by Wine Owners
Posted on 2016-03-03
OWNER
Domaine Henri Boillot
APPELLATION
Corton-Charlemagne
BLEND
Chardonnay
AVERAGE SCORE
94/100
From the 5th of July, 2014 the value of the wine has steadily appreciated from £808, peaking at £1048 as of 3 March, 2016. (Overall: steady growth)
Yellow: 2008 Green: 2009 Purple: 2010 Blue: 2011
REVIEW
This flight of 2011s comes to a close with the 2011 Corton-Charlemagne, a cool, introspective and powerful wine. Layers of bright citrus, mint and crushed rocks fill out the wine's big, broad-shouldered frame nicely. The intense, tight finish suggests the Corton-Charlemagne is going to require a measure of patience. Based on what I tasted, it's hard to argue that point. Boillot seems to be one case where the 2011s have the potential to be better across the board than the 2010s. (Robert Parker, Aug 2012).
by Wine Owners
Posted on 2014-06-26
We were guided through this fascinating tasting by Anthony Barton’s grandson, who had kindly offered to guide us through the vintages and offered insights into his family history.
The origin of the Barton family’s involvement in wine stems from the peculiarities of the English taxation system in the 1700s. The family business had been selling sheepskins from Ireland where they had previously settled from England. But Irish products were subject to high import duties at the time. In contrast Aquitaine enjoyed a favorable trading status with England and so the business was relocated to this favorable tax jurisdiction.
However, pressure was exerted by local interests who were perhaps not keen to be party to a European tax carousel, and so the Bartons developed wine interests, first as a merchant, and in the early 19th century as a producer through the acquisitions of Langoa Barton and then part of the Leoville estate that became Leoville Barton.
We tried the vintages in three flights, beginning with 2006 and 2000, two powerful and structured vintages that demonstrate excellent potential; followed by 2007 and 1999 as examples of overlooked vintages that are well priced and offering great current drinking pleasure. We rounded up the evening with two high profile vintages, 1989 and 1990, illustrative of great, maturing vintages on their plateau of drinkability.
Notes
Future promise
2006 – Pronounced pepper and graphite nose, , elegant fruit but still on its reserve. Full of future promise.
2000 – A classic pencil-shaving nose, and displaying effortless balance. Delicately poised, a fine of finesse, yet still quite elemental. Greatness around the corner.
Early drinking crowd-pleasers
2007 – Lush, velvety nose, spiced warm palate, lovely food wine.
1999 – Fresh mint nose, expressive palate of angelica, puerh tea, licorice. Lip smacking and massively satisfying.
Mature classics
1989 – Super-structured and painfully intense licorice. Huge length of flavor. Impressive but not entirely integrated. An adolescent - needing several more years to fully resolve.
1990 – Incredible nose of anis and macerated cherries. Lifted black cherry and hedgerow fruits, with a weight and svelte palate that reflected greatness.
Conclusions
A quick straw poll revealed the 1990 (perhaps unsurprisingly) as the favourite wine of the evening, narrowly trailed by 2000, with 1999 and 2006 tying for bronze.
A big thank you again to Damien for joining us, to our friends from Asset Wines who organised this event with us, and to Aurelien and Morgane for welcoming us at Pall Mall Fine Wine!
by Wine Owners
Posted on 2014-06-09
by Wine Owners
Posted on 2014-04-02
Tucked away inside the Royal Opera Arcade off Piccadilly is a small, authentic bar à vin, the Pall Mall. This was the venue for the first ever Wine Owners event in association with our friends at Asset Wines, who are headquartered upstairs above the bar.
We are very proud to have co-hosted a vertical of Pontet Canet, among the very largest medocaine cru classé estates and the largest of Pauillac, yet arguably the most progressive - having risen far above their classified status whilst demonstrating leadership and foresight in investing heavily in uncompromising viticultural practises in the pursuit of excellence. Many of us have bought regularly upon release over the last 20 years, so it was an exciting prospect to be tasting across 4 decades of wine making evolution.
Thanks to Loric Gouban, Wine Owners’ popular new intern, we also had the pleasure of welcoming Justine Tesseron the daughter of co-owner Alfred, who introduced the Chateau and shared its history with the 30 wine enthusiasts assembled. Everyone was delighted she was able to join us and thoroughly enjoyed her company.
The first wine to be poured was 1985. At first blush it showed a fine cedar and bramble nose, and was a satisfactorily savoury wine. Frankly, it was served in the correct order of interest.
1996 had an immediately deeper nose, beautifully long to taste with fine powdery tannins, elegant but still taut and with the promise of more to come in another few years. The wine split the attendees, some of whom deeply admired its sinuous complexity, latent power and impressive length; whilst others were left wanted more fat. For a significant minority this was the most admired wine, although this may need some time to find its finest voice.
2004 was a very different expression. Ripe, intensely juicy and with sweet, tangible tannins delivering an impressive package of power, energy and seduction.
2006 proved to be an unexpected delight. Parker had advised his readers to ‘fill their boots’ and how right he was! Such poise and elegant fruit, this was really svelte with a pure finish. It perfectly intersected the youthful classicism of the 1996, and the juicy attention-grabbing fruit, sweetly tannic, crowd-pleasing 2004. At this point in the tasting this was for many the wine of the night. It has to be said, today this vintage sells for a great price (£600-£640) considering the very fine quality.
Then came the 1955, riskily presented as the last of the flight in the hope - rather than the expectation - of a bouquet finale. Never mind, we all said, it’ll be interesting at the very least and a privilege to taste. The bottles opened had both been re-corked at the property in 1989, and their labels were of the modern design in place of the original ‘Cruse’ versions. The understanding was that this ancient wine had spend its first 34 years in the cellars at Pontet Canet, before being reconditioned and sold. The wine turned out to be a monument. A soft, alluring nose was followed by the most mouthwatering palate, showing the complexity of age yet the freshness of something altogether younger, cupped in perfect balance with the most persistent of lifted fruit. In the glass the wine evolved over a 30 minute period, taking on more roundness with air and continuing to develop attractively to the last sip. Burgundian in texture and weight, what a way this was to finish such a convivial evening!
