Our local tasting group has been drinking together now since April of 2005 and we recently held our 50th tasting, which was at our house--with a theme of Chablis and White Burgundy. As usual, we had great food dishes prepared by everybody and we had shockingly good success in encountering no premoxed bottles. I found that to be rather encouraging. And a fitting tribute to our 50th!
Sparkling wine:
1996 Duval-Leroy Champagne Femme de Champagne. This is simply outstanding. Right from the very start, it offers up delightful aromas of yeasty bread dough, biscuits, chalk dust, lemon rind and minerals that are light, airy, feminine and utterly classy. The bouquet invites the taster right in and the palate delivers the goods—with a vibrant, energetic and lifted flavor profile of lovely tree fruit, citrus and cool minerals that has great silken airiness but also a solid bottom note of full flavor. It fans out beautifully in the mouth and exhibits perfect balance right through to the persistent, dancing finish. This is just great stuff, but I believe it has only been produced in 1990, 1995, 1996 and 2000, so probably not real easy to find.
Chablis:
2008 Gilbert Picq Chablis Dessus la Carriere. The bouquet of this young Chablis is fresh, focused and lively—with direct but not especially nuanced aromas of lemon and lime, cool graphite and fresh herbs. In the mouth, it is tangy-fruited and the acidity is quite noticeably high from start to finish. It does seem to have an excellent backbone and there is solid density to the medium-weighted flavors impressions of citrus, herbs and wet stones. Although it already possesses some fine character, it is in no danger of going anywhere, and in fact is probably just getting started. I’d hold off another 3 or 4 years on this one.
2002 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume. This is classically Chablis on the nose—with fine aromas of crushed seashells, sea foam, chalk, wet river rocks and sort of a green peapod note, to boot. In the mouth, it leads with some saline notes, followed by tangy mixed citrus and a sliver of roasted nut and caramel sneaking in from time to time. It has a nice matted texture to it and feels fleshy, especially in comparison to the Picq bottling. Overall, it is quite good for current consumption, but I don’t think I’d wait more than another 2 or 3 years to drink up any other bottles I had.
2005 Domaine William Fevre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. This wine is initially quite tightly-coiled and introspective, but it slowly unwinds throughout the course of the evening and turns out to be quite appealing, if still obviously young. Aromatically, there isn’t a whole lot at first, but after a few hours it starts to show appealing notes of stainless steel, minerals, peach pit, lime zest and white flowers. In the mouth, it never lacks for volume or flesh—delivering a nicely-woven texture right from the start. I really like the flavor profile that highlights lime, seashell, grapefruit and mineral notes. The finish is focused and persistent, if a bit sour-tinged right now. Overall, this is extremely promising and seriously-structured Chablis that will last a good, long while.
2005 Joseph Drouhin Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. This is night and day different from the Fevre from the same vintage and site. I mean, it isn’t even close. Other than the sense of depth, density and structure, they are nothing alike in aromatic or flavor profile. Instead of a tight, steely nose, this wine is wide open and showing off an exotic and fascinating bouquet of allspice, nutmeg, ginger, roasted nuts, vanilla, dark citrus and mineral. It is just really overt, really unexpected and quite thought-provoking. In the mouth, this same picture continues to play out—with all sorts of nutmeg, mace, hazelnut, bosc pear, vanilla, lemon zest and chalk flavors combining with tingly acids to give the wine an energetic and zingy feel despite the woody components and rich body. It is certainly not what I would expect from Chablis, but it sure is fun and impressively unique. A lot of folks had it as their wine of the night.
Mixed White Burgundies:
1999 Latour-Giraud Meursault. Here we have a wine that is rather dark in color. The nose may be showing some signs of oxidation, with aromas of caramel, nuts, steel, dark baking spices and Christmas ribbon candy. In the mouth, it is heavily-spiced, full-bodied, and fairly lush-textured—with some nutty, caramelized flavors in support of pear and baked apple notes. It hangs in there a little while, but really starts to show some cracks as the evening goes on, and it doesn’t really survive a night in the fridge, at all. Definitely drink up.
2008 Louis Jadot Santenay Clos de Malte. This wine is very nice indeed on the nose, chock-a-block with rich aromas of lime pith, star fruit, citronella, chalk and graphite. For such a young wine, it is showing a lot of layering and expressiveness. In the mouth, it feels sappy in texture, with a lot of juicy fruit flavors like grapefruit, pineapple, lemon and pear. It seems to have a lust for life and just really delivers a lot of fully-fruited flavor right now.
2008 Louis Jadot Pernand-Vergelesses Clos de la Croix de Pierre. This wine is quite different than its flight-mate—coming across on the nose as rather smoky and featuring a lot of charcoal, sulfur, roasted nut, toasted bread and mineral aromas riding atop a citrusy, creamy core that I like a lot. It is quite leesy on the palate, with a richness and density of flavor that are surprising to me. There is a heavier bottom note here to be sure, and the citrus and pear fruit flavors are a tad sweet, the truth be told. But that is in keeping with its rich and fleshy personality, and I find myself liking it a good deal.
Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Crus:
2002 Domaine Marc Morey et Fils Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot. This wine shows a good deal of classy elegance on the nose, with finesse-driven aromas of lemon verbena tea, seashells, chalk and cool minerals. It stays clean and fresh on the palate, where it is bright and tangy but hardly lacking in dense fruit at the core. It shows off a lot of character already and really delivers a beautiful package of citrus, earth, spiced pear and white peach flavors that show no let-up at all. This is really excellent today, but also worth holding, for sure.
2002 Vincent Girardin Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Le Cailleret. One finds a much rounder, more extracted set of aromas with the Girardin—focusing on plump pear, lemon rind, toasted bread, chalk and granite aromas that are big and hefty but with a nice earthy grounding. In the mouth, it is probably the richest, densest wine of the night—with a ton of juicy and moderately sweet yellow fruit stuffing. The finish is fresher—even a bit zesty in nature—which helps keep the wine balanced. Although this shows seemingly more oak influence than some, I think it works ok with all of the dense fruit and the overall personality of the wine.
2005 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot. This wine is very smoky on the nose, with struck match, graphite, tomato plant, chopped green herb, key lime pie filling and chalk aromas playing out in an interesting mélange. In the mouth, it stays smoky, and comes across as leesy-textured and full of dense, concentrated citrus, apple and cream flavors underpinned by a fine cut of acid. There is a lot going on here and I like it a lot. I’d have no problem holding another 5 years, either.
2005 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets. There is a gorgeous nose on this wine—full of lemon candy, orange marmalade, blonde tobacco and granite stone aromas. In the mouth, it is full, fleshy and very pliant—very much full of citrus and tree fruit flavors lain over a leesy-textured framework. It is not nearly as smoky as the Morgeot and is more richly-woven and sweet fruit-tinged. It doesn’t have quite the same cut, but instead delivers a sexier, spicier, more exotic package, with fine oak accents all the way through. It is more hedonistic, and really just delicious. One of my favorites this evening.
Some Red Burgundies:
2002 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Monthelie 1er Cru Les Duresses. Switching over to the reds, we start with this wine that features a very earthy nose, with aromas of undergrowth, tomato leaves, dirt, black cherry and black raspberry. It is rather dry, earthy and sort of leafy in the mouth, with lots of earth-toned flavors to go with dark cherry, dark cranberry, tobacco and spice notes. It is cool and classically-structured and seems like it can go a good while in the cellar.
2008 Louis Jadot Beaune Clos des Ursules. This wine changes things up quite a bit, with a fresh, lively nose of bright red cherries and raspberries leading the way, accented by some good funk, earth and chocolate notes that I like. In the mouth, it is bright and crunchy, with a lot of acidity right up front to go along with taut and tart red cherry fruit. It reveals a little bit of earthiness underneath as one stays with it, but it is clear that this needs some time to flesh out and tame the sharper tones. I think it will be real nice down the road, but I’d wait at least 3-5 years, personally.
Sweet wine:
1993 The Royal Tokaji Company Tokaji Aszu Essencia. My goodness, I don’t know that I’ve seen a Tokaji wine quite this mahogany brown in color. Wow, and the nose just dazzles with wild aromas of raisins, dates, prunes, dark gingerbread, molasses and exotic mulling spices. In the mouth, it is unbelievably rich and sweet, but delightfully driven and tangy at the same time. For such a deep and densely-concentrated wine, it exhibits an easy balance that makes the mouth water for more. The flavors of yellow raisin, dates, prunes and caramel are compellingly long and lasting, with an incredible finishing kick. A little sure goes a long way here, but this is really impressive stuff and a great way to wrap up our 50th tasting!
-Michael