2010 Chateau Chalon

I was slightly disappointed with the bottle of 2010 Château Chalon, especially in the context of the potentially perfect 2011. The bottle I tasted—from the second bottling, marked L02 in small letters under the alcohol level on the label—had some caramel-like notes that made me think of a slightly more advanced wine with more oxidative character. Of course, this is all relative, because the wine has the rancid nutty, smoky and spicy notes that are textbook Château Chalon. 2010 is a vintage Laurent Macle compares with 2008 again, but it's less marked by the gout de jaune. He also mentioned 1999, and perhaps 1997. After a while, and in the context of the older bottles that he opened, the 2010 felt much fresher, and the oxidative twist had almost disappeared.