Fremiets revisited

Fremiets 2004 Domaine Jean Boillot Volnay Premier Cru

I wrote about this wine in my post of 25.10.10, and last weekend we revisited it at a more leisurely pace over dinner. We paired it with hare on the grounds that Burgundy is supposed to like game, although perhaps in retrospect and at least in relation to this wine, that should be qualified to game birds. Hare turned out to be much stronger than we expected, with a liverish taste and texture (admittedly ours was a bit well-done) quite like venison, and definitely too much for this fine, fragrant Volnay. In the end, we decided it was much better enjoyed on its own, after dinner.

The bouquet is dominated by notes of raspberry and orange, beautiful red fruit aromatics. There’s a little bit of a whiff of childhood about it for me, as the sweet, slightly boiled fruit reminds me of Rowntree’s fruit pastilles and, later on, the distinguished fruit boilings we were given at the end of our dinner at Per Se. Boiled fruit is often cited as a negative quality in “cooked” New World wines, but subtly and in such a fine structure as here, it can be an attractive quality.

Given time, notes of black tea come through prominently amid the fruit. Hints of other typically Burgundian qualities, such as leafiness and game, are never more than very residual qualities. I found it becoming meaty last time (not gamey), but that doesn’t stand out at all this time – ah, the vagaries of tasting. It has a very soft mouthfeel, which suggests to me that it is not a wine that will go on for ever and ever, and when we last drank this, it was felt it was probably a wine for early consumption. On the other hand, TNB ( http://www.finewinediary.com/index.php ) finds it still too young, and I am intrigued to know how it will age. Will the aromatics simply fade out with the soft tannins, leaving little behind, in which case it should certainly be drunk now? Or are those primary fruits going to change with the rich acid into attractive secondary qualities?

There are still two bottles at home. We will give the Fremiets the benefit of time and the doubt and report back in a few years.