TN: The Last of the $20 DRC La Tache and others blinded

This was a great night. It also happened to be the end of the $20 DRC stash. The others were consumed in these threads DRC and Fish Tacos and Drinking DRC at FMIII

Fortunate to have such great friends and share great wine with them.

• 1996 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru (8/16/2018)
  Last of the DRC I purchased for $20 per bottle. Glad the crew was able share in a legendary wine experience.

Blind: But I knew what it was because I gave it to FMIII to share with Nordhoff. Well, all three of us were sitting at the table so I suspected it might show up in the blind bag. Love the feminine, lightly ripened strawberry flavor with sandlewood. I love sandlewood in Pinot, Grenache, and I guess everything else. Still alive and kicking with a nice tannin foundation in support. Nordhoff thought it was Rhy Swan Terrace. Ha ha!!! Good for Kevin Harvey I guess because it did show like a Rhy but with more age on it.

• 2008 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru (8/16/2018)
  Blind: Guessed French, chardonnay, and cote de beaune. This really showed well. Nose shows there’s some oak influence, caramel and delicious. Complex palate between the fruit, spice, and acidity. Yellow apple initially but lemon and light lime as it warmed up. excellent.
• 2012 Savart Champagne Expression Nature - France, Champagne (8/16/2018)
  Blind: seems like a grower champagne but I’m lost after that deduction. Stellar bottle of champagne. Sour green apple, flowers and perfume blast out of the glass. Medium plus acid, guessing zero dosage. Ripe granny smith apple flavor with a long finish. This is a great wine for champagne geeks. Probably WOTN for me and a few others at the table.
• 2013 Copain Pinot Noir Monument Tree - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley (8/16/2018)
  Blind: guessed california pinot. Has great clarity and light garnet coloring. Light ripe raspberry and what seems to be some oak. The mid palate is tart cherry resulting in an excellent wine.
• 2015 Matthiasson Pinot Noir Spring Hill Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Petaluma Gap (8/16/2018)
  Blind: guessed california pinot, maybe copain. Dark colored and some thought it might be syrah. I wasn’t moving off pinot even if I was wrong. LOL Dark fruit and red apple, which led me to Anderson Valley. The perfume and strawberry nose is fantastic.
• NV Moussé Fils Champagne Blanc de Meuniers Premier Cru Brut Zéro Les Vignes de Mon Village - France, Champagne (8/16/2018)
  Blind: guessed champagne and possible Pinot Meunier but not sure.

Light lime and very dry, bone dry. Lean and strong mineral foundation. Gives off that “brassy” note which made me think “PM”. Very good but tightly coiled and definitely in need of more airtime and another 5+ years in the cellar.

Some people mount the head of big game on their wall. I guess we do the same just a different kind of “big game”. That’s Viet hiding in the background humbly finishing his DRC, I dumped the rest of the bottle in his glass. Cheers!
Posted from CellarTracker

20180815_212719~2.jpg1170×2080 437 KB

Brigger, thanks for the TNs and your perspective. Glad you liked many of the wines, it was fun to share these with youze guys.

Hey, you didn’t TN the Allemand or Jamet?

• 1996 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru (8/16/2018)
  Well, there goes the last of the $20 US La Tache from our collective cellars. Thanks to Brig for gifting me this bottle following his $20 purchase of it. FWIW, when I opened this about 4 hours prior to dinner, the cork was a bit pushed out, and there was some staining alongside the entire cork throughout the surface of it. Simply, probably leaked a little bit over time. Lots of irony tannin here, powerful wine for sure. Some light bricking of the color but nothing too brown and no signs for me aromatically of age either. Red fruits, iron, pure and long. Aging glacially.
• 2008 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru (8/16/2018)
  My final bottle of this from those bought back in 2010. This bottle last night was beautiful, coiled with lemony acidity, some light oak and spicy, yet all in balance with the kind of energy that I really appreciated. No signs of premox here and it’s aging beautifully.
• 2011 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (8/16/2018)
  Opened at 3PM, splash decanted and returned via funnel to bottle where I left it open without the cork for a few hours more. Took to dinner, consumed 5 hours later–this is the aeration context for those who want it. Maybe a touch of barnyard or saddle in the aromatic, tangy, dark cherry fruit that fills in with air during the meal. Iron and meat, with plenty of tannin into the finish. Enough structure here to let my final bottle go another 5 years but no harm (at least for me) in enjoying this now to see how it was coming along.
• 2012 Savart Champagne Expression Nature - France, Champagne (8/16/2018)
  Disgorged 01/2017 (handwritten date on the bottle back label, too) with 0 g/l. 100% PN from 60 year old vines grown in Ecueil (the western end of the Montagne). Holy smokes…I loved this bottle last night. Black cherry, citrus, with a beautiful coil of strength and energy running through it. Light salty and lemony into the finish. It also had a similar dried herb note, maybe a little 5-spice too, that really gave it a distinctive touch. I’d say this is one of the top 3 Champagnes I have tasted all year, without a doubt.
• 2013 Copain Pinot Noir Monument Tree - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley (8/16/2018)
  Like all the other past bottles, this always presents me with a smoky aromatic, which was true of the previous bottle we had 5 weeks ago. Juicy, darker fruit, good depth and a tangy finish. Aging well.
• 2013 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (8/16/2018)
  Opened at 3PM, splash decanted and returned via funnel to bottle where I left it open without the cork for a few hours more. Took to dinner, consumed 5 hours later–this is the aeration context for those who want it. Mint, dried purple flower, bbq meat and beautiful dark color. This has terrific depth and length and it too opened up, like the 2011 Allemand Chaillot we had next to it, as the meal progressed. I sent the last glass home with Viet so let’s see how he stands on the wine when he can get his TN posted but IMO, this is a terrific vintage for Jamet, and it gave me an early look so I can calibrate how to treat my remaining bottle.
• 2015 Matthiasson Pinot Noir Spring Hill Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Petaluma Gap (8/16/2018)
  Drank one of these last month at the winery. It showed last night the same rose petal aromatic that I remembered and loved from our recent Matthiasson visit, what was the motivator for me to bring bottles home with me. Some at the table called this aromatic more akin to lavender, and I can see that impact from the stem inclusion. One thing I noticed too in last night’s bottle was the tarter side of this wine, how tangy and what Steve Nordhoff called “lean”. The ABV listed on this is 12.4% and it shows in that range, yet I don’t mind this leaner side. It will take time for this to soften some more but it’s been cool to try this now 2X and get a two setting perspective of the wine.
• NV Moussé Fils Champagne l’Extra Or d’Eugène Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut - France, Champagne (8/16/2018)
  Disgorged 03/2018, 1 g/l and 80PM/ 20PN from a solera back to 2003. This bottle differs from the disgorge date from the bottle I had a few months ago at the domaine. Why this matters is that I wasn’t as thrilled with the bottle from last night as I was with the May bottle. Last night’s seemed a bit clunky, with mineral, light apple, maybe a little bit of a gamy note and really just got crushed by the Savart Expression we put next to it. I don’t think the Savart made this Eugene bad, but what it did IMO is reveal the imbalance/youth in the bottle last night.

Posted from CellarTracker

“Lots of irony tannin here, powerful wine for sure. Some light bricking of the color but nothing too brown and no signs for me aromatically of age either. Red fruits, iron, pure and long. Aging glacially”

So would you say $20 makes it a decent QPR?

Mark, having Brig share these trio of DRC bottles has been a gas, really fun.

It’s not likely I’ll ever sit around and drink La Tache as a weeknight wine and while I don’t buy or keep ‘daily drinkers’, as my cellar on any night is wide open for whatever is in there, it ain’t got no DRC in it.

Not trying to troll but it seems strange the a $5000 ish bottle can be mistaken for a $70 bottle, makes you question the whole value structure of wine

Wow, missed the fish tacos video with the story - that’s fantastic! Good for you for enjoying them with friends rather than reselling them (knowing they weren’t properly stored) - plenty of that on WineBid and elsewhere. Bravo.

Maybe Rhys is underpriced?

oh, there’s another page of notes in my book… I forgot!!

I sipped the La Tache in the glass for most of the night and it kept changing and filling out. The early aromatic did indeed remind me of Rhys.

The Savart was amazing, alas there is none vailable in the US.

• 2011 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (8/17/2018)
  Blind: guessed syrah, figured northern rhone. It’s dark and has a little saddle aroma. Dark cherry core and some barnyard. High acid and lots of grip. There’s a solid mineral base throughout the wine.
• 2013 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (8/17/2018)
  Blind: guessed syrah and couldn’t decided if it was classic northern Rhone or maybe a Cali producer hit the jackpot. Flavors of crushed red fruit, medium plus acidity, and minerals. It initially had a “milk curd” flavor, very odd, which mostly disappeared after 20 minutes in the glass. Definitely something “lactic” in nature. The herbaceous finish was complemented by a strong hit of iodine.
• 2015 Kenzo Estate Sauvignon Blanc Muku - USA, California, Napa Valley (8/17/2018)
  Light yellow color. Sweet pear and dried apricot with medium acidity. Nice and refreshing with a clean mouthfeel.

Posted from CellarTracker

Did Frank bring this home in his suitcase from France? It was my WOTN as I think yours. Just a terrific bottle of champagne.

I did not visit Savart when I was in Champagne, unfortunately. They are located very close to Vilmart so next visit, I will figure out how I can get into to meet Frederick Savart, for sure. I’ve had a few things from Savart before and I thought the wines were good, but clearly for me and it seems for the table this week, that bottle of Expression was top shelf.

All of my Savart is from Envoyer. I sent the guys a note y/day to see what/when more Savart might be coming for offer.

Vins Rare has two Savart bottlings, though not the Expression Nature.

how well does champagne actually travel in a plane cargo hold? I almost bought a sparkler on my last trip but got nervous that it was gonna explode all over my suitcase! (sorry dont mean to thread jack)

Matt, it does just fine from my experience. I traveled back with 9 bottles of champagne, which I wrapped in my clothes and positioned inside of the suitcase. All fared just fine, without breakage, leaking or any customs issues.

…nice work!

I tried to wave at you all (actually only Nordhoff) from the other side of the Harbor.

i think it would be easy to look at this thread and be jealous that DRC used to be obtainable for $20/bottle. Instead, it made me wonder two other things:

1. is the time of $20 bottles becoming $5000 bottles over? are we ever gonna see a wine “investment” pay off quite that huge again?
2. if its not, what is gonna be that next 20-5k bottle?? OP, when you bought this, what made you decide to buy a whole bunch of $20 DRC to hold on to for 25 years?

Great story re the DRC coming back around blind. Looks like the OC motley crew reconvened. You guys do it up right. Love you guys.

BTW, what`s the story on the $20 purchase? OK, I watched the video and got it.

Hey, Matt. You need to read the DRC and Fish Tacos thread in the top post or watch this. BTW someone told me the '96 La Tache was $200 / bottle at release.