La Paulée de Singapour 2017

The inaugural La Paulée de Singapour was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Singapore, on 20 January 2017, organised by M. Christophe Cazaux-Maleville of the Vintage Club and graced, no less, by the Ambassador of France, His Excellency M. Marc Abensour, just three weeks into his new appointment in Singapore. The La Paulée in Burgundy has its roots back in the 1920s, started by Comte Lafon in Meursault as an event where winemakers would gather to impress one another with their own wines. Nowadays, the La Paulée in Meursault is held at Château de Meursault to celebrate the end of a successful grape harvest. Workers in the vineyard would gather for an evening of food and wine, and each person would bring along a bottle to share with everyone else. For this evening, the Four Seasons ballroom had been transformed into the spirit of the La Paulée, where long rows of tables have been set for dinner. But first, to wet our beaks, was a promenade of wines from various producers featuring exclusively the 2014 vintage, by now widely recognised as being absolutely fabulous for whites – full of delicacy, great acidity and concentration with full potential for utter complexity and longevity – with the reds coming in a close second, delicious, vibrant and sophisticated. Needless to say, the local French community showed up in force and with such abundant free flow of outstanding wines from start to finish to match the excellent cuisine, the La Paulée quickly turned into a riotous evening of great fun and merrymaking. Christophe is to be congratulated for the great success and organisation, and I’m certainly looking forward to next year’s edition. And oh…His Excellency is pretty fluent in Mandarin, so do behave.

2014 Domaine de Montille Vosne-Romanée Aux Malconsorts 1er. Delicious, lovely aromas of red fruits and roses with fine acidity amidst saline minerals, medium-bodied, displaying good harmony and feminine poise. Excellent.

2014 Château de Chamirey Mercurey La Mission monopole 1er. Closed on the nose though the palate is layered with lovely peaches and white flowers supported by rich minerals, displaying great concentration and harmony, finishing well. Excellent.

2014 Château de Chamirey Mercurey Les Ruelles 1er. Soft with camphor and rosy characters, medium-bodied, gentle with subdued tannins and subtle acidity, discernibly showing more new oak but well handled. Very fine.

2014 Domaine de Perdrix Nuits-Saint-Georges Aux Perdrix 1er. Great color, matched by a lovely bouquet of red cherries, roses and camphor. Quite minerally on the palate with good acidity and a dash of earth, leading up to an uncomplicated good finish. Quite fine.

2014 Domaine de Perdrix Échezeaux Grand Cru. Generous aromas of red fruits, earth and minerally elements, medium-bodied, rounded with subtle acidity and tannins, slightly ferrous, finishing with good persistence. Very fine.

2014 Domaine Vincent Bouzereau Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 1er. Lifted with notes of white flowers in full bloom, plump and fullish with great presence and silky textures, layered with understated crème de la crème, complex minerals and lovely acidity. Absolutely beautiful.

2014 Domaine Vincent Bouzereau Corton Clos de Fiètres Grand Cru. Effusive bouquet of white flowers, banana and crème, full-bodied but open and relaxed, displaying excellent presence and fine acidity, finishing well.

2014 Joseph Faiveley Puligny-Montrachet Champ Gain 1er. Rich bouquet of creme and  perfumed white flowers, though somewhat underwhelming on the palate where the fruit is a little too backward and gentle in spite of the fine minerality and acidity.

2014 Domaine Faiveley Clos des Corton Grand Cru. A big wine, deep in notes of forest floor and red and dark fruits, very good in concentration and acidity but tight, spicy and dry at the finish.

2014 Domaine Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru. Fleshy and layered with red and dark fruits of excellent depth, integrated with great acidity but still tight. More extracted than past examples of Latricères by Faiveley, but not overdone. Excellent potential.

2014 Domaine du Château de Meursault Les Charmes Dessues Meursault 1er. Served from methuselah by M. Christophe Cazaux, no less. Stern and structured with a great concentration of citrus, tropical fruit and pomelo, quite minerally with good definition, combining well with wonderfully subtle acidity towards a complex finish. Excellent now, but will be even better.

2014 Domaine du Château de Marsannay  Gevrey-Chambertin Bel Air 1er. Abundance of dark fruits with plenty of weight and depth, seamlessly structured with racy acidity amidst earthy tones. Highly attractive.

2014 Domaine du Château de Marsannay Marsannay Clos de Jeu. Delightful rosy fragrance with good weight on the palate, yet rendered delicate enough by the crisp acidity and fine balance, just a tad short at the finish.

2014 Domaine du Château de Marsannay Les Favieres. Smoke, ash, some earthiness, plummy tones and saline minerals combine well to produce classic aromas, replete with lovely acidity though lacking in structure, distinctly feminine in tone.

2014 Domaine du Château de Marsannay Vosne-Romanée En Orveaux 1er. Deep attractive nose of red and dark berries, fairly lifted and complex, coupled with good acidity and concentration with further notes of earthy minerals and dark plums, just a bit short.

Champagne Delamotte Brut NV. Full-bodied with a lovely yeasty pungency, forward in citrus fruits topped by creamy tones with very good presence and delicate minerality that persisted all the way to its finish. Quite excellent.

With His Excellency M. Marc Abensour

2013 Domaine du Château de Meursault Charmes-Dessus Meursault 1er. Compared with the 2014, this wine is relatively shut on the nose though the palate sees some creamy tones and stony minerals with a mild intensity of honeysuckle and caramel, displaying good presence but it lacks layering and complexity, a tad short at the finish as well.

2011 Bouchard Père et Fils Beaune Grèves Vigne L’Enfant Jesus 1er (courtesy of Dr Ngoi). Lovely soft earthiness with a rosy glow, medium-bodied and gentle with notes of camphor, earthy minerals and some attractive pungency, just a tad short. Very fine.

2011 Domaine Denis Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er (courtesy of MH). Dark dusty red, large in proportion and well-structured with good acidity as expected of Gevrey-Chambertin, infused with saline minerals with a darker tone of red fruits that tapered to a gentle finish.

2011 Domaine Faiveley Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. From magnum. Essentially shut on the nose, though the palate is gentle with textures of icing and crème de la crème set in a lovely balance within red and dark currants, more minerally at the finish. Highly subtle in every way. Not ready, but should turn out well.

2014 Domaine du Château de Meursault Puligny-Montrachet Les Champs-Gain 1er. Delicate citrus and complex minerals abound with excellent concentration and balance, rounded and highly supple with some grassy elements. Quite excellent.

2005 Maison Louis Latour Château Corton Grancey Grand Cru. Deep color, displaying lifted notes of red fruits and raspberries, fresh with lively acidity amidst some medicinal tones, quite robust with more than a hint of rusticity.

2007 Domaine Pierre Amiot Clos de La Roche Grand Cru. The bouquet here is utterly mesmerising, most alluring with feminine tones of rose petals, camphor and floral fragrance, soft and rounded with good concentration and intensity of fruit amidst stern minerality with traces of saline, but short. It’s all about the bouquet.

1998 Domiane Louis Remilly Clos de La Roche Grand Cru (courtesy of Steven Koh). Deep in color with well-evolved aromas of dark currants, somewhat disjointed with the palate which is quite full with some forest floor, still tannic with a stern spicy edge, finishing on a minty note.

2014 Domaine Jean-Claude Ramonet Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 1er. Great transparency, allowing one to appreciate the lovely delicacy, medium-full with lovely acidity and complex minerals, displaying wonderful definition, length and balance with understated elegance. Quite complete. Superb.

Etienne de Montille holding court

2008 Domaine Robert Groffier Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1er (courtesy of CJ). Very lovely complex bouquet, glowing right from the start with feminine characters of red fruits, cherries and raspberries, medium-bodied, open with saline minerals, finishing well but missing the structure of the northern Cote de Nuits. Very lovely, nonetheless.

2007 Domaine Meo Camuzet Vosne-Romanée Les Chaumes 1er (courtesy of Khay Guan). Darkish in tone , mainly raspberries and dark cherries against dryish textures of dried mushrooms with a sprinkling of white pepper, its stern demeanour reinforced by a minerally streak along with gravelly tones, tapering to graphite at its gentle finish.

1926 Joseph Faiveley Pommard Les Rugiens 1er. Murky with medicinal tones, almost port like, still quite fresh and full with good concentration and acidity. Sturdy but lacks additional dimension.

Dr C J Ooi in deep discussion with Christophe over a 2011 Bouchard Beaune Grèves L’Enfant Jesus 1er

2011 Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Grand Cru. Large in proportion, heavy with dark and red fruits, quite earthy, displaying good acidity but not distinctive, the alcohol far too distracting.

1926 Joseph Faiveley Volnay. Murky, rather lightweight now with a minty medicinal character, still showing good acidity but short.

2012 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru. Minerally, beautifully structured with superb presence, has a very correct feel about it with great definition, delicacy and balance, finishing with great persistence. Great stuff.