2011 Beaune Les Greves

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. The Beaune 1er Cru Grèves 2011 from Tollot-Beaut was showing some reduction on the nose at first with a tinge of burnt rubber besmirching the dark berry fruit. Returning after ten minutes the aromatics are beginning to “motor” and develop an arresting sense of mineralité. The palate is medium-bodied with quite dry, what you might call “stringy” tannins, sour cherry and black pepper appearing on the saline finish. It seems to lack harmony and persistence initially, but ameliorates with aeration and emerges butterfly-like with grace, tension and sophistication.