During the early months of the lockdown last year, I was able to pick up a number of older Burgundies at bargain rates. This is one of them – a Premier Cru. I think Mercurey tends to be an underappreciated region in Burgundy, usually offering good value for the money, at least in Burgundy terms.
In the glass
Pretty. I’m really tempted to leave it at that. That’s all you need to know about this wine. It’s pretty. Or, if you want more detail, really pretty. If you insist on ruining the pleasure of the colour with more technical stuff –I’d call it light. It’s ruby with hints of brick. In the sun, it’s not only clear, but bright. My normal shot, looking through the glass into the light doesn’t do it justice for the most part. So I’ve added the top-down shot, which helps.
If I wasn’t eager to try this wine, I’d happily spend more time just looking at it. Entrancing might be too strong a word, but not by much.
The nose
Not a lot of fruit. Some red fruits, of what I can pick up. Red currants, perhaps? A hint of forest floor or something. Maybe some saddle leather? A sort of vague smell of the countryside. I love these smells in Burgundy with some age. Just wish I could smell them a bit more clearly.
The palate
Light bodied. Red fruits come across more on the palate than they did on the nose. They seem to be a sort of baked or compote fruit here. Some darker cherry hints. It has nice acidity, and the tannins must be there, but aren’t very prominent.
At first, it strikes me that there’s a very faint dustiness on the palate. Not the dry dustiness of some Riojas, for example. More like you accidently drank it from a slightly dusty glass. I don’t think I did. At any rate, it adds a more character to the wine. Otherwise, especially once the wine has been given a chance to breathe, I’d go with it being juicy. It comes across as fresher than you’d expect an eight year old Burgundy to be. That juiciness is really the main sense memory I get from it. It’s got a medium-plus length to the finish.
Rating
Yummy-plus. It definitely benefits from being allowed to breathe, and I think it probably won’t improve with age any more. But it is quite enjoyable.
it has been pointed out to me that despite claiming all the senses matter, I still tend to fall back and base my rating mostly on taste. I’d partly agree, and partly disagree. The Yummy scale does seem to cover taste, but for me, it also covers mouthfeel, and other aspects. That’s the disagree bit. But yes, it is a valid point – such a rating arguably isn’t inclusive enough. So, starting from this wine, I’m going to add a visual rating to the wines. I may add others as time goes by. We’ll see.
The inaugural Visual Rating is ‘Very Pretty.’
Sustainability
Unknown.
Other stuff:
If you didn’t know, Premier Cru isn’t the top Burgundy classification. That’s Grand Cru. So I’m not sure why it’s called ‘1er Cru,’ when it really should be something more like ‘2er Cru.’ Or whatever the correct French would be. Also, if you didn’t know, I seem to have a weird tendency to spell Burgundy as Burgunday a lot these days. It’s slightly disturbing.
The technical info and such
13.0% ABV. Pinot Noir. It was from Cambridge Wine Merchants, but no clue what I paid, and it’s unavailable now. Sorry