Champy, Beaune 1er Cru "les Greves" 1972

By all accounts this wine should be bolloxed. I mean it is 37 years old, only a year younger than I am. Champy pere & cie are fairly consistent and reliable producers, but by no means at the top of the league. So it is fair to say that it kind of took us a bit by surprise to find out that the wine is simply stunning just now. And not just one random bottle. Weve knocked out over a dozen of these bad boys in the last three months, and we have yet to come across a stinker. The corks are really soft and crumbly, so it aint going to cellar for a great deal longer. Without a butlers thief, they are real bastards to remove from the bottle. Once pulled the wine is a very pale, almost rose hue with a rusty brown colour to the rim. The nose has a faint aroma of soft red fruit, mainly strawberries with some redcurrant too. But surprisingly the aromas grow, and develop strength over a period of minutes in the glass. There is a touch of brambly vegetation to the nose and a hint of blackcurrant leaf. With game birds, especially squab, its quite a lovely combination. Only 40 more bottles to shift now!!

Domaine Tollot-Beaut, Beaune "Les Blanchefleurs" 1995

This week Ive re-arranged the wine-racks in the back station in order to accomodate some of the new wines that have been added to the list. In doing so I came across a few odds and sods that seemed to have dropped off the wine-list at some stage or another, and are now classed as Bin Ends. Two such bottles were the fantastic Beaune from Tollot-Beaut - "les Blanchefleurs". Luckily for me, that night we had one of our regulars in who just loves this kind of red burgundy. So he got himself two cracking bottles of beaune for a good price, and Im sitting on two less bottles of bin end.

On the nose it had that classic mature burgundy smokyness before opening up into ripe red strawberries and raspberry, with a touch of cherry and winter spices. On the palate there was plenty more of the soft red fruit flavours, with the spice warming the palate at the finish. Pleasantly long finish which left me wanting more. Shame there was only two bottles!