cheeses from Murray's at the end of the night...
2001 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Vendanges Tardives
Lovely stuff. Ripe, flamboyant and exotic with sweet lychees and other tropical fruit flavours tinged with honey, baking spices and bright floral notes. It's certainly quite sweet but not cloying with a good acid spine beneath that balances it very well.
