WTN: Rose Champagne, Burg transcends appellation's rep

Saturday Betsy supplemented leftover seafood salad and risotto with red cabbage and bacon, wine was leftover Hardegg GV (still tasty!). We realized night before we had missed acknowledging anniversary of when we got together, so I grabbed a half bottle of the NV Godme Grand Cru Brut Rose Champagne to celebrate. Floral on the nose, roses accented by biscuit yeast. Strawberries and a little citrus zest. We enjoyed. B+

Sunday was a long workday for me- luckily we had perfect weather for our annual picnic for our homeless friends. Betsy and volunteers did a great job, but I was tired when I got got home. Betsy roasted a chicken (Bouchon style) and made bread salad, accompanied by perfect tomatoes with Maldon salt. I decided to reward myself with Burgundy, and brought up the 2002 Chandon de Briailles "Ile des Vergelesses" Pernand-Vergelesses 1er . Needed some time to open up, but lovely lighter styled Burgundy. An elegance that belies the appellation. Bright raspberry and strawberry fruit, some coffee and smoke, earth. Light tannins, excellent acidity, well-balanced. Next thing you know bottle is empty. My only regret is that I didn't buy more of this ($27)! Major overchiever. A-
 
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

I'm pretty sure that is the same producer whose Ile des Vergelesse impressed me at Butterflies Restaurant in Raleigh some years ago. I don't recall the vintage but that restaurant has been closed for about six years so it would have been an earlier vintage.

2002 Chandon de Briailles "Ile des Vergelesses" Pernand-Vergelesses 1er . Needed some time to open up, but lovely lighter styled Burgundy. An elegance that belies the appellation. Bright raspberry and strawberry fruit, some coffee and smoke, earth. Light tannins, excellent acidity, well-balanced. Next thing you know bottle is empty. My only regret is that I didn't buy more of this ($27)! Major overchiever...

Of course it all depends who is granting the reputation

But, glad to hear that it showed so well and not too backwards.

Jane, seem to have been a solid producer for a while. My experiences only date back to '93 I think.

Of course it all depends who is granting the reputation
But, glad to hear that it showed so well and not too backwards.

True, of course. But I'm pretty sure you could get 100 Burgheads (whether tastes are more Gilman/Kolm or Rovani/Parker- or Drouhin/d'Angerville or Perrot Minot/Dugat if you prefer that comparison) to vote for their favorite commune without a single vote for P-V. I'm mostly not opening 2002s, but this opened quick beautifully after 30 minutes. Though I wouldn't mind having some to cellar, this was regretably last one.

without a single vote for P-V..

Ok, yes, I guess I was too quick to comment. It may be better than many others in the appellation but I guess I was also responding to my notion that one does expect good things from this particular wine.

Depending on how things go, I may try to repeat your experience with an 02 here in London. Recent vintages of this wine seem to be everywhere here.

2002 Chandon de Briailles "Ile des Vergelesses" Pernand-Vergelesses 1er . Needed some time to open up, but lovely lighter styled Burgundy. An elegance that belies the appellation. Bright raspberry and strawberry fruit, some coffee and smoke, earth. Light tannins, excellent acidity, well-balanced. Next thing you know bottle is empty. My only regret is that I didn't buy more of this ($27)! Major overchiever. A-

Dale,
My one encounter with this wine was likewise a most pleasurable one. How long do you think that this wine will go? It's certainly in a good place right now, but I've not got a clue about P-V ageworthiness.

Mark Lipton

I have had good luck with 2002 bargain Burgs; a 2002 Tollot Beaut Savigny-les-Beaune, Les Lavieres, also purchased for a pittance a couple of years ago, was showing beautifully last week.
Which Bouchon recipe for roast chicken do you guys use? The simple one in the front of the book is my favorite (I'm getting a deja vu, did we discuss this topic before?)

I've assumed that wines from Pernand would develop roughly like their neighbors in Savigny. The latter I find to take awhile to come around. I've just had a couple of Pavelot's 1999 Gravains, which is accessible at this point but I think will benefit from a bit more time. Anyone have experience with older versions from Pernand?

I've had a couple 10 year old P-Vs that seemed past it, but they (a) weren't Chandon de Briailles, and (b) weren't Ile des Vergelesses, which I think is generally considered best site in commune.

In general I have thought P-V less structured than good Savignys, but small sample of former. Savignys can certainly age well, I have '93 Narbantons from a couple different producers I plan on comparing. And had a '78 Ecard 1er that was great year or two ago. Maybe P-V can do same. Maybe not.

Jacques, it was the simple Bouchon recipe. Betsy used to do the Zuni Cookbook chicken, but decided she liked this as much, and it's a lot simpler. She still did a variation on the Zuni bread salad.

Although there's some good reports above on Chandon Briailles, I have had "not-so-good" experiences with their Pernand's and Corton's from good to excellent vintages from the 90's. The vintages in question were '93, '95 and '96. Hopefully, this Domaine has lifted their game and their wines are now of a better quality and more ageworthy. The '95 Ille des Verglesses was bretty and undrinkable by 2000 but the bulk of their problems (back then) stem mainly from rather thin, fruitless offerings, doubly spoiled by the use of old, musty oak. Needless to say, a domaine I've had nothing to do with since and subsequent (unbiased) reports of their performance in 2000 and 2001 have been the same or perhaps only a little better at times. Sorry, to appear the devil's advocate in this instance but glad you opened a very decent bottle, Dale, which is more more than I can say after the indignity of buying over 2 cases of duds.

[David M. Bueker]

Two things on the good side these days:

1) Virtually all Burgundy is better made than it was 10-12 years ago (obviously excepting the already great producers)
2) Chandon de Briailles has really stepped it up the last 5 vintages.

Davids, sorry for your experiences. I've actually had lovely bottles of the '93 CdB Corton Bressandes and Clos de Roi (the latter at a semi-WLDG offline, with Manuel C, the real Jay Miller, Sasha, etc). Not a lot of other CdB pre-2001.

Two things on the good side these days:

1) Virtually all Burgundy is better made than it was 10-12 years ago (obviously excepting the already great producers)
2) Chandon de Briailles has really stepped it up the last 5 vintages.

re point 2 - good news, DB.

Davids, sorry for your experiences. I've actually had lovely bottles of the '93 CdB Corton Bressandes and Clos de Roi (the latter at a semi-WLDG offline, with Manuel C, the real Jay Miller, Sasha, etc). Not a lot of other CdB pre-2001.

Back in the early days I didn't lash out much on GC's ... I've yet to try either of the two you enjoyed.

Although there's some good reports above on Chandon Briailles, I have had "not-so-good" experiences with their Pernand's and Corton's from good to excellent vintages from the 90's. The vintages in question were '93, '95 and '96..

Interesting. I had some 96 Savigny and 98 IdV from Chandon last year that were not very thrilling but I never knew if they just needed more time