WTN: Sadness of an excellent wine (Niellon)

Betsy had a late rehearsal in city, I had dinner on table soon after she got home. Roast chicken with za’atar, sauteed watercress with ginger, broccoli, and kale soup with rice. Wine was the 1991 Niellon “Les Vergers” Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru. Sigh- the excellence of this is a painful reminder of the sadness that is PremOx, why couldn’t my 1996-on white Burgs have aged liked this? And 1991 isn’t even a heralded vintage. Broad but with good acids, pear fruit accented with citrus, honey, and almond. Good length, and holds up well through evening. This is a full and complex white Burgundy that makes me smile- with sadness. A-

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

[David M. Bueker]

Nice.

And you are right. It's sad that we may never have that again.

The 2010 vintage of this was very nice although I wouldn't expect it to hold up for over two decades.

JC, The Niellon plot of Vergers was very old, and grubbed up in late 90s (I know there was a 97, and no 99, not sure re 98). They restarted production in I think 2004. But while still great terroir young vines.

I hate to think how many white burgs from the 90s went down my drain.

Niellon used to be great stuff.