White mischief | 5 May 2016

I promised a return to Burgundy and the 2014 vintage, which becomes no less impressive when recollected in tranquillity. We started at Marc Morey, where Sabine Mollard presented her Bourgogne Blanc. How did it compare with Pierre Bourée’s similar wine, often praised in this column? (We had sampled his ’15 the previous evening.) There is a simple answer: I would prefer the one I had tasted most recently. We are dealing with village wines, along the foothills of greatness. But in their delightful harmonies of butter, lemon, hay and spring flowers, there are hints of the grandeurs of Montrachet.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Not quite, but a charming spring day, certainly. If you drink no lesser wine in the course of this summer, you will have spent a delightful season. The Marc Morey wine was already drinkable, though another year or even two would do no harm.