WTN: 1996 Raphet - Clos de Vougeot

Drank this on the occasion of my wife's forty - "mmmph mmmph" birthday. We used the corkage service at a new local dining establishment and had the wine decanted about one hour before the main course arrived.

Color: Excessively low lighting made it impossible to tell. Needed night vision goggles.

Nose: Bright cherry and citrus with the nice Burg earthy notes.

Taste: Very odd in that the wine was much tighter and acidic than it was when we drank the previous bottle about 18 months ago. I gave it a good swirl in the glass and then really swished it around in the decanter to coax something out of it. Finally got some black cherry and licorice, but the wine remained tart and overly acidic to the end. Not bad, but I found the wines new found youth to be somewhat baffling. Definitely not as harmonious and complex as the previous tasting. Perhaps this is the "dumb phase" that I've heard about. Oh well, live and learn. Dammit!

Sorry it let you down. I have had a small tasting of one Raphet Grand Cru Burgundy which I REALLY enjoyed--it was the 1999 Clos de Beze. I didn't think the 2000 Clos de Beze was as good and I haven't tried that producer's Vougeot.

Sam,
I hate it when "that" happens.
BP

Sounds like it is still being a baby and going up and down considering your earlier tasting.

Have you tasted any of the Raphets since his son took over...I think in 02? I tried a few and thought the were going to be very nice wines.

Jason

Jason,

I have tasted the Raphet Gevry-Chambertin 2003. It was quite good, but I ended up not buying it because I thought it was somewhat over priced for a reasonable QPR Gevry. I believe I bought the Jadot Gevry 2003 model instead. In the Vougeot I have only tasted the '96 and '98 Raphet and liked both of them enough to purchase. I did not know that the son had taken over in '02. I will have to seek out some more recent vintages.

Thanks,

I invite you to join my DNO96 campaign, a powerful organization dedicated to encouraging people to leave 1996 Burgundies in the cellar. IMO every other vintage in the '90s will be ready long before 1996 and I wouldn't be surprised if they followed a similar aging curve to 1988 or even 1972 (while beinga better vintage than the former).

NB - Of course this is a vintage generalization and there will always be exceptions

Jay,

Unfortunately I needed to join your organization two weeks earlier. I have a '96 Grands Echezeaux that I planned to hold until '08. I am thinking I need to cellar it until at least 2012 now. I also have one more '96 Vougeot. I'm not sure when the heck to give that one another shot.

Thanks,

I invite you to join my DNO96 campaign, a powerful organization dedicated to encouraging people to leave 1996 Burgundies in the cellar. IMO every other vintage in the '90s will be ready long before 1996 and I wouldn't be surprised if they followed a similar aging curve to 1988 or even 1972 (while beinga better vintage than the former).

So Jay, are you referring to GC and top 1er only? I have some village wines (Mugnier & Roumier C-M, Chevillon NSG VV) and lesser 1ers I was thinking of moving towards drink section. Please advise!

So Jay, are you referring to GC and top 1er only? I have some village wines (Mugnier & Roumier C-M, Chevillon NSG VV) and lesser 1ers I was thinking of moving towards drink section. Please advise!

The few 96 village wines I have tried recently are drinking great. I would suspect the many 1er crus are starting to open for business, but no rush.

Jason

I have much less experience with Burgundy (96 or otherwise) than others (especially Jay) but I also thought that the lower end wines could be approached now, especially from the CdBeaune..

Anyway, I know very little about Raphet as well (so what am I adding here ) but I seem to remember that they were one of the few true "traditional" wines at North Berkeley, and therefore quite drinkable. But this talk about the son taking over and changing the style would worry me a bit.

Anyway, depends what you're looking for.

I've had some young but open village '96s, and a number of totally closed grand crus. I'd guess that you could chance a 1er cru, but I'd really open any '95s in preference.