WTN: Dampt Drouhin Tempier Chapoutier Sorrel Grivot

Monthly blind tasting lunch notes:

2007 Daniel Dampt Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume – decent fruit but slight oxidation good flavours and acid, nice sweetness. Another promising wine falls to premox.

2007 Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume – much fresher nose of citrus/grapefruit and wood, high crisp acid and some sweetness at the end.

2008 Drouhin Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir – sweet straw and peach nose, some coconut hints on palate, a smooth round lower acid wine with some nice complexity already.

1997 Leasingham Bin 61 Shiraz – still good colour, a nose of vitamins, and a fair biit of acidity, enough that I was guessing it was a Cape wine, as it also lacked the ripe character you often see in Oz. Very nice.

2000 Tardieu Laurent Vacqueyras Vielles Vignes – still dark, with a mellow nose with hints of mint, slightly astringent dry finish, pleasant.

1993 Dom. Tempier Migoua Bandol – pale almost Burgundian colour, slightly reductive red fruit nose, soft tannins and a sweet medium length finish. Drink now.

1993 Chapoutier Hermitage La Sizeraine – mature colour, with sweet dark fruit in the nose, good depth, good flavours and excellent acidity and structure. This continues to surprise. Rated by RP from barrel and the wine in bottle never measured up to that first look, but nonetheless it continues to please.

1991 Marc Sorrel Hermitage La Greal – dark colour, and an interesting and unusual charcoal smoky nose, with perhaps a faint hint of TCA at the start but as it did go away, I guess it wasn’t – the usual rule in diagnosing TCA. Good middle, firm finish – showing surprisingly youthful.

1988 Jean Grivot Vosne Romanee – pale with browning edges, and a nose of wood smoke, and old fruit, acidity but no tannin. Over the hill but not decrepit, and still interesting.

[David M. Bueker]

Interesting set of wines. I had a small stash of the 2001 T-L Vacqueyras Vielles Vignes, but drank them up when they seemed to be drying out.

Our trasting group once bought 10 cases or so of the Leasingham. Back in the '90s it was a very drinkable Shiraz. Haven't looked at any recent vintages. I wonder if it is still as pleasant.

[Jenise]

Some comments:

2007 Daniel Dampt Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume – As you said; sad.

2007 Billaud-Simon Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume – brilliant Chablis, just what you describe and what we all hope for. New producer to me.

2008 Drouhin Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir – Actually, this was a 2008, not 2009, just a typo on your part I'm sure but nonetheless, it had a weight and ripeness more like 09 than 08 so I can see where one's mindset would add to the mistake. That out of the way, the coconut nose and peachy palate were downright odd. Not unpleasant, just unexpected and not exactly desirable; so I set a glass aside to check back with later to see if it shed anything with a little more time in the glass (I brought this wine, and wanted to know what to expect of my remaning bottles). And did it get better? No, WORSE: in no more than 30 minutes, it oxidized. As your notes indicate there wasn't even a hint of that on first pour but it was undeniable a short time later: so, score for the day? Two out of three. DAMN.

1997 Leasingham Bin 61 Shiraz – Very balanced, lighter body (for shiraz), with a little vitamin B6 on the nose. That should have said 'syrah' to me, I suppose, especially with the violet perfume that was also on the nose, as it's the only grape I ever get that particular minerality from and I've had it on syrahs from around the globe, but I honestly couldn't place the wine, especially right out of the box after the Chablis. Deceptively youthful, too. A nice surprise.

2000 Tardieu Laurent Vacqueyras Vielles Vignes – Deep color, spicy berry fruit that screamed 'grenache', with an unusual elegance on the palate for a Vacq. Entering a peak plateau here, very nice.

1993 Dom. Tempier Migoua Bandol – H2S nose at first, light med red, some spice, mushrooms, and the bug spray aroma typical of old zins, which I thought it was. Pleasant, but everything that makes Bandol mourvedres special in general and Tempier special in particular had mostly faded.

1993 Chapoutier Hermitage La Sizeraine – For some reason, I took no notes at all on this wine.

1991 Marc Sorrel Hermitage La Greal – dark color, black cherry and charcoal in that way that could be nothing other than Hermitage, in fact I thought it might be a Chave. Excellent.

1988 Jean Grivot Vosne Romanee – Actually, for an 88 village wine, I thought it had fairly good color and actually some reasonable ex-fruit vs. the tea and porpourri most wines of this class and age are at this point. I enjoyed it a great deal, and it only improved with time in the glass. A shame it got relegated to cheese duty, though I understand why Michael made this choice considering the syrah block.