From €12.60 a bottle and £135 in bond a case.
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With Julia and I doing our best to attack an average of four tastings of 2007 burgundies a day this week in order to present as comprehensive a review of the vintage as possible, it is perhaps not surprising that I’ve chosen a 2007 burgundy as wine of this week. (Although until the Russians opened up the gas pipeline again this morning, I was going to choose a Bulgarian red in sympathy with the freezing, unheated conditions that so many Bulgarians have had to endure last week.)
Patrick Javillier is a splendid, conscientious and thoughtful grower in Meursault. His Domaine Patrick Javillier, Cuvée Oligoc ène 2007 Bourgogne Blanc, grown on calcareous soils and vinified cask by cask, is one of the most serious Bourgogne Blancs you are likely to encounter. I have never had an unsatisfactory vintage of this wine but the 2007 is probably the most impressive yet, standing up well in comparison to some other producers’ whites with much grander appellations and higher price tags tasted alongside.
Like all his 2007 whites, this is lip-smackingly fruity – yet very vibrant and dense for a Bourgogne Blanc. I could happily drink it already although previous vintages suggest that it should drink well over the next three or even four years and the British merchants who are currently offering it (likely to be Berry Bros, Justerini & Brooks, Lay & Wheeler, OW Loeb, Corney & Barrow and possibly others) may not ship it until all the grander 2007s are ready much later this year. I detected a note of gorse bloom on this still youthful wine too.
Admittedly, Meursault is now home to a host of over-achievers – Coche-Dury, Ente, Fichet, Jobard, Lafon, Pierre Morey, Roulot all spring to mind – but Javillier seems to me to be under-exposed and under-garlanded. And his pricing is not rapacious in view of how much flavour and structure he delivers.
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