Good stuff there from wine-pages.
David Crossley uses his Cote d'Or experience to qualify his position - A man after my own heart.
If one considers the Meursault comparative TN's that Mel and her team did recently, you can immediately appreciate the problems with the le Limousin Meursault from Waitrose. The team thought or felt that the wine was faulty.
"
Vincent Girardin’s 2006 Le Limozin, which is £29 from Waitrose, was a little bit corked. Not ruined, but just a little bit damply green on the nose. Lorraine also smelt smoked ham. We all gave it our worst smell score. It was very oaky, pretty oxidative and, while it didn’t taste corked, we found the oak oppressive."
Waitrose were a bit naughty in not advising buyers on their web site that this wine is steeped in oak for over 2 years, other reports say even up to 3 years
* One would have to buy another bottle to see if it was faulty, or the style.
.
The fruit for that wine comes from the lower slopes below the
Les Genevrières domaine. The grower has a market for that oak heavy wine, but in order for most folks to enjoy the beauty and richness of Genevrières, which is superior to this vineyard, you would not want to spoil it with too much wood.
My limited experience says that the '06 chardonnay fruit was not rich and powerful at the sub £30 quid level....despite all the hype after the '05 success and in defence of the '06 vintage characteristics.
Therefore to apply all that oak to probably less ripe '06, and judged to be early maturing fruit seems to be pretty dumb for it to be appreciated by ordinary mortals like us. I don't think this is a judgement in hindsight, growers know from the harvest, how the resultant wine may turn out. I think this could be a * marketing error for UK consumers who spend £30 a bottle.
Therefore, for lovelyness and general appreciation of that Meursault, the extra heavy oak treatment was ham-fisted and not thought out. Perhaps the producer thinks he will be able to sell all of this wine for the price ! Yet I cant think of any of my friends who would take it.
I believe the sub £30 white burgundy market is changing, wine lovers of my generation are looking for elegance, balance and finesse. * We don't really want white oaky monsters anymore. Do we ? ?
Creamy Limozin (spelt differently by wine writers) oak from forests in south-central France near the city of Limoges, is best used in balance with the characteristics of the fruit from a particular harvest.
Well that's enough from me, and it is a bit narrow, because it is based around the opinions of a few burgundy quaffing mates that I've known for years.
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