Another Tasting Brainchild of Len’s saw us looking at the Rockstars of Burgundy starting with R. None of them need any introduction, Raveneau, Roulot and Rousseau are all producers that create very well made wines that are unique and true to the terroir of their region. As a result we have seen their popularity soar to almost rock star status amongst the Burgundy cognoscenti. The opportunity to try wines of the same producer from the same year from different parcels of land is quite a unique experience.
We got together a line-up of wines that would keep the conspicuous consumption crowd frothing and the lovers of Burgundy cheering. 
We did have the option to put in the Rousseau big guns but decided to keep it as reasonable as possible so no Chambertin or CdB. In the end we had 17 bottles between the 9 of us with 2 kindly donated ‘book-end wines’ in the shape of a 1996 Dom Perignon and a 1995 JJ Prum Graacher Himmelreich Auslese, both great wines in their own right.
Ready to rock, it was trimmed down to make it more affordable.
We convened at the newly re-opened Foveaux St Dining in Surry Hills, Sydney. Where we were looked after a delightful young waitress who handled us all with aplomb and generally made sure everything was running smoothly and everyone was happy. The food was a good, but frustrating at times for me, it was a degustation style shared plate thing. Which had us scratching our heads at times, a plate between 3 people with two pieces meat on it is always awkward. One dish had mini-toffee apples on it one or two per plate, so do you graciously offer it to the other person, do you start bartering? OK you have the toffee apple so I’ll get a bit more of the rest of the dish, is there a stock market for mini-toffee apples? What’s the going rate, Meat is quite Bullish at the moment, surely I should be leveraging this in the bartering process?? Should I hang on to my mini-toffee apple or sell, maybe the next course will see demand for the mini-toffee apple rise? You get the idea…overall the food was good, had it been separate dishes it would have been very good, so maybe a la carte next time. The dishes ranged from bone marrow on brown bread, to smoked octopus, to beef ribs and brisket, some nice cheeses, their famous smoking machine got a bit of a workout as well.
Huge thanks to Len as always for organising the night and sourcing the wines. He enthusiasm of wine is only matched by his generosity and good spirit. Thanks to Greg and Michelle for the bed and for Brad my designated alarm clock, in refraining to use his Nerf Gun and Super Soaker to wake me up for the Dawn service the next day, I owe you one little buddy. 
The final line-up was as follows.
1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon
Raveneau
Flight 1
2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux
2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montmains
2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre
Flight 2
2011 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot
2011 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur
2011 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos
Roulot
Flight 3
2012 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Luchets
2012 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Tessons Clos de Mon Plaisir
2012 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières
Rousseau
Flight 4
2006 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin
2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin
Filght 5
2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Charmes-Chambertin
2010 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Clos de la Roche
Flight 6
2003 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques
2006 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques
1995 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese
1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon
Popped and poured this, initially it came across a bit darker than I was expecting and the nose was showing a little too much brioche, toast and spices for its age (19 years non-withstanding). One sip dispelled any concerns, with the gobs of acidity attacking your palate like a gang of Bovver Boys saying ‘Right who wants it??’ before charging into the thick of things in your mouth from the tip of your tongue to the back. The colour totally belies the freshness of it. Lemon, grapefruit, Szechuan pepper all carried by a creamy mouth-feel assaulting your senses when working it around in your mouth, it went on for ages in an almost languid fashion. Lovely start to the evening.
Flight 1
2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Butteaux
Oak and butter were my first thoughts, exactly my kind of wine. I said straight away it’s just like a white Burgundy and everyone is looking at me funny and saying well yes that’s because it is a white Burgundy, so I’m trying to explain very unsuccessfully that my idea of a white Burgundy is one with Beaune weight, to me Chablis is the Alsace of Burgundy. Anyway I digress, lemon sherbet, hints of grapefruit, seems to be missing the raw power although it has great intensity on the back half of the palate no doubt owing to the acidity carrying it through to a very persistent length.
2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montmains
Lemon butter, and a more restrained oak influence. The fruit profile has more depth and complexity, with musk and coconut providing a good foil to the tart lemon flavours, my main criticism was it did tend to finish a bit short. Interestingly there is a real salinity to this, something I described as almost ‘Sea Salt flavoured Kettle Chips (Crisps)’ which had me licking my lips afterwards.
2011 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre
Bit of oyster shell and a fairly restrained nose, with some Chinese 5 Spice and curry powder coming through. Flinty and minerally on the palate with a bit more of the afore mentioned saltiness making another appearance, once it opened up it started to show sweeter notes.
Flight 2
2011 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot
Biscuity, and fly spray on the nose, a bit white pepper, and an airy lemon-ness. Heaps of acidity, intensity, so taut that if this was a lake and you threw a rock at it, it would most likely bounce straight back at you. Way too young at this stage of its development although in hindsight it was a good precursor to the others in the flight with that old saying ‘you ain’t seen nuthin yet’ coming to mind.
2011 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur
Sweeter oak and more jersey caramel notes. Doesn’t seem to have the same power as the others in the flight. There was not as much linearity and focus to it, so I found it somewhat awkward although I should qualify this as saying it’s like calling the heaviest guy in the Olympic Marathon fat. It was at this point that I starting asking for more suggestions for lemon and grapefruit as descriptors…and thought maybe we could invent a Lemon Based numbering system. So this is Lemon to the power of 2 or maybe the Lemon Logarithmic scale…
2011 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos
Quite aggressive on the nose, lemon, lemon pith, the acidity and reductiveness on this was off the dial, I felt like I’d just suck my teeth into a fresh half of grapefruit sprinkled with gunpowder. It too was so taut and highly strung I was thinking it would go ‘boing’ at any minute – damn it was intense. Once again very hard to drink and critique when you really need to be using a crystal ball to see where it was going to go. The fruit is there and with good power but right now it’s being totally overwhelmed. This will do decades.
Flight 3
2012 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Luchets
At this point I’m organising a visit to my dentist for some re-enamelling, although after this flight I changed the appointment to my bathroom tiler. Green apples and hints of musk on the nose with lots of spices almost stealing the show. Grapefruit and pineapples and lemon sherbet on the palate, this is a precise wine. The intensity of the attack on your palate is almost overwhelming and makes it hard to see the wine behind it all.
2012 Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Tessons Clos de Mon Plaisir
This had my nose tingling with sulphur almost singeing the hairs and finishing off with a nice coffee bean aroma of sorts. Of all these young wines this is the one that spoke to me the most, I could see where this was going to end up, like drinking a young First Growth you can see past the tannins and structure and where it’s future lies. The fruit had great purity and depth, the lemons and grapefruits had a real freshness about them, like that first bite of a spearmint lolly. A taut, intense wine which will be brilliant in 10 years.
2012 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières
Dial up 11 for acid and sulphur, I think this is the second half of the gunpowder sprinkled grapefruit I started on before. This is real suck your cheeks in stuff. The nose is quite floral with rose petal water featuring with lemon pith. Struggled to ‘see’ the wine although it was the most popular of the flight. To me it was like a floral young Semillon. Good persistence.
Flight 4
2006 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin
Light in colour, which belied it’s very intense nose of red fruits, touch of VA and some tomato leaf. The fruit profile is massive, raspberry, blackberry, yet it wasn’t cloying, almost regal in nature. It seemed to hold together well and was a pleasure to drink. (not sure if white palate fatigue coming into play)
2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin
Lovely nose of dark/red fruits, dark cherry, lovely on the palate with a nice purity. Nice structure for what came across as a ‘fun’ wine to me, not quite up to the 06 in terms of weight and balance, a good wine nonetheless.
Filght 5
2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Charmes-Chambertin
Deeper more darker red fruits, really lovely balance in the wine, fruit, acid, structure all harmonious. More brooding (meatier/smokier/powerful) in comparison to the Gevrey’s. Very smooth on the palate, and good persistence with no tapering off of the flavour.
2010 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Clos de la Roche
First nose of this had my mouth literally watering, it was one of those noses that just presses all the right buttons for me. Dark fruits, black currant, plums, cloves and spices, this upped the ante again in the brooding stakes. Really good focus, dusty tannins in perfect harmony at the moment, a complete wine. Great length. WOTN for me.
Flight 6
2003 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques
Darker fruits, blackberry, vanilla, with a touch of greenness/stalks, mealy, rabbit hutch funk. Still lots of structure to this, and abundance of blackcurrant and Ribena on the palate which makes me feel it has a good few years in it yet.
2006 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques
Plums and blueberries with a touch of heat. Seems to be missing something for me, no X-Factor and at this level it needs more complexity. The palate is smooth and has very pure dark fruits with cassis although for me it feels somewhat unbalanced to the acid structure and with less extraction. Not sure how this will develop.
1995 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese
Some kero on the nose, ripe rockmelon, very tart with some orange cordial. It struck me as being at an evolutionary phase of its development from primary to secondary. On the palate there was pineapple, mandarin, orange pith. Heaps of acid provided a very big backbone to the wine. Who would have thought this young tasting wine was already 20 years old, the mind boggles, still but a babe. Will do another 10-20 years in a canter.
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Last week in a moment of weakness the temptation got better of me and I ended up with few Chambertin and CSJ from 2012.![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}