All Cylinders

A low key evening before the Christmas festivities and my annual homage to Napoleon (probably won’t invade Russia myself, maybe just Afghanistan). The red Burgundies were paired with Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon, prepared by chef and co-taster Julie.

First up was a 2007 Weingut Keller Riesling Von der Fels Trocken, a limpid gold in color, with brooding aromas of wet slate and bitter citrus suggesting rainy, autumnal landscapes touched by more distant floral notes wafting in from sunnier climes. On entry this really covers the palate horizontally, with the slate and bitter citrus aromas becoming more visceral as they are released inside the mouth. The building acidity here energizes the mid-palate as faint tropical fruit notes are brought into focus on the finish. Holy Moly, better back the truck up for this one. A beauty…

Then two red Burgundies, a 1999 Leroy Volnay, with seductive rose petal aromas on the nose, and a silky mouthfeel with a red fruit profile showing raspberries and a finish dominated by the floral inner mouth perfume. And a bottle of the 2006 F. Mugnier Nuits St. George Clos de la Maréchale, another beauty with cool but intense aromas of dark fruit that hint at the depth of the material that is here. In the mouth this straddles the line between black and red fruit with fantastic purity, with a sensation of power conveyed without a trace of heaviness. The impressive structure of the wine emerges with time in the glass, as if crystallizing slowly from solution. Mugnier has clearly taken this vineyard to a new level…