On Wednesday March 27, 2019, ten of us met at Spago Restaurant in Beverly Hills for the third and final night of the 2011 White Burgundy Vintage Assessment and Premox Check dinners. This was the annual dinner known as “Mostly Montrachet.” We were happy to be back at Spago after a several year absence for what is usually a celebration dinner at the end of the annual tasting series. Paul Sherman, who was the Sommelier for the first two 2011 dinners, was invited by Spago to work with Cristie Norman, the Assistant Somm at Spago, on this dinner. Paul and Cristie did a superlative job and so did Spago Chefs Lee Hefter, Tetsu Yahagi and Della Gosset. The food was incredible and the wines were excellent to extraordinary.
The group hard at work tasting the wines with Sommelier Cristie Norman in the background
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the wines because on night one we had very few problems and a great deal of uniformity of color, but on night two we had a large percentage of wines with premox, reduction problems and other chemical defects. The Coche wines are usually predictable, but would the Montrachets be Dr. Jekyll, or Mr. Hyde? It turned out that, like the 2007 “Mostly Montrachet” dinner, except for one corked bottle, we had no problems with any of the wines.
My thanks to Andy Gavin for all of the great photos.
CHAMPAGNE AND APPETIZERS
1996 Philliponnat Clos de Goisses
Medium gold color; beautiful complex citrus, light floral elements and light toast aromas; on the palate the wine was even more complex and highly layered for Champagne; extremely long mineral and fruit finish which really grabs you. This is still a WOW champagne. 95
2002 Philliponnat Clos de Goisses
Light gold color; forward floral aromas with some background citrus; this is a more fullsome and slightly sweet champagne compared to the 1996, but is outstanding in its own right; that back-end sweetness is something that I notice in most 2002s these days; very nice but I definitely prefer the 1996. 94
FLIGHT ONE:
Olive Oils Poached Salmon
Turnip, Radishes, Bacon Oil
1 [2011 Olivier Leflaive Montrachet]
Light gold color; lightly floral aromas; a very light wine with good acidity, but seems too light for Montrachet (maybe Drouhin?); later on 2d pass: now a much larger aroma with citrus and pear profile and richer on the palate as well – more much intensity on the mid-palate and some minerality; much better than I initially thought. Six votes for the wine of the flight. My 8th ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Fourth, 15 points (0/2/0/3/1) 92|94
2 [2011 Baron Thenard Montrachet]
Light gold color but a a shade darker than #1; some light tropical fruit and coconut in the aromas; sweet forward fruit and decent acidity. This just continued to improve with time in the glass. It lost a lot of the tropical element in the aromas with additional time. I wanted just a little more in the finish here. Group Rank: 9th, 2 points (0/0/0/0/1) 92|93
3 [2011 Louis Latour Montrachet]
Light gold color; lightly reductive, floral and green apple aromas; green apple and light citrus on the palate; great minerality on the mid-palate and finish. As this sat in the glass over the evening, the finish slowly developed some bitterness. One vote for wine of the flight. Group Rank: Tied for 12th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0) 93|92
4 [2011 Maltroye Chassagne Montrachet “Dent de Chien”]
Light gold color; some floral elements but clearly corked wine; very dry on the palate. Group Rank: Tied for 12th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0) DQ- Corked
5 [2011 Drouhin Marquis de La Guiche Montrachet ]
Light gold color; nice white flowers aromas; light and elegant green apple and citrus flavors; a fairly long if ever so lightly dry finish with an almost chalky element – nice but different. Four votes for wine of the flight. Group Rank: Tied for 10th, 1 points (0/0/0/0/1) 93
FLIGHT TWO:
Pan Roasted Lobster Tail
Lemon Butter, Morel Mushrooms, Pea Tendrils, Squid Ink Tuille
6 [2011 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres]
Very light white gold color; light reduction aromas with green apple and citrus; on the palate it was tight, etched flavors of green apple and citrus. This strikes me as the Coche MP. Later on this was still fairly reductive, but it wasn’t over the top at all – like Leflaive from 1990 to 2002. Everything seems to come rushing forward on the finish. Fabulous. Eleven votes for wine of the flight. My No. 3 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: 2nd, 39 points (1/4/6/0/0) 95+
7 [2011 Rhys “Horseshoe Vineyard” Chardonnay]
Between light and medium gold color but slightly cloudy; fairly tropical flavors, a fairly rich wine; pretty good wine but different, so I would guess it’s the Rhys chardonnay ringer. Since everyone agreed No. 6 was the best wine in the flight, we voted for 2d best in flight two. Two tasters thought this was the second best wine in the flight. Group Rank: Tied for 12th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0) 92
8 [2011 Chateau de Puligny Montrachet Le Montrachet]
Very light, white-green gold color; definitely reductive, almost baby poop aromas at first which cleared up with time to be be green apple and citrus; very bright, green apple and citrus flavors with excellent acidity and great viscosity particularly on the finish. Sneaky minerality on the finish. Based on the bottles from nights one and two, I think this is the Chateau de Puligny Le Montrachet. Six votes for the second best wine of the 2d flight. Should be long-lived. My No. 7 wine of the night. Group Rank: Tied for 6th, 5 points (0/0/0/2/1) 94
Was there really a Rhys chardonnay in that flight?? Yes, there was
9 [2011 Bouchard Montrachet]
Very light gold color with greenish hints; white flowers and green apple aromas; quite sappy green apple flavors with good acidity and incredible elegance that just materializes on the mid-palate and continues through the long finish. A wow wine. Bouchard? Three votes for second-best of the 2d flight. My No. 4 wine of the night. Group Rank: 5th, 10 points (0/0/0/3/4) 95
10 [2011 Sauzet Montrachet]
Very light white gold color; light citrus and sweet white flowers aromas with an odd chemical top note that seems to come and go; the wine has some concentrated lemon-lime flavors and a degree of power on the nascent finish. This was way better on the second pass – the chemical note seemed to disappear (reduction), and the wine, while powerful, became more nuanced and interesting. Seems obviously to be Sauzet. Group Rank: Tied for 10th, 1 point (0/0/0/0/1) 91?|94
FLIGHT THREE:
Slow Roasted Chicken Breast on the Bone
Black Truffle, Emmental Cheese Soufflé
11 [2011 Ramonet Montrachet]
Light yellow gold color; intense white flowers and green apple and pear aromas; incredibly concentrated wine, yet subtle and not overpowering – the antithesis of # 10; very bright, lifted wine; incredibly long sweet citrus and pear finish – but as this sat in the glass over the evening, the finish slowly developed some more bitter phenolic elements. Jadot? One vote for wine of the flight. Group Rank: Tied for 6th, 5 points (0/0/1/1/0) 95|94?
12 [2011 Marc Colin Montrachet]
Between light and medium gold color; beautifully perfumed floral and citrus aromas; bright citrusy flavors which are very nice but somehow didn’t quite deliver the depth that the aromas promised; still a very nice Montrachet. Marc Colin? Two votes for wine of the flight. My No. 5 wine of the night. Group Rank: 8th, 3 points (0/0/0/1/1) 94
The very impressive final flight
13 [2011 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne]
Very light gold color; lightly reductive aromas which partly gives way to bright citrus and green apple aromas; this has intense green apple and citrus flavors with multiple layers and fabulous acidity; this is incredibly tightly wound wine that begs for more time and yet is obviously amazing stuff; fantastic. Coche Corton. Three votes for wine of the flight. Group Rank: 3rd, 37 points (3/2/4/1/0) 95++
14 [2011 Jadot Montrachet]
Very light gold color; light mint and flowers aromas; very bright citrus and green apple flavors with an amazingly mineral driven late mid-palate and finish; the finish is incredibly long and minerally. An absolutely complete wine. Ramonet? Seven votes for wine of the flight. My No. 1 wine of the night. Group Rank: 1st, 47 points (7/3/0/0/0) 96
DESSERT COURSE
Madagascar Vanilla Bean Crème Brulée
Candied Almonds, Tangerines, Saffron Syrup
Blood Orange Sorbet
1990 Chateau Suidauraut
Medium gold color; very nice orange aromas; I didn’t pay too much attention to this wine, so it doesn’t seem fair to rate it. NR
Some general comments on what we experienced in the night three dinner —
• We experienced a very large divergence in the number of oxidized and advanced wines during the 2011 vintage. We encountered very little premox on night one, and none at all on night three (the only other time this happened was with the 2007 vintage), but we had a large percentage of premox on night two. It demonstrates the risk of judging a vintage based on wines from a limited number of samples or just a few of the appellations. (Hard to figure….)
• The DIAM closed wines continued to perform flawlessly from a premox perspective. Once again, there were no oxidized or advanced bottles closed with DIAM. There were also no unusual or unexpected aromas. Over the past three years we have now had 30 bottles closed with DIAM in excellent condition (but we did have one chemically flawed bottle of Jadot Bienvenues on night two.)
• The large number of wines that had chemical flaws of one type of another was disturbing.
• The 2011 Montrachets and the two 2011 Coche wines were extremely impressive. I thought these wines would hold their own very well with the 2010s.
• Jadot – The 2011 vintage was a stunning success for Jadot due to the DIAM closures used for the first time. Four of the five Jadot wines we tasted over the three nights finished in the top three wines rated by the group for each night. Jadot is back on my “buy” list for their top wines starting with 2011. DIAM will probably restore Jadot’s reputation, but the badly flawed 2011 Bienvenues on night two proved that you can still have bad wines despite DIAM.
• Coche-Dury – Both bottles were off the charts good. I preferred them to the 2010 versions we tasted a year ago, although I recognize that the 2010 Corton Charlemagne at its best is a monumental wine.
• Montille and Chateau de Puligny Montrachet – Another impressive performance here from Etienne and Alix de Montille, along with the Montille Puligny Caillerets (No. 5 overall on night two), the Corton Charlemagne and Meursault Perrieres. Like Jacques Carillon, Jean-Marc Pillot and now Jadot, here’s another former poster child from premox that is now back on the leaderboard for making superlative wines in top condition.
• Domaine Olivier Leflaive – another impressive Montrachet from the “other” Leflaive. A producer who had been off my radar for 20 years that’s worth watching again.
• Ramonet – While the Montrachet was very good and will likely round out with time, overall, I found the 2011 Ramonets to be the most disappointing vintage since the 1996s. I can only hope that this was a one-time phenomenon.
Sommelier Paul Sherman with “Mostly Montrachet” in front of him
Here is the premox report for the three nights combined. My count on the total number of bottles that were advanced was a bit higher than the group’s overall count, as is frequently the case. While we had a much higher than expected incidence of premox on night two, the overall percentage of oxidized or advanced wines over three nights was 8% for the group and 12% for me. But since this includes 12 bottles over the three nights which had DIAM closures, which had zero problems, it was also apparent that the DIAM closures were pushing down the overall incidence figures. So, it occurred to me that it would be a useful exercise to look at the incidence of premox by limiting the comparison to those bottles which continue to be closed with conventional cork closures. This would allow a comparison of apples to apples to determine whether the premox performance for the the producers of the top wines who continue using conventional corks has improved over time. The following chart does that:
What this suggests to me is that while the incidence of premox among the better producers is definitely somewhat better from 2007 onward than it was from 1996 to 2001 (and the worst year in 2005), the percentage of advanced or oxidized bottles under conventional cork closures from the best producers is still far too high (ranging from 13% to 19% per year). Given the astronomical pricing being asked for grand crus these days, this is simply unacceptable.