what about 2011 white Burgundy ? A blind tasting

My wine club Euryanthe got together to taste 10 white Burgundy wines from 2011 . Is this a somewhat forgotten vintage ? ( because it came after the great 2010 ) . Well , I like it a lot , based on what we tasted . We were 9 tasters and 8 of us voted for the Coche Dury Meursault Perrieres as the winner , no surprise here . But I did find a delicious wine I never heard about ( the Cerberons )

Wine 1 : floral , serious acidity , very pure and monolythic . Not complex . Goes well with oysters 88/100 ( Aligoté from Coche Dury )
Wine 2 : flinty ,very concentrated , you taste extract , powerful , one-dimensional but wow . 92/100 ( Aligoté from d’Auvenay )

Wine 3: Smoky and flinty , young and powerful , this is definitely a d’Auvenay style , not elegant but incredible power 93/100 ( Domaine de Cerberons Meursault les Cras )
Wine 4: more reduced , floral , pure and charming , delicate compared to 3 , 91/100 ( Henri Boillot Meursault Charmes )

Wine 5: fresh , floral , great balance , I like this wine a lot , young but already delicious for now 94/100 ( Henri Boillot Clos de la Mouchere )
Wine 6: strange nose , difficult to judge , varnish ? get’s better NR ( Jean Marc Boillot Puligny La Truffiere )
Wine 7: honey on the nose , a big fat creamy wine , power without finesse , no acidity , a different style but if you like this , it’s good . 92/100 ( Paul Pernot Puligny les Pucelles )

Wine 8: lot’s of acidity , mineral , some reduction , ready to drink , good wine 92/100 ( Albert Grivault Meursault Perrieres )
Wine 9: flinty and spicy , young still , apple and salt , this MUST be Coche 96+/100 ( Coche Dury Meursault Perrieres )
Wine 10: mineral and chalky , ligther in style compared to the previous wine , very elegant , delicious and fully ready 95/100 ( Comte lafon Meursault Perrieres ).

No surprises when we voted for our top 3 ; almost everybody voted for Coche , followed by Comte Lafon and third place for the Clos de la Mouchere .

The 2011 is a very nice vintage , at least most of these wines . I would start to drink them now .

Following this tasting , we had dinner with a couple of remarkable red wines of which I will never forget

• Latour 1908 : amazing wine , still spicy and stemmy with good lenght . This is actually so good I wonder if it is a legitimate bottle .
• Echezeaux 2006 DRC : this is so sweet some of us thought it was grenache . It seems to be a very sweet vintage , that 2006 . I like the wine though , but it is not for purists .
• 1996 Domaine Leroy Gevrey Chambertin Les Combottes .= the real deal . I loved the 1996 when it was just bottled but then it closed down and most wines tasted overly stemmy . Not this one . For a premier cru , it comes close to perfection . Crunchy tannins , fresh fruit , very pinot .

Yes Herwig and everyone was happy with the bottles you brought with you.

Amazing evening…it will be very difficult to do better the next time.

François
http://www.bourgognewijnen.be

Herwig, you’re forgetting a couple of other memorable bottles, like Rousseau Chambertin 1995, Latour 1996 and 1982 (!), Yquem 1985…

Cheers --Mike

Was the d’auvenay aligote the sous le chatelet version?

Herwig,
thanks for the notes.
Michiel,
how was the 95 Rousseau and the 82 Latour ?
Btw. nice to see you posting.
Cheers
Rainer

Yes , sous le Chatelet 2011 .

Rainer , you should come next time !

Both the Latour 82 ( fully ready ) and the Rousseau Chambertin 95 ( young )were fantastic . The 64 Latour was corked .

Thanks Herwig. I was only speaking to a good Burg friend the other day about how underrated the '11 whites are. It is a vintage that is elegant and energetic without the wines being thin or tart. Many of the wines seem to be drinking beautifully right now from top to bottom.

Nice to see the 2011 notes. Thanks Herwig.

I really liked the 2011s when I tasted them. What I’ve tasted has mostly been from Meursault and Chevalier, and while it’s not a blockbuster vintage, the wines have made a good overall impression on me.

I’m glad that the Lafon showed well, but the “fully ready” comment is disconcerting and reminds me of my own impressions of the 2007 and 2008 Lafon MPs at five years too – though both managed to hold on just well enough not to be premoxed at my annual vintage dinners. Starting with 2013 Lafon converted to DIAM, so maybe he’ll eventually get premox under control, although it’s been obvious for a decade plus that he doesn’t use enough SO2 and doesn’t press hard enough.