The website for Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot captures their mission “to create a fusion between musicians of international fame and the winegrowers of Burgundy”. It certainly “offers an amplified experience to its public, pleasure that appeals to both the ears and the palate. ” It also is dedicated to supporting young musicians and providing funds for an innovative Instrument Loan Program among other worthwhile ventures. This excellence in both Music & Wine was held in Burgundy June 22-30, 2024 and the 17th edition is scheduled there for late June 2025. Aubert de Villaine & Bernard Hervet were there from the beginning with Founding Sponsors Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Domaine Faiveley, and Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. Since 2019 Friends of Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot has been formed to support this project as a “Franco-American cultural partnership”. The next event Concert + Gala + Wine Dinner is scheduled for October 22, 2024 at the French Club in San Francisco California hosted by Aubert & Bernard. Check it out.

Leader Bernard Hervet while in Vancouver last month attended a dinner at Boulevard on August 14, 2024 hosted by three members of our local Tastevin (Trent Gustafson, Felix Ho, and your scribe) who are helping to organize another group visit to Burgundy at the end of June 2025. Bernard is a fountain of outstanding wine knowledge including excellent experience as Director/GM with both Bouchard Pere (and Wiliam Fevre) for 18 years 1988-2005 and Faiveley for 9 years 2007-2015. The brilliant wines of both those houses have been reviewed several times on this Blog. It was wonderful to catch up with Bernard again as he is an avid wine collector with a surprising cache as well of top Bordeaux wines. It was a delight to dine with him and reminisce about our old experiences and discuss the merits of many memorable vintages. He has kindly offered to arrange our visits next year to Musique et Vin plus our opening dinner reception at his amazing social club of 1243 Bourgogne Society in Beaune.

A Michelin star sumptuous repast was prepared by the top crew at Boulevard from acting GM Lisa Haley to the kitchen brigade led by talented chefs Roger Ma & Kenta Takahashi. Choice Seafood Platter included both fat and leaner tuna to compare, Nass River Coho lightly smoked, quality chicken a la Bresse with Aussie truffles, and dark chocolate torte. Our 5 wines stimulated a lot of discussion:

1. 2010 PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 1ER CRU “TERRE DE BLAGNY” DOMAINE BENOIT ENTE: Produced by the younger brother of esteemed winemaker Arnaud Ente who acquired his own vineyards in 1997 but his style has evolved since 2004 from rich oaky battonage to a purer structured fresh acidity less oak. Lower yields in 2010 but still very light and fresh with almost too citrus lean bodied. Expected more weight. Bernard made a smart point that more Blagny cooler terroir is showing then the 2010 full balanced vintage. This white Burgundy coming from a Hong Kong purchase special label is actually unfiltered SOUS LE PUITS 1ER CRU at 12.5 abv.

2. 2019 MARTIN’S LANE NARAMATA RANCH VINEYARDS PINOT NOIR: Served blind to Bernard from this respected Okanagan East Kelowna Estate facing E/SE at 410-490 metres Clones 667 & 943 harvested September 24-October 1. Winemaker Shane Munn calls it “Gently Made By Gravity”. Dark colour, deep earthy aromas, solid full very soft less acidic textures with wonderful enticing pure pinot fruit at 13 abv.

3. 2017 CHAMBERTIN CLOS DE BEZE GRAND CRU DOMAINE BOUCHARD PERE: Bernard knows this site very well with East exposure on unique marl, limestone, clay and rock soils. LIghter vibrant vintage shows fresh cherry and raspberry/strawberry aromas with complex balanced textures and grippy finishing lift. No rush. Works paired with the fresh northern British Columbia coho course.

4. 2002 CORTON CLOS DES CORTONS GRAND CRU DOMAINE FAIVELEY: Another chosen wine from Bernard’s former employment producer that is so expressive of top red Burgundy. Lots of structure and energy here with harder tannins but may never get silky smooth enough in time to catch the medium fruit level. Enjoyable now at 20+ years for the charm it brings though some further potential is there. Matches the fantastic earthy truffles and non-oven cooked juicy chicken off the grill. Brings back memories of that ultimate delicious Bresse whole chicken at Le Bistro de L’Hotel in Beaune.

5. 1999 MAZOYERES CHAMBERTIN GRAND CRU VIEILLES VIGNES DOMAINE HENRI PERROT-MINOT: Son Christophe took charge from his father Henri since 1993 destems and uses Remond barrels from Allier/Troncais (50% new Grand Cru) usually not racked. A bit heavy riper and closed in with coarser style lacking in elegance from this classic red year. Bernard offered that “perhaps picked too late”. May evolve better with more time.

Become more familiar with Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot.

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Question: Who is the well-known Italian winemaker who moved recently to a Bordeaux classified growth?

Answer: Yes, Axel Heinz who produced so many great Ornellaia & Masseto Super Tuscans vintages was hired last year as CEO of Second Growth Margaux estate Chateau Lascombes. Admire their 2010 vintage but expect a bright future is ahead for this property producing wines in a more Margaux elegant style.

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Another Vancouver Paulee for the wonderful opportunity to taste and study the complexity of white Burgundy. As followers of this Blog know well there have been quite a few previous write-ups of this fantastic annual event. This time on August 24 at the Acquafarina restaurant your scribe tried 36 Meursault Premier Cru over 13 vintages from fresh 2022 back to 2009. An excellent variety of quality producers including the innovative Bouchard Pere under CellarMaster Frederic Weber who joined in 2002 and became Cellar Master in 2013. Even back in the hotter 2009 vintage they were picking early for lower pH and higher acidity – which now with global warming is being done by most everybody. The 13 vintages showed the importance of weather conditions with 2014 impressing for the youthful vibrancy and 2020 is underrated for balance. The frosts affected 2016 but Les Perrieres Albert Grivault had steely notes while hot conditions of 2015 (better for reds) and the more recent years too showed popular more powerful lush extracted wines. The vineyards showed their different terroirs as expected with Perrieres fuller more minerals best long ager, Genevrieres consistent finer subtle less weight, and Charmes full body rounder opulence less minerals. These characteristics were confirmed by the single bottle of 2009 Perrieres Bouchard being more advanced than the magnum, the 2009 Genevieres Bouchard in magnum (contributed by yours truly) was subtle and still developing needing extended airing, and the Charmes varied from lush 2015 Dom. Brisson-Charles to elegant 2014 Henri Germain. Paulina Zhang & Blair Curtis provided excellent insightful comments and enjoyed the latter wine plus 2017 Genevrieres Domaine Michelot which IMHO was still showing a lot of sulphur. There was such a broad selection of top wines so many diverse favourites chosen.

A Top Five that impressed me:

1. Best YOUNG Meursault 1er Cru: 2020 LES CHARMES-DESSUS BENJAMIN LEROUX. Really like what this producer is doing. Amazing quality wines for value like 2020 Meursault Vireuils (near Auxey-Duresses) with limestone soils. Charmes-Dessus is young but superbly balanced needing more time to open up. Look at my photo of the outstanding use of Diam 30 (not Diam 10) closure for long aging.

2. Best OLDER Meursault 1er Cru: 2009 PERRIERES BOUCHARD PERE. Again the hot 2009 vintage shows much better than expected for this white wine (and the reds) with freshness continuing with depth and developing complexity.

3. Best AGING Meursault 1er Cru: 2014 PERRIERES BOUCHARD PERE. June hail 2014 reduced the crop in Meursault producing concentrated fruit with firm acidity. Two bottles tried showing quite differently with one as just described and the other starting to develop a fuller more mature very classy style. Bottle variation at 10 years.

4. Best UNDERRATED Meursault 1er Cru: 2013 PERRIERES BOUCHARD PERE. Cool year for reds but a lighter lean crisp pure well defined terroir here that was not fully appreciated.

5. Best LIEU-DIT Meursault: 2019 CLOS DU CROMIN (Domaine Genot-Boulanger) & 2022 LES TILLETS (Domaine Patrick Javillier). In Meursault there are highly rated lieu-dit vineyards (not official 1er Crus) including these two served to everyone paired with the baby gem lettuce & truffle. Clos du Cormin is a walled site within the larger lieu-dit of Le Cromin. Young and stylish vintages though less classic than 2014 & 2010. These Lieu-Dit wines now are the good values to look for and purchase – that includes my fav Les Vireuils. Also Les Narvaux, Les Clous, Les Cases-Tetes, and others.

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Question: I like the easy drinking fruit of Argentine Malbecs. Would you please recommend a Malbec from there at an affordable price but worthy of more serious study by me?

Answer: Yes, there are lots of good Malbecs from Argentina out there in the marketplace. Some now are quite expensive but your scribe likes what is happening for fair value with the Catena Appellation Wines. Similar to the Bourgogne classifications they are using the Village name on the label for grapes used from those sites that go into the Appellation wine bottles. Good defining feature to try and develop a distinguishing terroir. There are four Malbecs worth investigating:

LUNLUNTA: Popular more mocha styled – a bit softer
LA CONSULTA: High 3600 feet elevation is more vibrant less oak
VISTA FLORES: Longer 12 months French oak (35% new) Structured
PARAJE ALTAMIRA: Lower pH and better lifting balanced acidity. Suggest buying these and comparing the village appellations. Both fun and educational.

Also checkout their Cabernet Sauvignon from Agrelo, Cabernet Franc from San Carlos, and Chardonnay Tupungato. A fav of mine is the unique White Clay from high altitude Lujan de Cuyo of Semillon (60%) blended with Chenin Blanc (40%) instead of the usual Sauvignon Blanc Bordeaux mix.

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Bordeaux wines are now world renown and those who received recognition in the five levels of the 1855 Classification are expensive.

It wasn’t always the case back in the seventies.

Your scribe has been a long time enthusiastic student of Bordeaux wines for over 50 years starting with a first extended visit in 1970. Humbled to be the only Canadian to be among “les Membres D’Honneur” of Academie Du Vin De Bordeaux. A particular fan of Pauillac (and St. Julien) it was fun to collect properties early on that were less expensive. That classification is led by 3 Pauillac First Growths of Lafite, Latour, and Mouton followed by two top Seconds of Pichon Longueville Baron & Pichon Comtesse Lalande. However, there were 18 Fifth Growths (out a total of 61 now Classified) of which 12 were Pauillac. This value list was led by highly admired Lynch Bages, classic Grand Puy Lacoste, and more recently improved Pontet Canet. The other 9 included often underperforming Batailley, Haut Batailley, Grand Puy Ducasse, Lynch-Moussas, d’Armailhac, Haut Bages Liberal, Pedesclaux, Clerc Milon, and Croizet-Bages. In some vintages those 9 overperformed like Batailley did in 1964, 1961, and 1953. Today they are all much improved and more consistent. Collecting vintages of these lesser Pauillacs provided a great opportunity for me to study them over the years and obtain some education on both the style & terroir of the properties and the quality of the vintages.

There is always going to be bottle variation with old wines but it can be miraculous when you catch it on a high complex plateau. The gravel soils with clay of Pauillac usually develop wines with aging that generally show more powerful full Cabernet Sauvignon dominant of cassis cedar cigar box tobacco plus sometimes graphite mocha notes. This last week we pulled out our last bottles of Chateau Batailley from 6 vintages 1975-1982 matched with six at home dinners. A few surprises among these wines that generally were better if opened a decade or two earlier:

1975 BATAILLEY: Showed better than expected paired with a delicious recipe for chicken by Chef Eric Ripert. The slow developing tannic cab sauv year finally had softened enough leaving still some sweet chocolate fruit left to enjoy it. Surprise of this vertical!

1976 BATAILLEY: Earlier bottles showed more appeal and charm from this hot dry year. Earthy spiced fruit drying out. Over the hill but matched just OK with a garlic chicken breast course.

1978 BATAILLEY: Called a miracle vintage by Harry Waugh for the long warm sunny weather from the last half of August to the start of harvesting in early October. Quite mature aged look but some solid herbal greener fruit left paired well with pork loin curry mustard. Very ready. Pichon Lalande holding better.

1979 BATAILLEY: Big crops with higher acidity retained younger looking bright red colour. Less charm than 1978 but fresher on the palate paired with pasta marinara suiting to the tomatoes.

1981 BATAILLEY: A lighter year but another surprise of a lovely rather complex perfumed bouquet that stands up well to the chicken pasta course.

1982 BATAILLEY: Outstanding vintage helps this one. Like all the six wines shows as a 12 abv but way more ripe fruit and balance here. Finishing out the best plateau but just starting to dry out. Matched appropriately with a lamb shank & polenta. Enjoyed some better bottles younger but pretty good terroir showing. Not close in depth and complexity to the still sensational 1982 Grand Puy Lacoste.

Interesting mini-vertical of vintages from when this now excellent property since 1982 was not at its highest fruit concentration level then but underrated for the modest price they cost. Long aged less weighty Bordeaux may continue to surprise you.

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