On New Years Evening (Jan.31st) we had two couples and my younger son 22y as guests, but only one dear friend (and my son, and partially my wife) were wine-geeks, so I prepared not too many wines, but decided to open two bottles „most probably dead … or maybe still interesting“ mainly for us two (or 3 or 4) in addition, because he likes „very old“ bottles. He also brought 3 bottles with him, one probably not ok.
The food consisted of many different small dishes like a buffet … and my well-known onion-soup for midnight.
NV Champagne Ayala brut majeur (with some bottle age): excellent and still quite youthful, although at least 6-7 years in my cellar … 90p
2007 Meursault Bouches-Cheres 1er Cru/ Buisson-Charles: Outstanding and very typical Meursault, early maturity (and not the slightest sign of pmx), 93p
2012 Condrieu-Vertige / Cuilleron: totally dry, but quite exotic, very long, slightly lacking acidity (for my taste compared with the Meursault), but fine on ist own, 92p
1993 Volnay-Caillerets / Rebourgeon-Mure (Pommard), (suspicios), good colour, 1st quite dull and dusty, later definitely corked … (a producer new to me)
2001 Nuits-St-Georges Les Cailles / Chevillon: quite sound mature colour, but still a tannic edge, nevertheless enjoyable, 91p
1995 CdP Pegau Reservée: the substitute for the corked Volnay, great mature CdP, no dryness anymore, perfect and absolutely no brett, 95p
1957 Cornas / Delas Freres: the cork had dropped into the bottle already for 2+ years, so I expected an oxidized wine, but it was heavily corked (TCA) …
1920 Chambolle-Musigny (most probably Village) (unreadable negociant bottling from Nuits-StG)
Opened at 4 pm (for about 9 pm planned serving time), decanted eventually at 10.30 pm, 10 min. before serving. The fill was about 9cm ( 3 ½“ ) below cork, a level with quite low odds that the wine is not more or less oxidized, but the colour through the glass looked not really bad . Cork was totally black and wet, (but I pulled it out in one piece), almost unreadable, but I think I could imagine „?uit? ???“ – so it was probably a negociant from Nuits-St-Georges. Colour was orange-brown, but at least clear. After opening the wine did neither (almost) smell at all nor taste more than thin old balsamic vinegar … so I had no high hopes. When decanting after 6.5 hours it had completely changed: the colour was a healthy bright ruby red with orange reflexes, like a 40 year old wine, maybe like a mature 1978, the smell was like a bunch of wild flowers, herbs, mushrooms and spices, very fragrant and fragile, the taste was sweet and enormously attractive, and it still got deeper and longer over the next 30 min. until the decanter was finished. One of my very best wines of 2018, including a lot of Grand Crus … (although the complexity wasn´t eventually high enough for – let´s say a really great Musigny – it easily could compete with the best 1er Crus from Chambolle). Although I´d never dared to serve this bottle to Francois A. due to the low fill, he would have been thrilled!
Rating? Conservative 98 points (to leave space for a Musigny or RC).
1996 Champagne AR Lenoble Bdb: really classy mature Champagne, perfect for midnight … 93p
For the cheese selection:
1994 Coteaux-du-Languedoc Cote Dorée/L´Aigueliere: quite modern style, but perfectly mature Syrah that even could come from Cote-Rotie …92p
1997 Gevrey-Chambertin Combe aux Moines 1er Cru René Leclerc: much better than expected, fully mature and on apogee, typically slightly rustic aftertaste, but sweet and lingering on the palate, a joy to drink, 92p
Nobody wanted a dessert nor dessert wines, the group was „filled up“ …
The fill was app. one finger below the white upper marking …