Zachys held a simulcast auction event at their DC warehouse. Charles Antin was in town to celebrate the event. 99 Selosse
1999 Jacques Selosse Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Millésimé- France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Pop and pour, a hint of sherry/oxidative note and slightly oxidized apple. With air, grilled peach, orange peel, almond cookie, toffee, honey and roasted nuts. Very good concentration, complex nutty palate impression, medium acidity, good earthy mineral and a medium to long finish with a hint of sherry at the end. The oxidative note is beyond Krug, also Substance. Your liking to it will strongly defend on whether you appreciate the sherry/oxidative note in Champagne. Really complex Champagne but certainly with a hint of sherry note. (93 pts.)
White
2012 Domaine Jacques Prieur Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes- France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
Served blind, initially very little new oak, very ripe yellow fruit, dense and deep, medium acidity and strong malo. Some of us are thinking California Chardonnay. With air, gets fresher, showing a bit of new oak, also banana and pear, butter scotch and mineral. I recommend decanting for a couple of hours to bring out the freshness. (91 pts.)
2010 Emmanuel Houillon (Maison Pierre Overnoy) Chardonnay Arbois Pupillin- France, Jura, Arbois Pupillin
Big scale concentrated nose displaying lemon curd, orange marmalade, slightly unripe yellow peach, candied ginger, smoke and wet stone. Excellent concentration, intense dense yet energetic yellow fruit driven palate impression, strong mineral presence, piercing acidity and strong mineral, and a long sweet, mineral and acidic finish. It feels very natural in a good way. (93 pts.)
Malconsorts - Flight 1
The 11 Christiane clearly showed LBT.
2009 Sylvain Cathiard Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Expressive nose displaying blackberry, cherry, roasted cherry, Asian spices, coffee, a hint of dark caramel and mineral. Excellent concentration, densely layered blackberry and cherry driven palate impression, warm and round, good acidity and mineral, and a long blackberry and Asian spices driven finish. Still quite primary but the youthful opulent fruit makes it quite enjoyable. Still needs another decade or two to reach the peak. (94 pts.)
2010 Sylvain Cathiard Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Always interesting to have a mini-vertical. Much brighter crunch red fruits, strawberry, raspberry and cherry, Vosne spice, rose, light caramel and mineral. Excellent concentration, beautifully layered sweet crunch red fruit, very precise and focused, bright acidity, a hint of silky tannins and a long sweet red fruit and Vosne spice driven finish. Both the 09 and 10 display impressive fruit concentration but I slightly prefer the pure red fruit of the 10. I suspect both will become exceptional in another decade or two. It is already very enjoyable in a very youthful way. (95 pts.)
2011 Domaine de Montille Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts Christiane- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
I have expressed my concerns regarding the 11 being similar to the 04. Certainly it is not as badly affected by LBT as the 04. This clearly displays LBT. It is a shame as it displays very good concentration and generous fruit. If you are sensitive to LBT, avoid. (83 pts.)
Malconsorts - Flight 2
All three showed really well.
2005 Dujac Fils et Père Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Consistent with the last bottle from two years ago. It has reached the first stage of the youthful peak. Beautiful nose displaying warm red fruit, strawberry, cherry, a hint of Asian spices, rose and earthy mineral. Beautifully balanced palate, soft, warm and round, perfect amount of acidity and mineral, a hint of fine tannins and a long soft red fruit and Asian spices driven finish. Certainly most ready and harmonious of the flight. Simply pleasurable but will gain more sous bois for another decade or two. (95 pts.)
2006 Domaine Dujac Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Perhaps the most concentrated and sweetest of the flight. More black fruit compare to the 05, blackberry, cherry, dark spices, tree bark and earth. Excellent concentration, rich and oily, decadent black fruit driven palate impression, medium acidity, good mineral presence and a long dark fruit driven finish. It remains very youthful and need another five to ten years to reach the youthful peak. Very impressive wine with a great future ahead. (94 pts.)
2008 Domaine Dujac Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
The first note is stem and Vosne spice, followed by mostly black fruit, a hint of licorice, sweet spices and earth. Displaying significantly more stem than the other two. Also slightly leaner fruit showing more structure. Bright acidity and strong stemmy mineral. The finish is medium to long, Vosne spice and stem at the end. Developing nicely but needs another decade to reach the peak. My educated guess is that the stem will integrated nicely with time, adding additional complexity. (94 pts.)
Flight 3
The 06 Christiane showed really well. The 05 Truchot and the 90 Jadot were good.
2006 Domaine de Montille Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts Christiane- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Hedonistic nose displaying decadent black fruit, blackberry, blackberry jam, black cherry, cappuccino, light caramel, Vosne spice and mineral. Excellent concentration, nicely layered, opulent black fruit and Vosns spice driven palate impression, quite dense yet silky and polished, perfect amount of acidity, good mineral presence and a long dark fruit driven finish. Just like the 06 Dujac Malconsorts, it is one of the most concentrated wine of the evening. My WOTN along with the 05 Dujac Malconsorts. (95 pts.)
2005 Domaine Truchot-Martin Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru
Expressive but a bit murky nose displaying ripe red fruit, cherry compote, a hint of animal and earth. Excellent concentration, slightly chunky ripe red fruit, medium acidity, medium mineral and a medium red fruit and earth driven finish. Has the bottle been shaken a bit? (92 pts.)
1990 Louis Jadot Bonnes Mares- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru
Fully mature nose displaying subtle slightly dry red and black fruit, noticeable mint, a hint of sous bois and earth. Medium concentration, silky, medium acidity, good earthy mineral and a medium to long earth finish. Not showing obvious ripeness of the 90 vintage. A nice wine. (93 pts.)
Surprised by the fact that Dujac Malconsorts 05 showed so well. When I visited Dujac two or three years ago Jeremy did not seem to have high expectations for that vintage, because they did not do any vineyard work yet. Moreover he said that it took them time to understand the vineyard and what wine they wanted to make out of that terroir. So only in the second decade of the century they started to produce the real Dujac Malconsorts.
Thanks for the notes, and mostly for the 2010 Houillon-Overnoy Chardonnay.
Last I had this was with a few, dedicated Overnoy-heads that gathered here in NYC back in November 2014. It’s the real deal! Holding on to my last bottle of this.
Hey Ramon, I remember that Overnoy-Houillon dinner! What a great time, and the wines mostly showed quite well. This 2010 Chardonnay at the Malconsorts dinner was my bottle. Louis Dressner importer label on the back and everything. I had no Malconsorts in the cellar, but these fine people let me tag along to the dinner anyway with offerings of the Overnoy and the 1990 Jadot Bonnes Mares. I pretty much agree with Kevin’s note on the Overnoy. I have had a number of good showings from this particular wine, and this one was up there with the best. Still a wine very much on the upswing - no hurry to open your last bottle. And make sure to give it a little air when you do. It was wonderful from the pop of the cork, but definitely was sharper and firmer at the beginning and really opened up after an hour or two. Hope all is well with you.
Kevin, thanks for pulling together these notes and sharing your thoughts. There were some great wines. I guess I am not as sensitive as you are to the issues you think are pervasive in the 2011s. I agree the 2011 Christiane was in the lowest tier of wines we drank the other night, but I still drank my half of a glass and managed to enjoy it. Versus its older sibling, the 2006, which was an amazing wine, I felt the 2011 was a bit hollow in the middle and the finish, and I noticed what I would call either some underripeness or perhaps vegetal flavors. But I found the taint in some 2004s to make the wines entirely undrinkable, and that was not at all my reaction to the 2011. I may just be less sensitive than you are.
But man, what a lineup for the night! Charles, Tim, if you’re reading this, thanks for organizing and letting me attend.
Hey Michael, good to hear from you! That was the mother of all-Overnoy tasting back then! Thanks for the update on the 2010 H-O Chardonnay. Given the rarity of finding a replacement, at least for me, I’ll be patient and hold on with my bottle.
Sounds like a great tasting - it’s very informative to taste wines from the same vineyard made by different producers. It’s great that many of them showed so well in their youth because I’ve generally found Meadows’ rule of thumb that most Malconsorts need 15+ years to really reward the drinker to be true. I wouldn’t have expected the 05 Dujac to be great today (even as you point out that it will reward further cellaring) but that’s why you open the wines.
Shame about the 2011 de Montille CC - I don’t have any 2011 CC but have some of the regular Malconsorts and hope it has not been similarly afflicted.
No, they did not own the vines in 2005. I think they worked out the deal after the vintage, or close to it, and part of the deal was that Dujac would make the wine from the grapes, but the vines had been tended by Moillard in 2005. This is why this is the only “Dujac pere et fils” Malconsorts, rather than “Domaine Dujac”. So the comment was not about the vintage but rather that he did not feel that to be fully a Dujac wine.
Then he also explicitly mentioned that he did not feel there was a true reference wine for Malconsorts, and that it took him years to figure out what the true character and expression of the vineyard is.
