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88-90 NM.
"The 2014 Beaune 1er Cru Montrevenots has a crisp, quite effervescent bouquet with touches of orange peel infusing the red berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied and fleshier than I recall the 2013 last year, sweet raisin infusing the red fruit with a hint of spice towards the finish. This is recommended. It took two attempts to visit Christine Gruere, at one of my favorite domaines in Pernand-Vergelesses. Attempt number one. I pull up outside the domaine at exactly the same time as a very smart besuited woman, far too sartorial for a wine journalist. We enter in tandem, eyes askance, wondering who the other person might be. Christine is confused. Turns out that I had been given the wrong time. She was from the bank. Christine had to choose: reviews or bank loan? The money won out (understandably), so having failed to persuade her to cancel Bill Nanson's appointment the following day, we rescheduled for a couple of weeks later. Christine is always chatty and funny, perhaps the only Burgundy vigneron to get my dark sense of humour...or at least I think she does. She has a wide range of reds and white, the latter having already been bottled, the reds imminently. Occasionally the reds can come over a little rustic in style but the domaine has sufficient Premier Crus at their disposal to craft some really quite splendid expressions of this appellation, in particular a lovely Ile de Vergelesses, notwithstanding a very commendable Pommard Villages. Her three crowning Corton Grand Crus were some of the best that I have tasted at Dubreuil-Fontaine -- the Clos du Roi the pick of the bunch but all of them deliver Grand Cru quality. Somewhat predictably, it is her white 2014s that really stood out. I adored the Clos Berthet Blanc with its precision and energy, even more so than her Corton-Charlemagne; also, there was a beautiful Sous Frétille that excelled and will give so much pleasure over the next few years. If you have not discovered these wines, do so. Finally, I do hope that the bank loan came through -- I am sure a few excellent 2014s would have helped secure the money." Wine Advocate #222, Dec 2015 |