My blind tasting group met Tuesday to sample 2014 red Burgundies. This was an unusually wide range of levels/prices for us to do in one sitting, but it does give you a sense for the vintage, which seems fairly approachable. It may not be super long-lived, but the wines had balance and good fruit. The oak was surprisingly inconspicuous for this age, even on the heavy hitters.
As usual, these were poured into lettered bottles an hour or so ahead and then consumed over about two hours. We had a list of the wines (with one false listing to throw us off) but didn’t know which was which. The twist here was the regular and unsulfured bottling of the Chandon des Briailles.
They’re listed below in the order the group ranked them, with my rankings noted. There were enough leftovers (refrigerated overnight) that I was able to taste back through seven of the eight last night.
(My #3) Hudelot-Noellet—Vosne-Romanee, Les Beaumonts (1er) ($140): On the nose, good fruit, some earth and a touch of oak. I thought I got some stems, but evidently the wine is destemmed. In the mouth, great grip, with nice, ripe pinot fruit. Elegant. Some oak hints. This tightened up over the evening. Sadly, there was nothing left at the end of the tasting, so no resampling here on day 2. 91 points for me.
(My #4) Trapet — Marsannay ($35): A bit of oak on the nose. Hard tannins, but a firm core of fruit. Tautly wound. More closed on day 2. A really nice wine. 90-ish for me.
(My #2) Faiveley—Echezeaux (GC) ($150): Darker fruits on the nose; fairly ripe (black cherries). Tight now but you can tell the quality here. Some wood peeks out. I asked if it might be a little riper than ideal, but I think not. On day 2 it seemed more refined, though it had closed down a bit. 91+ for me. This needs time in the bottle. That was clear even before the unveiling.
(My #1) Digioia-Royer—Chambolle-Musigny, Les Groseilles (1er) ($117): Gorgeous red cherries at first on the nose, then a wave of black cherry behind that. This is mouth-filling with ripe pinot sour cherries and solid acidity that’s almost a surprise given the ripeness. I picked up a trace of talcum powder’s floral scent. Very concentrated. On the finish, there is lots of tannin and acid. This seems a bit old-fashioned, in a good way; maybe even a tad rustic. Not much Chambolle character here at the moment. Will that emerge with time? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Still, an excellent wine. 93 for me.
(My #8) Lignier-Michelot—Bourgogne ($26): There was something odd and off in the nose of this for me – like plastic. I checked two other people’s glasses and picked it up there, too – even more intensely from a Burgundy balloon. One or two other people got the same thing, but no one else seemed to object as much. Happily, this seemed to have gone away on day 2. There were also some candied cherry hints on the nose. In the mouth, there was what seemed like a bit of oak, and on day 1 that plastic thing, which followed through on the finish. More fruit showed on day 2. 70 on day 1; 86 on day 2 when the plastic went away.
(My #6) Chandon de Briailles—Savigny les Beaune, Les Lavieres (1er), unsulfured Cuvee Gab ($45): This was a ringer, not on the list we got at the beginning. The front label is identical to the next wine, but that’s about all they have in common. I think the lack of sulfur isn’t the only difference. I suspect that this was a different lot of fruit. It’s hard to think this started out as the same juice as the regular bottling.
It was relatively dark in color, with beautiful, intense dark fruits, and a cinnamon hint. In the mouth, more ripe black cherry, but it was not that interesting to me. “Perhaps a bit too ripe?” I wrote. On day 2, the flavors had become sort or muddy. Worse, after a couple of sips, there was a sort of rancid element – like stale walnuts.
Maybe that’s why most winemakers use sulfur. 85 on day 1; defective on day 2.
This wine was polarizing, with several people, including Gray Newman, ranking it 8th. Jay (“Ripe fruit isn’t necessarily a bad thing”) Miller ranked it 1st.
(My #5) Chandon de Briailles—Savigny les Beaune, Les Lavieres (1er) (regular bottling) ($45): Bright garnet, somewhat lighter than the Cuvee Gab. Floral aromas like you get from talcum powder, some red cherry and strawberry. This shouted out Cotes de Beaune. In the mouth, this was medium bodied but with good fruit concentration. Red, pinot cherry. “Pretty” was the way someone described it – a descriptor that prompted the two women in the group to interrogate the men who had used the term (“What exactly do you mean by that?”). In fact, that’s the perfect descriptor. This is a terrific Savigny at the lighter end of the scale. 87 for me (I’m a tough grader, but I really liked this wine). It has lots of flavor, sex appeal and it’s light on its feet.
(My #7) Hudelot-Noellet—Bourgogne ($30): Fairly intense fruit on the nose and what seemed like a bit of smokiness on day 2. This was coarser, more rustic, than most here, and a bit disjointed on day 1, with a bit of bitterness on the finish. But I still liked it and gave it 85 poitns. The day after it fleshed out and came into better balance.
I think it came from Flatiron. Someone else bought the wine. He said that it’s produced in very small quantities. The winery’s website doesn’t even list this bottling. It does say that in '14 only 50% of the normal quantity of Lavieres was produced because of the cold snap during flowering and the hail in June.
Interesting twist to the tasting. Not sure that I understand the evils of sulphuring. Most of my burgs get put in the deep freeze for 10 plus years, so I’m not looking for early drinkability, so I think I’d rather have my wines sulphured.
I sat at the opposite end of the table from John and didn’t realized until now that we had the same top three ranked wines: #1Digioia-Royer Chambolle Musigny Les Groseilles,#2 the Faiveley Echezeaux and the #3Hudelot-Noellet Vosne Romanee Les Beaumonts.
I was disappointed to find that my three favorites of the tasting were the three most expensive wines of the evening.
But what was surprising was my #4 was the Lignier-Michelot Bourgogne. I thought it got better and better with air and I didn’t pick up the plastic smell that seemed to reside at John’s end of the table. In fact, I went out and bought some this morning; it was just the right match for a roasted chicken I had for lunch. Well worth $26 or $30 in my book.
Also puzzling was that the group some how bumped my #1 (and John’s as well) Digioia-Royer to #4 place: I cannot understand why nor how the Trapet Marsannay made it to the #2 ranking.
Jay ranked the Trapet 2nd, and I and the two other people whose scores I noted other than you ranked it fourth. A couple of other 1sts, 2nds or 3rds would easily have put it in 2nd place.
Looking at the group’s point scores, I see that the unsulfured Chandon did much better than the regular bottling, though they were ranked 6th and 7th, respectively. (The unsulfured one was unfit for my vinegar barrel tonight, so it went down the sink. The regular, refrigerated, was still lovely.)
Here are the group ranking with points. Note that the first six are fairly close together. Then there’s a big jump down to the 7th-place Chandon regular bottling.
Hudelot-Noellet—Vosne-Romanee, Les Beaumonts: 30 points
Trapet—Marsannay: 32 points
Faiveley—Echezeaux: 35 points
Digioia-Royer—Chambolle-Musigny, Les Groseilles: 36 points
Lignier-Michelot—Bourgogne: 38 points
Chandon de Briailles—Savigny les Beaune, Les Lavieres (1er), Cuvee Gab: 42 points
Chandon de Briailles—Savigny les Beaune, Les Lavieres (1er) (regular bottling): 53 points
Hudelot-Noellet—Bourgogne: 59 points
A first-place ranking gives a wine 1 point while a last/eighth-place posting gives it 8 points, so the fewest total points is the group’s first place.
I am a big fan of Trapet but never tasted the Marsannay. Just saw it on Winesearcher that Tim Atkin scored 92 pts for the '14 Trapet Marsannay and Gilman 89+ pts. So maybe not such a big surprise after all.
One thing I found fascinating was the wide divergence on the unsulphured CdB. Unlike most It had a lot of top and bottom scores. Personally, it was my number 1 and the sulphured version was my number 3. I supposed I should buy more Chandon de Briailles.
The person who provided the wines said Flatiron had a small number and was only selling one bottle of the Gab as a package deal with one bottle of the regular. They seem to be all out as per their website.
You should buy more old Chandon de Briailles Corton Bressandes, I am really enjoying a case of '93 vintage now, fantastic quality and cost next to nothing if you consider the storage cost.
Had no idea these were unsulfured. Grabbed a '10 Hautes Cote de Beaune recently from HDH on a whim (your CT notes on the Cote de Nuits bottlings helped make that call) and found it fantastic. It didn’t have the carbonic/spritzy aspects I find in a lot of “natural” wines where I find the winemaking overwhelms the character of the grape - it just tasted like really good, fresh Burgundy. I’ll definitely have to explore more.
well it appears the price of the cuvee gab was about $67…that is definitely a bit steep. i would love to try it but it sounds like it went mousey on day two from what you describe which is usually due to lack of hygiene and or improper transport.
the claire naudin wines are great, but not all of them are sans soufre…only the bottlings with flowers on the label are. she is also the wife of jean yves bizot who has been doing sans soufre successfully for quite some time.
That Digioia-Royer 1er is one of the tougher burgs to get. I have a couple odd bottles but would really love to have some of the 13’ Considering trying to work something in Europe when I’m there next month.
It’s interesting that people described the digioia royer as both rustic/traditional and modern/international. I grabbed a few of the Chambolle vv 15/16 from vins rare today so I guess we’ll see.
Not surprised that the HN finished first. Love their wines and love their 2014s. Am surprised their Bourgogne finished last. I have had this a number of times and it is one of my go to everyday Burgundies. I find it a great value.
CdB wines are tight when young and open up with time. I bet the nonsurfured version would do much better if you repeated the tasting in 10 years.
I attend a lot of blind tastings, but they tend to be very disparate wines and sort of “guess what kind of wine this is,” where I think I learn more from blind tasting within a category, just personally.
