Last Saturday, our regular tasting group opted for a theme of “Grand Cru Burgundy”—which easily rallied a good-sized group of us to make the trek down to our host and hostess' home in Scituate. We had great cheeses, outstanding dinner dishes and some delicious desserts to accompany all the wine. All wines after the first one were served blind and voting on top 3 wines of the night were conducted prior to the reveal.
2006 Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanee. Peter started us off with a wine he had opened and drunk a bit of the night before. It starts out well, as the wine is fairly pretty aromatically--showing lots of fresh berry fruit and warm brown spices in a light and gentle, but open and inviting profile. In the mouth, though, this is one piercingly sharp mouth-puckerer. It is spiny and jangled, with crisp fruit and tingly spices that don’t show a lot of depth or body. The acidity is running amok here, and it is hard to say what the future of this wine might be. I was happy to move on
2002 Domaine Michel Lafarge Bourgogne. Blair started off the tasting proper with a “palate calibration” wine in order to get us ramped up for the Grand Crus to come. We knew it was not a Grand Cru, but that was all. This wine is murky dark garnet in color. The nose is deeply redolent of fuzzy red berry fruit and good funk, accented by smoke and forest greenery aromas. It displays a seamless and almost velvety texture from the get-go, supported all the way through by a fine bottom bass note. It is finely balanced by a squirt of citrus acidity, especially toward the finish—which feels fresh and more light red-berried than the more serious and sexy mid-palate. Tannins are not really a factor, nor is there a lot of overt structure to deal with—making this ideal for drinking right now.
1997 Domaine Bouchard Pere et Fils Corton Le Corton. The first Grand Cru in our line-up opens up rather fruity on the nose, with sweet berries and bright red cherries but also a lot of forest and earth notes that slowly come forward and begin to fold together with hints of mocha and fireplace ash in a complex and engaging fashion. There is nice density of dark cranberry, cherry and black raspberry fruit in the mouth, and the wine flows beautifully across the palate with generosity and depth. It is rounded, easy and classy, with light, mostly-resolved tannins and a fine acidity that freshens up the finish in a nice way. My WOTN.
2004 Domaine St. Martin Chambertin Clos de Beze. This is a much brighter and clearer color than the previous wine. It displays a decisive ashy smell right off the bat, along with some rather strong and direct stem and brambly notes married to root vegetable and sassafras aromas. In the mouth, it is dense and fairly rich, with a warm fleshy profile but an unfortunate tendency to show a bit of alcoholic warmth from time to time. It is youthfully structured with some prickly acidity that pokes out toward the back of the palate. The youthful, fleshy fruit is tasty, but the wine is just a bit unfocused at times—something that hopefully some additional bottle age can help with.
1998 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays. The nose here features some odd aromas of sarsaparilla, tomato leaf, cranberry, some V-8 veggies and a hint of incense that somehow manage to work together. In the mouth, this has excellent presence in the mouth, with plenty of fine body. It is direct and immediate with its flavor, fills the mouth in a very nice way and is well-balanced by fuzzy acidity. It has more tannins than the previous wines, but they are rather fine-grained and rounded—adding to the classy personality this wine exhibits. My #2 wine of the night.
1998 Domaine Pierre Damoy Chambertin Clos de Beze. This wine is a smoky brown-garnet color. The nose is dense and rich, with immediate notes of smoke, ash and menthol. It slowly evolves to fold in fleshier elements of crushed black raspberries, maraschino cherries and spiced fruitcake. On day 2, the nose turns decidedly earthier, with all kinds of leathery funk, turned earth, tobacco juice and black tea aromas. On the palate, this is dense and full, with the biggest mouthfeel of the night. It has a good feel of intensity carried along by lush and layered dark raspberry and black cherry fruit flavors and warm baking spices. There is just a faint hint of alcoholic warmth on the finish, but it doesn’t really mar the overall experience of the wine. The early chunkiness the wine exhibits morphs into a greater feel of finesse later on, but this is still more of a stacked and packed sort of wine at this stage. I don’t think it was a group favorite, but it was my #4 wine of the night.
2000 Domaine Armand Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin. Aromatically, this features lots of autumnal leaf and bark notes, with nutmeg spice, sassafras, strawberry and tomato leaf all part of the package, too. It turns more and more earthy with air, folding in some good burgundy funk character that make it real interesting in the end. On the red-fruited palate, it has fine drive and intensity to go with a cashmere texture and a freshening squirt of citrus. Although just medium-bodied, the tannins are perhaps the most present of all the wines thus far. However, they are completely lush and rounded as they coat the teeth on the very long finish. This would seem to have a long life ahead of it. My #3 wine of the night, perhaps #2 the more I think about it in retrospect.
2001 Domaine Maume Mazis-Chambertin. Oh man, the aromatics are right in your face with this wine. There are very strong aromas of cocoa powder, maraschino cherry, crème de cassis, spice cake and sweaty saddle that take a while to adjust to, but I have to admit it really grows on me. For the first 30 minutes or so, it is generally a very bright wine in the mouth, with mouth-puckering levels of acidity and astringency. The smoky finish is a bit more fleshed out, but still ends on a bit of a bitter note. Slowly, though, the astringency fades and the wine becomes more feminine, layered and tangy, with tons of soft red berry fruit and chalk dust elements. It seems pretty clear that this is one wine that needs more time to pull itself into a more cohesive and consistent wine.
1999 Daniel Bocquenet Echezeaux. This wine is the darkest-colored in a while. Aromas of tire rubber are really strong, with just about everybody at the table seemingly commenting on the strength of that feature. Beyond the vulcanized profile, one also encounters spiced black cherry fruit aromas accented by leafy and tree bark notes. In the mouth, the wine is youthfully tough in the mouth, with extremely fudgy, drying tannin and taut acidity throughout. It also seems to feature a high level of dry extract that clashes with the big acid streak running through the wine and the ever-present sense of alcoholic warmth. Flavors of cranberry fruit, persimmon, cocoa dust and blended spice flavors show some promise, but all of those drying tannins and tough acidity combine right now to make for a wine both difficult to evaluate and enjoy. If anything, this wine needs like 10 years before I would venture another taste.
1999 Domaine Bouchard Pere et Fils Chambertin Clos de Beze. Ooh, this smells very nice—featuring velvety crushed raspberries, black cherry compote and a bit of earthy forest notes sprinkled in for good measure. It is complex and layered, and manages the balance between fruity and earthy elements in perfect harmony for my tastes. In the mouth, it displays a fairly lush red berry and cherry fruit profile on the entry, but fairly soon a lot of taut, angular acidity comes on strong to make the middle and back of the palate feel less rounded and appealing. Overall, this is a wine where one hopes the palate can catch up to the lovely bouquet after a few more years in bottle.
2002 Domaine Pierre Amiot et Fils Clos de la Roche. This is a lighter-colored wine than the previous few. Moreover, a nice, elegant bouquet of soft red berry fruit, persimmon, chalky mint and white pepper herald a return to a fresher, more vibrant and zippy aromatic style. Keeping with the theme, this is lighter-bodied and airier on the palate than most wines this evening—with a zesty, lively personality but not a lot of depth of bottom notes. It is relatively taut and sharply tangy and can perhaps come across as a bit jangly at times. There is some surface pleasure to be had here, but I would like a bit more gravitas, I guess.
2003 Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg Echezeaux. The nose here is fairly lush and layered, with creamy cherry-vanilla scents and a bit of soft caramel and fern supporting more direct aromas of red fruit compote. It manages to be very creamy and smooth in the mouth, with ample body and obvious depth and layers of fruit. It has a fine sweet edge to all of that lush fruit that makes it very appealing and rewarding to drink, but it has yet to develop any true sense of complexity. Sneaky tannins are big and fuzzy and come in to coat the palate late—suggesting that this wine has big promise for a fine future.
Based on group voting, the top 4 wines of the night were, in order:
2000 Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin
1997 Bouchard Le Corton
2003 Mugneret-Gibourg Echezeaux
1998 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays
-Michael
