TN: '05 Bouchard Bourgogne

Nov 02, 2007 4 Replies

Last night, I began the preparations for a coq au vin by disassembling and marinating two roosters. For the marinade, I needed two bottles of (good) red wine and tradition dictates red Burgundy. So, in went the remainder of the Drouhin Bojo opened the night before and to it was added a bottle of 2005 Bouchard Ainé Bourgogne that I'd picked up on the cheap locally. Of course, as a dedicated cook, I had to sample the wine beforehand to assure that I wasn't using substandard plonk ;-)


2005 Bouchard Ainé Bourgogne "Pinot Noir" ($10) nose: a bit muted, bright strawberry fruit palate: light body, good acidity, simple strawberrish fruit, simple

In many ways, this was more Beaujolaisesque than the Drouhin Bojo-Villages (it was certainly lighter in color) but was without flaws and was attractive in a simple, straightforward way. I can't say that I found a lot of Pinot Noir character to it, but it made a fine marinade.



Your intrepid reporter, Mark Lipton


"Mark Lipton" wrote ..........

Interestingly enough, your post appeared (on my newsreader at least) immediately under one re Cooking Sherry.

I know that, during our last visit to France, when Ian Hoare prepared coq au vin, he went to great pains to point out (1) that the wine *must* be Bourgogne rouge and that (2) the preparation time was measured in days.

Indeed, I started mine over 2 days before I intend to serve it. It'll still be a bit rushed, as Ian's recipe (adapted from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"'s) is really a 4-5 day affair, very similar to his salmis de cuisses de canard, which I'll make when Winter arrives in full.

Mark Lipton

Just remember Pere, dude, life's too short for Aine. :)

Yup, my bad! It's been so long since I've even thought about Bouchard as a source of good wine that, when I saw that bottle in the store, I recalled hearing rumors of a resurgence in quality at Bouchard and bought the bottle. Then, when I got home and looked at the label, I saw the Aîné and thought "$^&^*&!" Fortunately, '05 is one of those years in which you had to try to make a truly bad wine. This one was more of "not enough of anything to be interesting."

Mark Lipton

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