A few bottles tasted recently

Since I am leaving to Kitakyushu next Sunday I took the pain of tasting a few bottles. From our personal cellar, we opened Vosnes "Les Suchots" by Roch 99 and 01, Chinon 03 & 04 "Les Picasses" by Olga Raffault and we tasted again Schmitt's Pinot Noir 05.

It was rather hot in France but we drunk these bottles during dinners so we could enjoy the wines.

I think that Vosnes 99 was made by Pacalet. This is an enjoyable wine from one the best terroir in Burgundy, but it has its own style. It is still fruity after 10 years and shows no evolution. I drunk this wine a couple of years ago and I am not sure this is worth keeping it longer. That might be due to vinification process with long prefermentation phases. Les Suchots 01 was good too but not at the level of vintage 99.

Chinon reds can be very fine. I can only advise those to wine amateurs. These are made exclusively from Cabernet Franc, that is the same kind of grapes used on the right bank in Bordelais. These grapes usually yield wines ageing very well and best Chinon wines can be served very old. They are usually very balanced and subtle wines, very suitable for great meals. Be cautious: they are definetely not in the same league as bodybuilded "modern" Bordeaux wines. Another good point with those great wines is that they are still affordable. Domaine Olga Raffault has been well known for a while by amateurs. I have also been following them for long. We drunk vintages 03 and 04. 03 is very sunny and may be not so typical. Remember summer 2003 was extremely hot in France. Vintage 2004 is pleasant now.

Schmitt's Pinot Noir 2005. I start knowing it well by now. We enjoyed it once again. It is still very fruity and brings immediate but subtle pleasure. One of the guest prefered it to all other wines above! I prefer Schmitt's PN 2006 than 2005.

Cheers,
V.