TN: 2006 Joseph Drouhin Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Petits Monts

  • 2006 Joseph Drouhin Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Petits Monts - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru (8/30/2014)
    First glimpse of this bottling. Decanted for one hour. Medium ruby color. Nose of fresh cranberry, anise, violets, acrid stone, earthy tones. Lovely core of black raspberry and mulberry fruit on the palate immediately supported by iron and mineral, displaying lithe, muscular texture on the tongue. Nice inherent spice and a fine balance of freshening acidity and serious but already softened tannins. Long finish of dark red fruit and flinty iron notes. Surprisingly open at this stage with lots to gain from further aging. Classy wine. (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Had a couple if 98s that were lacking in structure but otherwise pleasant enough to drink by itself. Could not hold up paired with food. Wasn’t sure if it was bottling, storage, or vintage problem.

Fred,

Bummer, I am sorry to hear that. This is the first vintage I acquired so I have no other data points. Liked it, though, as TN indicates. Hope your other bottles turn out better.

Cheers,
Doug

Nice job, Doug.
I’ve had very few Petits Monts, but the few I’ve had did strike me as “classy” as you say.
This one sounds right up my alley.
Cheers.

It was definitely a good drink, Dennis. First Petits Monts for me and hopefully not the last.

Cheers,
Doug

This was really unpleasantly riddled with oak char on release. Sounds like it had come around.

Berry,

I would agree. I am usually pretty averse to oak influence and thought this was not affected by it.

Cheers,
Doug

A '98 without structure? That makes no sense.

Duplicate

Not a lot of new oak in this. Char is of course different, but I’d be surprised to find a drouhin petit monts that was particularly marked by oak. That is what we have liger-belair for…

In 2006 Drouhin had a winemaker regime change because of a retirement. At the time I felt both 2006 and 2007 seemed overly oaked/charred relative to the wine weights compared to earlier years. Things seemed to get better in that respect starting in 2008. I havnt gone back and visited those wines so Im not sure how they have evolved.

20% new oak for the petits monts in 2006 according to my notes.

Didn’t I read here that at least some folks believe that oak char aromas can really be a symptom of reduction? Seemed odd to me when I read that but potentially explained why I didn’t like some things from great vintages I tried way way back that are generally well-liked (e.g. Hudelot Noellat).

The only Petit Monts I’ve tried is 2010 Forey which was so wide-open delicious that I sprang for a mixed case of other Forey 2010 Vosnes and Echezeaux.

Drouhin buys its wood three years in advance from Francois Freres, a company I rep here. Laurence Jobard did retire in 2006 but I don’t think anything changed.

When you use three year wood it is very difficult to get char from the wood. Heavy toast will taste sweet, not charred like a campfire.

My typical impression of Drouhin wines (I took Laurence around California several times and visited her a lot in France) is that I love them in barrel (where else can you go and taste Montrachet from different ends of the vineyard?) find them a bit boring in bottle for six or seven years and then they blossom like gangbusters. I wish I had more in the cellar.

At the time it really did seem like something changed. Maybe it was just the vintages. FWIW, when I shared my observations a few years ago on this a few people concurred (and there were also dissenters at the time too). Either way, I thought Drouhin killed it in 2008. Those were delicious young with enough air.

One thing Ive always liked about Drouhin is that they always have great complex aromatics even when young. People complain they aren’t powerful enough flavor wise but Ive generally really loved the style. Drouhin was the widest available producer in my area when I started getting into Burgundy with the 2002 vintage so my palate was molded to their approach.

What are the general thoughts on 06 ? I posted on a great bottle of 06 LLM Vonay Caillerts we had over the weekend. Some quick searching showed some positive notes on Vosne and Volnay recently so curious as to the general opinion ?

The 99 is just started to come around…abd live it [cheers.gif]

Lots of people in Burgundy felt that 2005 stole 2006s thunder, that 2005 was a bit atypical whereas 2006 was a classical excellent vintage. Since I spent all my money on 2005s I’ll find out courtesy of somebody else’s cellar.

My general thoughts are that it was especially strong in NSG and that many of the wines are shutting down.