Vin Jaune – Côtes du Jura – 1999 – Sélection Caves de la Muyre – Alc. 13.5% - (€19)
“Sandre au vin jaune et aux morilles” was on the home menu last night and this one was bought for the sauce. But first I sampled it.
C: Deepish yellow.
N: Very nicely nutty and freshly oxidative as is appropriate.
P: A pity to sacrifice this for the sauce. Very pleasant and quite soft nuttiness. Returning after sampling the Puffeney, however, it seemed a little bland, a tad sweet and somewhat short; 15.5/20.
Arbois Vine Jaune 1995 – Jacques Puffeney – Alc. 14% - (€29 ex-cellars for 2001)
This was a weird wine from a much respected producer; “excellent in parts” like the famous curate’s egg.
C: Much deeper yellow.
N: A nose like this on, say, a white Burgundy would get it consigned down the sink without tasting. More than nutty and sherry-like, it displayed rancid cheesy notes with a touch of cabbage and Germaine declared that it also smelled of paint stripper (VA?). It tended to get less aggressive with airing which suggests that I should have decanted.
P: Mercifully the unpleasant aromas from the nose took a back seat on the palate and contributed acceptably to complexity. The overwhelming impression was intense minerality and excitingly bracing and tangy acidity with enough “gras”, fine shape and great length. All this was too much for Germaine who reverted to the first wine but I found that the palate worked with the sauce and went wonderfully with the goat cheese, Selles-sur-Cher, but also more surprisingly with a very ripe Camembert; the first wine I have found to pierce such a soft pungent texture clinging to my palate. What a shame that before each sip, my nose had to suffer that unpleasant bouquet. So 11/20 for the nose and 17/20 for the palate.