TN: Two friends sharing three bottles of wine

TWO FRIENDS SHARING THREE BOTTLES OF WINE - Da Domenico Ristorante, Mclean, VA (1/16/2017)

RJ and I have shared more than a few memorable bottles over the past ten plus years. This wasn’t really a wine dinner but we had three pretty special bottles. For me, the most important aspect of having passion in wine is the friendship and camaraderie. A lot of my closest friends are also my wine drinking buddies. As usual, we conversed about all different sorts of topics. Time flies when you’re having fun as our earlier dinner lasted over five hours.

  • 1993 Domaine Michel Niellon Bâtard-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru
    Intense ripe yellow fruit driven nose, RJ mentions guava, peach, lemon curd, sesame, butter scotch, oyster shell, a hint of lanoline and flowers. Excellent concentration, dense ripe yellow fruit driven palate impression, quite rich yet precise palate, perfect amount of acidity, strong presence of mineral and a lovely long finish. This is a perfectly mature Batard, ie dense and masculine. Excellent showing. (95 pts.)
  • 1993 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin-Clos de Bèze - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru
    Explosive youthful nose displaying intense black and red fruits, blackberry, raspberry, cherry, liquid smoke, rose, espresso, dark spices, a hint of sous bois and earth. Perfectly harmonious sensual palate, still a hint of tannins and a seamless long finish that ends with intense dark fruit and smoke. This is an extremely youthful example. Drinking incredibly well! (98 pts.)
  • 1971 Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone della Valpolicella Classico - Italy, Veneto, Valpolicella, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico
    A bit tired nose like the note from Rupert, a hint of madeira, raisin and rose. Medium concentration, fully resolved, a hint of sweetness and a medium to short finish. It gains a bit of weight but not enough. (87 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Nice! Very, very nice!

Nice notes. Appreciate and understand your comments about sharing the passion with friends.

Da Domenico! How funny. I graduated from McLean, HS many years ago, and know that place well.

It is such a painful pleasure to hear of good Michel Niellon bottles. A favorite producer of mine, and so many have fallen victim to the plague. How wonderful to have some left from before the problem years.

Thank you for the notes, as always.

Sarah,
It is an old school Italian place as you know. Mclean/Tysons area has changed alot.

I believe Niellon was ok until the 95 vintage. As I recall the 93 Batard is one of Allen’s favorite white Burgundies.

i’ve had that 93 rousseau cdb a couple of times, all examples have been tremendous.

cheers!

I had a bunch of 90 Niellon Chevy and Batard that went bad, as did 90 Lafon Perrieres, but of course that was premox pre-premox.

I also had some issues with the early 90s Lafon.

More than a few years ago, when Paul Wasserman was still working at Woodland Hills Wine, I wandered into the store and asked him for the best $300 bottle that I could drink with my wife to celebrate our anniversary (I forget which one, but it must have been important). He went into the back of the store and came out with a bottle of 1993 Rousseau Clos de Beze. It was delicious then, too.

You can probably get $300 for your empty bottle now!

Noce notes. Thee are some on the forum who would be relieved that you only drank three bottles

About fifteen years ago Scott Manlin went to some of the top restaurants in Paris as well as Troisgros and drank through most of the Rousseau Chambertin and CDB for sub $200. I drank for $350 at Troisgros as I recall.

We typically have six to eight for our wine dinners. I don’t enjoy being drunk. It is also impossible to write TNs after a few glasses. This was totally and drinking event!

drank both 93 Rousseau Chamb and Beze cheap at Troisgros once, a bunch of 88 Jayer Cros Parantoux at €300 throughout France. Bring back those days.

When I clicked on the thread, I honestly thought there was going to be some funny little zinger like… One too many friends… But thanks for the notes.

My guess it was around December 2004 as that was when Paul called to tell me i had to buy some of the 93 Rousseau he’d bought from a local collector.