Another very enjoyable Monday night tasting of 2 Chambertins and 5 Clos de Beze with two white burgs to start and a couple of surprise “afters”.
Whites:
2004 Bouchard Corton Charlemagne: pale yellow, nice nutty citrusy nose. Rich and ripe and very concentrated. Nice oak treatment which enhances the ripe lemony fruits. Good acidity helps cut through the richness to help provide a long clean finish. Excellent.
2001 E. Sauzet Montrachet: Mid Yellow, starts with an off nose and initially underwhelming. After a long time (2 hours) it opens up with bright intense fruit and becomes round and smooth. This is lovely but for me no more than very good.
Reds:
1993 R Groffier Chambertin Clos de Beze: Perfumed nose with lovely deep rich fruits and notes of earth. Very clean with no sign of funk or tertiary character. Fully mature and a beautiful drink today.
1995 Trapet Chambertin: Earthy nose, with pure clean fruits on the palate. This is very balanced with silky tannins framing the finish. Showed very well in a slightly understated way.
1996 D. Laurent Chambertin Clos de Beze: Clear mark of the winemaker here. Oaky smoky extracted nose, lots of very ripe fruits in a concentrated style. This is a very good wine but lacks typicity. Enjoyable for what it is.
2000 Jadot Chambertin Clos de Beze: Surprisingly forward. Nice red fruits with a touch of oak showing. Nicely balanced and not heavy. Very drinkable now but would also seem to have potential to age more.
2001 Ponsot Chambertin: Delicate flowery nose with some spice, Very elegant red fruits and nicely balanced and complex. Tight with tannins not yet resolved. Good framing acidity keeps in clean at the finish. A wonderful expression of delicacy but with power and flavour behind it. Yum…
2002 Giradin Chambertin Clos de Beze: Ripe extracted nose in a modern style. Sweet oaky fruit with the fruits being darker black fruits. Medium length finish. A well made wine but lacks a bit of complexity
2004 Bouchard Chambertin Clos de Beze : Absolutely not the slightest sign of any green meanies. Dark ripe fruits with a bit of oak on the nose followed by a ripe sweet fruits with a nice finish. Very good and surprisingly ripe and delicious for a 2004
Afters:
2004 Kracher No.9 Chardonay TBA: Dark yellow to orange. Intense apricoty nose followed luscious intense deep contracted palate. Only slight concern is the low acidity. I really liked it all the same.
2005 Rieussec: Pale yellow, youthful oaky nose with a lot of spiciness. A lot of fruit, oak and spice on the palate not yet balanced. This really needs a lot of time to show. Waay too young for me
All the wines were really good to excellent . I really enjoyed the 1993 Groffier, 1995 Trapet, the 2000 Jadot and the 2001 Ponsot.