Hello, At first, this was going to be something like one of those DaleW notes "Betsy was out so I pulled up a bottle of Cheval Blanc we´d left behind ..." but then thought better of it. I was also thinking of joining the fray concerning wines that loudly proclaim their origin, but thought better of that too. As things stand, Christina is out, celebrating a workmate who is retiring, and here I sit. I have prepared, and eaten, a duck´s breast seasoned with sechuan pepper, and a reduction of veal fond, really an aigre doux based on balsamico, muscovado, the reduced fond and a bit of red wine (reserve du Condamine) and then mounted with butter. The reduction turned out to watery. While cooking, I blatantly emptied the dregs of a bottle of Bruno Sorg Vieille Vignes Gwz 2004 (too young, possibly) - a lighter style than our house Alsatian producer Francois Baur. I opened a bottle of St Romain 2002 from a local producer, Rapet (related to the Rapets of Savigny-le-Beaune, he claimed) who runs a cobwebby cellar at the Easternmost end of the village, just under the castle hill (the castle was torn down in the 13th century, but it´s still the castle hill). M. Rapet was very pleased with his own products and counselled me to aerate and let stand for a while, they got better over time ... He also claimed that the cobwebs were good for business, visitors expected cobwebs.
Here I sit, it's gone three hours since I opened and decanted the bottle, hoping for it to get better. It's pale, smells vaguely of rubber wellies, or, more optimistically, of cherries - or something that could have been cherries except it is reminiscent of rubber wellies. On the palate, too much alcohol and nothing to balance it. A prime example of the kind of wines that make Bourgogne so frustrating - so good when they are good and so bland when they are not ... this wine does not scream out its origin, rather, it timidly proclaims its provenance: a third rank commune, and a second rate producer. If I were DaleW, I think a C would have been in order.
Cheers
Nils Gustaf PS "!" means "not" in C, and several other programming languages. So ![TN] means, not a taste note. Not really.