TN: Ramonet Montrachet Lunch

RAMONET MONTRACHET LUNCH - Phoenix, AZ USA (7/30/2021)

I feel enormously grateful to have participated in this extraordinary event. With the price and rarity of these wines, this may well be the last extensive Ramonet Montrachet tasting we ever do. My notes can’t do justice to these wines, but hopefully they’ll be helpful to some.

All Ramonet wines were served single-blind – i.e. we knew the field, but none of us knew the order. It was quite humbling, with many vintages drinking older or younger than we would have expected.

• 1988 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut - France, Champagne
  Dark color, secondary and tertiary notes. Nevertheless, it retains fruit and is a serious and complex wine. Great showing today.
  
  
  
• 2011 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Massive aromas, dark-ish color, exciting and thrilling on the aromas alone. Rich mouthfeel with more viscosity than the two other Ramonet Montrachet wines in the flight. Some oak spice on the finish. All in all, a lovely wine.

Not one person guessed this vintage correctly, most including myself were thinking 09. Blind tasting is humbling indeed…

• 2015 Jean-Claude Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Lightest color of the flight, less viscosity than the previous wine. More youthful with a looooong finish. Light and airy this glides across the palate. Slight bitterness on the finish, typical of younger vintages, so it wasn’t too surprising that this was the youngest vintage upon the reveal.
• 2009 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Darkest color, ripe juicy fruit. Finishes a bit broad with less focus and intensity than the other wines. Delicious nevertheless.

The reveal was surprising, this seems a bit advanced for 12 year old Montrachet, but may well be representative of the aging curve for this vintage.

• 2001 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Totally oxidized, undrinkable. NR (flawed)
• 2011 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Lights out! Juicy tropical fruit on the attack with a massively powerful saline finish. A denser mouthfeel with more viscosity than any of the Ramonet wines. This is the total package, power with focus.

It’s like a combination of the body and intensity of a great mature vintage of Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne, but with Montrachet clarity. Supremely impressive, and an instructive contrast to the Ramonet style - this is yang to the Ramonet’s yin.

• 2004 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Exceptional balance, some tropical notes. Surprised on the reveal this was drinking much younger than I would have expected for '04. Well stored bottles like this could easily keep improving for a decade.
• 2012 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Clean and precise aroma, exceptional balance, a complete wine with a memorable mineral finish that glides across the palate.
  
  
  
• 2013 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Crisp mouthfeel, some tropical fruit. There’s more oak here than I’d prefer; it’s not overwhelming, but this will be better with some more time to integrate it.
• 2010 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Prematurely oxidized. NR (flawed)
  
  
  
• 2007 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Rich and tropical, served blind and quite a few of us weren’t even sure this was on theme. It came across as broad and less precise than the other wines today, a shocking reveal.
• 2006 Domaine Ramonet Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Ripe fruit on the attack, intensely mineral and very long finish. A very serious wine, and a great showing. Not a surprise on the reveal.

Crazy and embarrassing as this is, this is the third time I have had this wine in a month. Each bottle has been consistently excellent, '06 was a strong vintage for Ramonet.

• 1997 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Romanée St. Vivant - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Romanée St. Vivant Grand Cru
  Served blind, bricking showed substantial age but the fruit remains in tact and there’s lovely spice.
• 2012 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Richebourg - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru
  From restaurant list, and even with a decant and time in the glass this was so backward and inaccessible. One can sense the potential here, and in 20 years this will be epic. This should be buried deep in the cellar and forgotten about, it’s a real shame to drink now.
• 2016 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru
  In stark contrast to '12 Meo Richebourg, this wine was generous and accessible after a brief decant. The depth of fruit was remarkable, and the fine filigree was evident even at this youthful phase. I presume we caught this in a window before it shuts down, clearly there’s material here to age for decades. I would be thrilled to taste this again in 15-25 years.

AWESOME Alex! Great pics of the food which had to have made the Montrachet combo a heavenly experience. The '16 Rousseau Chambertin note at the end threw me over the top . That has to be the best red burg I’ve ever tasted when it was in barrel close to bottling. CHEERS

2010 monty premox makes me sad

Thanks Jonathan, the '16 Rousseau was a pleasant surprise. Can’t imagine it will be quite this accessible for long, but at the moment it’s a joy to drink.

I am not surprised, unfortunately. Drank the last of my '10 Ramonet a couple of years ago because they seemed to be accelerating quite rapidly. The last '10 Batard I had was oxidized. Also a friend had reported a premox bottle of '10 Montrachet a few months ago.

I absolutely loved the '10 vintage for Ramonet in their youth, but I’ve only had one good bottle recently – a magnum of Ruchottes that was pristine. For me, the vintage is too risky to buy now.

Frankly, I get a similar sense with '14. I bought quite a lot of villages and 1ers, only have one bottle left. Saving a few GC’s but will be checking in regularly to ensure they don’t fall off suddenly like 10’s seemed to do.

I should also note that I stored these wines in underground professional storage with backup power. Don’t know what more I could do to ensure a good experience than buying on release and putting them underground.

In any case, I still love Ramonet, but will continue to drink them on the younger side for the foreseeable future.

Ramonet my fave but here the food looks better than the Ramonet wines, sad.

Which begs the question, where did this lovely lunch take place?

Christopher’s in Phoenix - Chef Christopher Gross is enormously talented, and his new restaurant boasts the best views in the city.

Nice work Alex, and thanks for the notes. I do wish Ramonet would start using Diam.

Christopher still dating Jamie?

What an event, and thanks so much for the notes. FWIW, I had a 2006 Morgeot (blind) a couple of nights ago - it was pretty good, showing clear caramelisation (say consistent with an '02) with nice structure and savoury notes, though I would suggest both Sauzet and Roulot made better 2006s than Ramonet. The oxidised wines are such a shame. A key takeaway from your notes is that Lafon is indeed back to probably THE best benchmark Montrachet, having now moved to closures and winemaking with far greater consistency that the 90s and early 00s.

Thanks Alex. What an event!

Just a casual lunch. Nothing too crazy