The Jakarta Connection (Day One)

Burgnuts are an interesting bunch. For one reason or another they tend to gravitate to one another, regardless of distance. And if there’s no apparent reason, we would find a reason still, to crack those lovely bottles.

My dear friend AS had been hounding me to visit Jakarta for quite some time for congregational (a.k.a. burgundy fellowship) reasons but due to many family and work commitments I have not been able to make that trip. This time, the reason is too compelling: to celebrate his birthday. (Yes, there are priorities that precede drinking burgundies, such as celebrating a good friend’s birthday together… but of course when it’s a fellow Burgnut’s birthday, the justifications are doubly easy to make.)

And so I went off to make the long-overdue Jakarta connection. For many names which appear so regularly in the email exchanges of this Sing-Indo-Burg’er (sic) group I would now have the opportunity to put faces on them. In less than two hours, with two bottles in my bag, I passed the Cengkareng airport custom x-ray scanner and I was there.

Day one itinerary was easy: dinner at William Kafe Artistik for a dinner organized for the IWFS (Jakarta chapter) group presided by Andy. The Singapore gang arrived early since Andy was required to inspect every bottle for the night (they come in three’s). The entire restaurant was booked for the event and everything was ready even though we were the first to arrive. All bottles turned out okay save one which was corked. (Aeration did not help.) The theme was to represent four communes, presented via each flight, and each commune was to be represented by a premier cru and grand cru by a single producer of a single vintage (except for Meursault, for which it was a lieux-dit villages and a premier cru).

2004 Yves Boyer-Martenot Meursault “les Tillets” – Tell-tale Meursault nose. A good mixture of toasty and minerally aromas. Pretty generous for a villages, yet nicely framed and delineated by non-intrusive acid.

2004 Yves Boyer-Martenot Meursault “les Charmes” 1er – More substantial on the nose. This was decanted for a while, and by now it gave off some minerality. Lemony with richer, bolder flavours and better midpalate presence. This was very ripe to a point that it was almost warm at the back. With more aeration this put on more weight and solidity.

2004 Robert Arnoux Vosne-Romanee “Aux Reignots” 1er – Dark raspberries on the nose followed by plenty of spices on the palate. Still very fresh with red berries aromas inflected with open-top ferment sort of sweatiness.

2004 Robert Arnoux Echezeaux – Richer yet more monolithic. Brooding aromas of dark roasted red fruits. Still unyielding but very sweet, though not especially refined. Some gaminess as opposed to the spiciness of the Reignots.

1997 Joseph Roty Gevrey-Chambertin “les Fontenys” 1er – The first bottle was corked. Second sample had the standard Roty fare of roasted, bacon-fatty aromas. Texturally quite oily and dark fruited, and given its stage of development, it was not as pristine as the villages Champs Chenys I had a few weeks back. In fact today this tasted a little too simple.

1997 Joseph Roty Griotte-Chambertin – Very wild roasted cherries on the nose. In the mouth, likewise, lots of roasted fruits, huge and voluminous and very very wild too. This turned slightly medicinal afterward, and with further aeration, the Gevrey minerals eventually were coaxed out. A big wine that was not nearly ready.

2003 Comte de Vogue Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru – Pristine dark raspberries on the nose with mineral tinge. Possessed ripe but rather discreet aromas and flavours. Vitamins. In the palate the usual deep creamy flavours so typical of this cuvee was particularly present. Surprisingly very cool. Quite impressive.

2003 Comte de Vogue Musigny Vieilles Vignes – Knockout nose with fruit profile similar to the 1er cru but with abundantly more class and breed. Deeper, more expansive, regal and very sweet. A very complex and complete wine. Though the fruits were characteriscally 2003-oriented, the texture, balance and crystalline nature of the wine far belied the vintage. A complex fusion of dark fruited sweetness and red fruited freshness and a decidedly velvety texture makes this a totally remarkable 2003. Compelling stuff.