Bubbly, white and red burgundy night in CO

Got together with some of the local crew for a great night, that ended up with blizzard-like conditions for the drive home.
Overall, the food and wines were excellent, but the champagne and whites left the reds pretty far behind. The recioto was divine.

2002 Piper Heidsieck Cuvee Rare
Low effervescence for this bottle, with barely a "pop" on uncorking and few bubbles. The bouquet was fairly quiet and linear, showing mostly citrus and slate, but the palate still had tons of energy and body in a crystalline, bright, lime-driven format. Terrific length, still fresh and intense, but could be time to open these. 93 pts.

2002 Jacquesson Extra Brut Degorgement Tardive
Disgorged in 2017! Also a low effervescence bottle. My first try with this house. This is 57% pinot noir and it shows with the distinct soil and umami-caraway seeds notes on the wine, almost like a Blanc de Noirs. It is quite dry, but not shrill. Lovely balance and length, just not my preferred style. 91 pts.

2007 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne BdB
One of my favorite champagnes and this bottle does not disappoint. Great bouquet with florals and citrus, still fresh as a daisy. Definitely on the brighter end of the spectrum, but it has more body and richer fruit than the Rare. Not really a hair out of place, with balance, intensity, length, and pleasure found in perfect proportion. Young, but drinking great. 94-95 pts.

2014 Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers
Another sensational bottle, up there for WOTN. Minty, tarragon, lemon creme, subtle vanilla, white flowers. Great body and luxurious fruit, yet never heavy. Perfect balance, in such a great spot. White burgundy stands alone. 94-95 pts.

1989 Domaine Rapet Corton-Charlemagne
Still a going concern, this suffers next to the more interesting and electric Niellon. Tastes like an old yet intact white wine, with a quiet bouquet, good body (almost shows the structure of a red), and a nice slightly acrid finish. Little complexity nor old-wine intrigue though. 89-90 pts.

On to the reds...
1966 Remoissenet Pommard Clos des Epenots
"Suspiciously young", notes the one highly-experienced Burgundy lover in the group, "but then Remoissenet late releases always are". The color was a shockingly deep red and a fresh nose, with no signs of tertiary development. Correct flavors, decent bouquet and body, fairly silky structure, but overall the wine is not that interesting. 87-88 pts.

1999 Henri Gouges Nuits-St-Georges Les Chênes Carteaux
Wow, this is a beast and a true throw-back. Sauvage, vinous, deep, dark, a touch rank with some stemminess, I love the earthy, rustic, intense bouquet. There is great body and concentration on the attack, but then a rough, woody structure and tannin clamps down on the finish and leaves a hard, acrid taste. 90 pts tonight for its energy and unapologetic old-schoolness, but 93+ pts easily if this pull together with another decade or more in the cellar.

1999 Chevillon Nuits-St-Georges Les Chaignots
The class of the reds for me, with a beautiful bouquet of ripe cherries and sweet herbs. Balanced, integrated, elegant with body, but not showing much length nor complexity at the moment. Overall, very good and a little shy of dazzling, could improve still. 92-93 pts.

2002 La Pousse d'Or Volnay Clos des 60 Ouvrees
Excellent and absolutely tasty, but in the end analysis a little dull and predictable with all of its Volnay seductiveness and standard perfume. I can't really find specific fault, it was just like reading a brilliantly written and edited story that in the end has no soul. Ok, too harsh, but I was looking for more excitement and had to go back to the Gouges. 92 pts.

2001 Louis Remy Clos de la Roche
Served last and a touch forgotten, but this was very nice and correct. Nice cherry fruit. Seemed a little foursquare, perhaps too young. 90-91 pts.

2007 Quintarelli Recioto "A Roberto"
Really terrific and singular. Not particularly sweet nor heavy, yet it still performs like a dessert wine and stands up to a delicious Basque-style cheese cake. Does that magic act of tasting like an (unusual) dry red table wine that somehow isn't. Wonderful equilibrium, class and substance, all it lacks in complexity tonight, nevertheless a delight. I am a sucker for recioto, which is reflected in my score. 93-94 pts.

One always has to wonder what's really in Remoissenet bottles dated from the 1960s. The domaine's owner was convicted of wine fraud in the 1980s.

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

Thankfully Remoissenet is on the up and up these days.

[Jenise]

I've had the '02 Rare three times in the last 3-4 years, and no two bottles were alike. Yours sounds like it would have been yet a fourth singular experience. Interesting though, especially considering the unenthusiastic cork. And that '07 Comtes--really an exciting wine.

I envy you every other wine here, especially the Niellon.

Good to know about Remoissenet, didn’t know about that fraud charges.

Anyone have (positive) experiences drinking fully mature Henri Gouges, before the next generation took over?

[David M. Bueker]

Good to know about Remoissenet, didn’t know about that fraud charges.

Anyone have (positive) experiences drinking fully mature Henri Gouges, before the next generation took over?

Nope. Still waiting on mine. Had a half bottle of a 2005 NSG villages that was getting there, but no more than that.

1999 Henri Gouges Nuits-St-Georges Les Chênes Carreaux
Wow, this is a beast and a true throw-back. Sauvage, vinous, deep, dark, a touch rank with some stemminess, I love the earthy, rustic, intense bouquet. There is great body and concentration on the attack, but then a rough, woody structure and tannin clamps down on the finish and leaves a hard, acrid taste. 90 pts tonight for its energy and unapologetic old-schoolness, but 93+ pts easily if this pull together with another decade or more in the cellar.

I guess it's old-school, but not sure if that's a good thing in this case. From the friendly 1999 vintage, at 20+ years old, from a lieu-dit that is more approachable than the other Gouges cuvees. And still fierce?! Maybe it will show something more special in the future. Or maybe it's just not a great wine.

That said, I have been a fan of Gouges and always want to buy more. And I think there may be a typo, as you probably meant Les Chênes Carteaux?

Anyone have (positive) experiences drinking fully mature Henri Gouges, before the next generation took over?

72 LSG was drinking great last year!
97 Vaucrains was pretty special, though I wouldn't call fully mature, and 99 LSG and Vaucrains were very young-but tasty!
While the Chevillon big 3 need time for 1999, the other premiers are in a good place
I generally like the 02 Rare, though abhor the OTT bottle, that lack of efferevesence is not typical

Very good to hear that Remoissonet is legit these days. A wine merchant told me that the funny thing about the domaine back in the day is that there was never any problem filling orders for 1964 grands crus. He and a group of other wine retailers once tasted a bottle of '64 Remoissonet and amused themselves by trying to figure out what it really was.

If you've ever been wine tasting in Burgundy you'll have seen how trivially easy it is to commit wine fraud. The French excise tax on wine is paid when the label goes on the bottle, so bottles being cellar-aged are just kept unlabeled in bins. The bins usually have a label on them indicating the vintage and appellation, but sometimes not even that. About the only way to get caught is to make a mistake such as selling more wine from a particular year/appellation than your reported harvest would have yielded.

-Paul W.

Yeah, I’ve had two prior bottles of the 02 Rare which showed much better with plenty of bead.

Good points about the Gouges — it might never resolve into something more harmonious, but it seemed to have plenty of stuffing still. Maybe it just needs 40+ years like Dale’s ‘72! That said, I doubt it will ever fully shed its rustic nature (which is fine by me). Kinda like a Cornas in the Nuits.