January 1, 2008. Score: Zero.

The first day of the new year had started and ended on a sober note. No wine. No bubblies. Not even beer.

The week before sort of stuffed me up. Too much rich food, pretty good wines all over as well. Some trepidation about going back to work tomorrow didn't help either.

Still, what happened recently had been more than great, and had prepaid for the dry new year's day. Some of those tastings deserved its own posts and just a two days ago I had some very interesting treats, all burgundies, in Jakarta.

Spurred by stellar showing of the 2004 Clos St. Jacques version of Domaine Fourrier's just this past Christmas, my buddy's offer to taste his Griotte-Chambertin was immediately taken up. As a matter of fact, Fourrier's Clos St. Jacques was probably my first superb 2004 red burgundy of the year. I never liked the 2004 reds I've tasted so far. Although charming in its display of red fruits, most 2004 finishes with disturbing raspy tartness which threw out the wine's balance. But not this St. Jacques. Fourrier's aromatics is one of a kind in Gevrey-Chambertin (well, okay, I have to pay some respect to Rousseau, but isn't that obvious?) - all sharp and soaring, delicate yet penetrating altogether. The creaminess of his vielles vignes showed clearly, and this was behaving like a mini young Chambertin, all pure red raspberries with minor tendencies toward chocolate milk and spices. Light on its feet, profusely aromatic, and very sweet and highly pitched. It's so easy to drink and forget how many glasses had passed on with this wine.

His bigger brother, the Griotte is even more convincing. Denser and more authoritative, unbelievably dense and sweet (in the context of the vintage particularly), this reeked of red wild berry fruits, pristine almost roasted raspberry flavours, but the aromatics... oh! It's soaring, gripping and never-ending. The entrance and finish are loaded with the right goods. This is Burgundy, and very Gevrey-Chambertin. In fact this may be the best Griotte-Chambertin I've ever tasted, I kid you not. This is one unequivocal evidence for the fact that there is Burgundy, and the rest are merely Pinot Noir.

Meo-Camuzet's Vosne-Romanee les Brulees is a wine I've never been disappointed by. In fact I quietly revere this wine for its ultra-cool understatement and quiet completeness. The 2002 we had the other night was marked by bottle-stink and reduction unfortunately. It was an impromptu decision to try the bottle and we pulled it out of a very cold cellar from its sleep just before we headed for dinner. I don't blame it. After decanting and very persistent and vigorous swirling, some one and a half hour later the nose cleared up. The palate was still stubbornly resisting to wake up, but make no mistake, this is greatness in the making. Deep, dense, brooding and with a sense of shape in the mouth this wine's fruit profile was almost curranty. And although tannic, there was so much fruits all I could feel was the fruit backbone. Damned tough to expound adequately (and certainly impossible to enjoy) at this stage but this wine continues to reinforce what I've always believed about this wine: that it is a complete premier cru a la Vosne-Romanee. Awesome stuff.