+1 on Forey, his Vosne Petit Monts was the first Forey and 2010 I tried, was pretty impressed. Don’t have experience aging them. I’ve seen a flyer or two on his 2012s just over $100 for Petit Monts so just beginning to hit the market.
There are lots of stores in DC, I was thinking you could pick up something decent locally. I’d probably just ask the guys at Bassins what they recommend like this that may not be on the website.
Schneiders has 2009 Mongeard Mugneret Grands Echezeaux listed for $149. 20 years since I’ve had that wine but I expect you could do worse.
I did some thinking and browsing on this and this is a tough ticket. On Wine Searcher I found a 2000 Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux for $88. CT 90.3. This might address Jay’s concern about the oak too.
The 2005 version is available for $149. The CT remarks are strong with an average of 92.4 FWIW.
I ruled out a lot more than I can suggest - Clavelier, etc.
You all have been a huge help – thanks for your time spent on this! I knew it would be tricky, but I’m surprised that even at the $150 level options are so limited.
I don’t care about village vs. 1er vs. grand cru, so long as it fits the request. I’ll start looking through the options you’ve suggested. I
Vosne Romanee is especially challenging. The exercise would be exponentially easier in pretty much every other village (with Chambolle being the other that could be challenging).
Rene was a legend who has left us, Nathan. And his vines have passed on to less-proficient hands. So, maybe yours isn’t the fairest example. I’ve had the 2002 before and it was terrific, and far better than many other wines for the money. I wish I had more Engel. But his wines have gone the way of Jayer (yes, less so) and Truchot, though, of course, Jacky is still with us.
Well, again, you’re welcome to fire up your Wine-Searcher-Fu and find an example to prove that the situation isn’t completely hopeless.
My experience is that the “Inexpensive Burgundy Which Doesn’t Suck” crowd goes all gangbusters right up until you ask them for a specific example and then they’re all “Uh, uh, uh, Fourrier!” which only proves that they don’t understand what it means to not suck.
This is simply not true. Even for the OP’s rather specific, restrictive request, I suggested two wines that are available, affordable, have good scores, and should be open for drinking:
2006 Jadot Vosne Beaux Monts, $110 at Hart Davis Hart, 90-92 BH, 92.3 CT
2006 Jadot Vosne Suchots, $85 at Hart Davis Hart, 91-93 BH, 89 CT
With a few simple searches, I found several other bottles that would have met the requirements, but would not have been quite as ready to drink.
The simple fact is that aged/mature bottles, from any quality region, cost more money than those same vintages did on release: One either buys wine on release and incurs the expense of storage, or one pays more money, later, to buy aged examples. Age adds to the cost, either way.
Vosne-Romanee is probably the most hallowed, expensive agricultural real estate in the world, and the better wines from Vosne usually don’t hit maturity until at least 18 years of age. So, to expect that one can find a surplus of inexpensive, mature wines from Vosne would be ludicrous.
To cite the dearth of mature examples of Vosne-Romanee for under $150 as proof of the lack of quality red Burgundy for under $75 is nonsense.
Yes… “mature” Vosne is especially difficult for a number of reasons, including that the grand crus in Vosne are all pretty much DRC (I know the Echezaux are, technically, Vosne, but…are really in Flagey)…and the quality of the producers in Vosne itself is very high and very expensive to buy, even new. The town is small and the names well-respected (and some, like Dr. Georges Mugneret, have little actual Vosne, as did the Engel estate or others). The villages wines are usually from good producers…and are usually good wines as the villages vineyards are well-situated…nothing accross the road (formerly RN 74)…and the prices take that into account. It is also most people’s (including mine) favorite area (with, I think, Chambolle a close second or maybe first)…
So, Vosne is a special case for these…and other…reasons. And, probably why the query here concerns a mature Vosne…it is to many the epitmone of mature RB. (And, for me, Les Beaux Monts a/k/a Beaumonts, is my favorite 1er cru in all of red Burgundy.)
For reasons unrelated to this thread I landed at Sokolin. Among the options there, I chose a 1999 Jean Grivot Beauxmonts and a 2007 Bouchard Echezeaux. I have no idea if this was a smart purchase, terrible purchase, or somewhere in between, but the total cost was $288.
Well, at least Accad was long gone from Grivot by the '99 vintage. (His wines there turned out just fine, IMO). And…you can’t go wrong with a Beauxmonts (from almost anyone), though it won’t be “mature” for another decade, minimum. Aerate it plenty if using in the next 5 years, IMO.
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