Had some friends over last night and we had some really good wines.
Started with a 2001 Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett - If anyone wants to know what a Kabinett tastes like at the peak of maturity, this is it. Nice combination of complexity, fruit and length. Beautiful wine.
Ramonet CM Ruchottes 2015 - This wine did not show that much to me when it was first opened. Over time, it seemed to gain in fruit and complexity, but I am not sure how much it gained in finish. I will save my remaining bottles for a bit of time as this seemed too young. Not nearly as vibrant as 2014 Morgeot I had from Ramonet in January.
Moreau-Naudet Chablis Valmur 2016 - The first MN I have had made after Stephane Moreau died. Not sure what to think of this. I did not think it showed enough and am not sure whether the wine is just too young or does not have enough to it. Time will tell.
Rossignol-Trapet Chambertin 1998 - Gorgeous wine. Wine, complex. This was the first wine I ever had from RT and it was great seeing an old friend again.
Jadot Chapelle Chambertin 2007 - Very nice grand cru that I have not tasted since it was first released. Drank this with the RT and while I liked the Chambertin better, this was an very good wine in its own right.
The second flight of reds was the stuff dreams are made of.
Mugneret-Gibourg Echezeaux 2004 - This was the best non-Truchot 2004 I have had. No green. Plenty of ripe fruit. Glorious wine.
Mugnier Musigny 1988 - This was a wow wine. This was my contribution to the reds and it was a glorious. I bought this years ago in a dump bin at Sam’s in Chicago for $22 (this was my last bottle). Loved it.
JJ Prum Graacher Himmelreich GKA 2005 - Excellent wine, good richness, but still young. Probably needs another 5-10 years to really hit maturity.
Agreed. From what I can tell, 2014 is one of those special vintages that come along in a region once in a very great while (or in Bordeaux once every two or three years apparently). I cannot think of a white Burgundy vintage I have liked as much as this one. I just hope the wines do not fall victim to premox. But, for right now I love them, and the 2014s from Ramonet may be the best 2014s I have had.
As for my 2015 Ramonets, I bought them in Burgundy at wonderful prices and am very glad I have them. While not the 2014s, they are still excellent wines.
You got really lucky, Howard. A bottle I opened last year — my only one — was affected and only got worse with air. A friend had the same mean greenie experience in Europe a couple months ago.
Interesting. I have had some bottles over the years of their 2004 NSG Chaignots that have shown a decent amount of green and some that have not (all of these experiences are several years old). This was my first experience with the Echezeaux, but my friend who brought the wine (and he drinks a lot of MG) has told me he has not had green in their grand crus (but has in some of their premier crus).
I kept find bottles of the 2001 Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett in my cellar over he last 5 years and man what a tasty drink. I think I finally exhausted whatever slipped into the cellar but this experience pretty much convinced me to just buy Prum. It is too easy to buy more German wines than I drink as so many are well priced and taste great. And I like what Prum wines do with age.
The lower level 2004 M-Gs mostly showed green for me. I have had the Echezeaux and Clos Vougeot multiple times with no green. Have not tasted the Ruchottes.
I may have had only one 15 from Ramonet but also agree, I was surprised at how not-wowed I was. Splendid that you got to have the RT again, Howard, and lovely notes on everything else. Awesome showing for the Ech
I find German wines taste great young (lots of beautiful fruit, not as much complexity) and older (still some fruit and wonderful complexity) and that it is often difficult to decide whether to drink or hold them. Besides just buying more (a strategy I have used in the past) and doing both, I do try to do some of this by producer. Prum is a producer whose wines really need aging IMHO. They are not always as good young as the wines from some other producers but age magnificently.
I bought my last new release Burgundy with the 2018 vintage. And I only bought a single producer. A parcel of Rossignol Trapet. Great wines, and in this world where Burgundy prices have gone crazy, still at a decent price point. Seems like a good place to stop.
Question for you Howard. Generally prefer their Chapelle to Latriciere; is that your take?
I cannot say that I have a preference for one over the other that is generally applicable. For example, I did like the 2007 Chapelle better when I tasted them side by side in 2011. But, I really like the 2001 Latricieres that was available as recently as a couple of years ago (still could be, I don’t know) for a great price - just north of a 100 euros (including VAT) at the winery. I did not taste the 2001 Chapelle, so maybe I would have liked it better, but the 2001 Latricieres is quite good.
My sense is that a decent part of this is stylistic differences rather than quality differences. I find the Chapelle to be generally the richer wine while the Latricieres develops a lot of complexity with age. But this may be because I drink the Latricieres with age on it than I do the Chapelle and own a lot more Latricieres (and Chambertin) than I do Chapelle. A decent amount of this disparity is opportunity not necessarily preference as I have more often been able to find the Latricieres than the Chapelle (even at the winery) probably indicating that a lot of people feel the same way you do and gobble up the Chapelle. For example, the last couple of times I was there they still had both 2001 Latricieres and Chambertin but not Chapelle. If they had all three, I would have purchased all three.
But, no, I don’t really have a preference one way or the other, although the wines are quite different. I do find the Chambertin a big step up from either of the others, but only if you have a lot of patience - the 1998 is just now mature, the 2001 is still too young (while the Latricieres 2001 is perfectly mature) and, while I last had the 1999 a few years ago (I am still holding onto my bottles), it was too young (although fabulous) the last time I had it.
Howard,
Thanks. Very interesting. I have only had the 2010 and 2014 side by side, so I also have too small a sample to be definitive. Do agree the Chambertin is a class higher, and the price differential is relatively small. Usually find I have to choose between the Chapelle and latriciere to get my allocation, and was curious as your take.
I will start by saying that I have drunk more of their grand crus and village Gevrey than their premier crus. However, I have visited Rossignol-Trapet several times and so have tasted through their barrel samples several times and have some thoughts. I own a bunch of premier crus but had to buy all of these young so most are not mature yet. By contrast, I have had several opportunities one way or the other to buy some well-priced grand crus with some age on them so I drink them more often (compound this with the fact that a number of friends have taken advantage of the same opportunities so that not all the GCs I drink are from my cellar!).
With respect to premier crus, I have a good bit more Corbeaux than anything else. A good bit of this is opportunity. You might like their Petite Chapelle, which has some stylistic similarity to the Chapelle Chambertin. I also am a big fan of Combottes generally (very well located vineyard between Clos de la Roche and Latricieres) and theirs is quite good.
Don’t simply skip the villages Gevrey. Quite good for its class and ages well - the 2005, which is quite good, is just starting to get mature.
I like their Beaune Teurons and every time I taste it I think I should buy some - then I taste the gevreys and forget all about the Beaune.
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