May 3, 2013 – Verget 2009 Chablis and Puffeney 2011 Reds, Vintages, Belmont, MA
Thank you to the staff of Vintages for organizing this tasting - a really nice lineup, as usual. Verget and Puffeney are pretty-well known, so I don't think that I need to provide much background on either.
Anyway, I did hear something, which I didn't quite understand, about future Chablis allocations from Verget becoming quite limited from now on. Something to the effect that Guffens making fewer Chablis from now on... This is something that I will have to follow up about in the future.
2009 Maison Verget Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre
Moderately full-bodied, moderately acidic, well balanced, focused, roundish, lightly steely, with mineral, floral, pear, hay, and herbal notes. Very good/excellent.
2009 Maison Verget Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir
Full-bodied, round, fleshy, young, structured, with good acidity; shows white fruit, mineral, citrus, floral, and steely notes. Has a way to go yet. Excellent.
2009 Maison Verget Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Vieilles Vignes
Fuller and fatter, yet well balanced, with good acidity; structured, steely, mineral, with white fruit, floral, and lightly herbal notes. Excellent.
2005 Domaine Jacques Puffeney Arbois Vin Jaune
From clavelin. We tried this before the reds – it had been open for 1½ hours. Classic oxidative almond/citric nose. Fresh, elegant, well balanced, with notes of slated walnuts and peanuts; lemons, and oranges. Excellent. (Obviously, I like oxidative wines.)
2011 Domaine Jacques Puffeney Arbois Poulsard “M”
Light in weight, elegant, structured, with earthy, red berry, herbal, and spicy notes. Definitely ageworthy. Excellent, even if I'm still not sure what the "M" indicates.
2011 Domaine Jacques Puffeney Arbois Pinot Noir
Funky/earthy nose. Light to medium-bodied, well balanced, with good acidity, and light to moderate tannin. Shows mostly red berry and cherry notes, with some earth and spices, and a bit of blood. Very good.
2011 Domaine Jacques Puffeney Arbois Trousseau Cuvée Les Berangères
Lightly funky/floral/red fruit nose. Light to medium-bodied, well balanced, meaty, somewhat herbal, with red fruit and blood orange notes, plus a bit of almond. Good finishing length. Excellent.
2011 Tresmontes Società Agricola Cannonau di Sardegna DOC "Nuraghe Crabioni"
A bonus bottle. Smoky/meaty/spicy/woody nose. Full, a bit hot, with dark berry, cherry, and black plum flavors, plus notes and damp soil. There was also a pronounced spicy/toasty note here that led me to suspect that this saw some newish wood, but in fact it is completely aged in stainless tanks. Anyway, this is not really my type of wine.