Sorry for the very long hiatus on notes—I haven’t been much motivated to post when I’ve been doing most of my drinking alone…and thus not much drinking to report on. But I decided to pamper myself this weekend. I miss OLs. A lot.
2010 Bouchard Volnay Clos des Chenes
Slow ox for 2 hours and decanted for another 3. straight-line red fruit at the core of the nose, but real meat infusion too. Drinking this is such a pleasure. How I wish I had more 2010 reds. This is already sleek, silky and classic with that 2010 purity and reined-in freshness, if that makes some sense. Cherry and raspberry with only a hint of the meats, but certainly enough to add interest. For the price I paid, superb vino.
2001 Chateau Suduiraut
This one is from half-bottle. Decanted for 8 hours overnight, on my 3rd day of drinking it now. Initially, smelled and tasted like a liquid version of my best friend’s caramel sauce. As we track through the subsequent days, a neat tart-sort-of yellow fruit component comes in…close to unripe pineapple I think…that adds lots of interest. This is still not the freshest of the 01s and nor would I expect that of Sud but it is a delight to consume and has backbeats of vanillin, touch of coconut and some honey in there too. A whole lot going on. I do think it may be at the maturity point, at least in halfsies.
Man, I’ve just been racking all my '01 Sauturnes (tucked away in offsite for the past 7 years, buried before that). Of course, Sud is there, thanks for the update!