Had a couple of couples over and had some good wine:
2009 Rheinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtropchen Kabinett - really as rich as a Spatlese. Awfully good. I am liking Haart more and more all the time.
1995, 1999 and 2001 D’Angerville Volnay Clos du Ducs - really beautiful set of wines. So much too them. All in the same family - can tell same producer and vineyard. The 1999 is richer than the other two and my favorite, although all three were quite good and probably will get better with time. We were living large.
2010 Schloss Lieser Niederberg Helden LGKA - second time I have had this wine. Boy is it yummy. Just really goes down easy. I love it. Lots of richness and nice acidity for balance. VERY clean.
1989 Karlsmuhle Eiswein - wow was this different from the Schloss Lieser. Golden vs. light. Serious with mature flavors. Still good acidity. Also a very good wine.
2005 Donnhoff Neiderhauser Hermanshohle Auslese - we decided to have one more wine and I opened this. At first I did not like it, a bit dry after the LGKA and the Eiswein but as I got the taste of the other wines out of my memory and as this one opened up, I become more and more impressed. This has lost its baby fat (which I love - see 2010 above) but still has a lot of fruit and has developed some complexity. Really in a good place right now.
That is the first time I’ve ever heard someone describe the 2001 Clos des Ducs as anything more than mediocre. The next thing you know is that I’ll have to start regretting passing on those 2001s…
The 2001 Clos des Ducs was far from mediocre. Now, I recognize I like complexity and probably like less overtly fruity wines better than most people, but the 2001 was far from mediocre. I think that because the 2001s in the Cotes du Beaune have less gloss than in the CdN, they need more time and have been more closed. They still need time, but i think there will be some good wines. This is the second such wine I have had recently, the other being a Chandon des Briailles Ille des Vergeleses 2001, which was younger even than the Clos des Ducs. The Clos des Ducs is the better wine of the two, but both are excellent. I would say that Saturday night the 1995 and the 2001 were about level in quality. The 1999 is a superstar.
You don’t know me from a hole in the wall of course, but I’m from the old world and no lover of fat, high-octane fruit bombs. I tasted through the whole d’Angerville line-up when they were released and all wines minus the Clos des Ducs suffered from “goût de grèle”. The latter did suffer from a diluted mid-palate and while a decent wine in the context of the vintage, it was a mediocre Clos des Ducs.
Funny you should mention the CdB, which I also tasted about a year ago and was vastly superior to the Clos des Ducs as I remembered it. Of course, there was no hail in Pernand but it’s still puzzling how a wine can apparently improve over the course of a decade. As it is still available for release prices, I may have to try a bottle.
Or come to DC and I will open up a bottle for you to taste.
As I said, I liked the CdB. I am a big fan of the winery and love the style of the wines. I thought the nose on the 2001 Illes des Vergelesses was really nice, but that the palate was still a big closed. To me, that wine has a lot of potential, but needs about 5 years. The D’Angerville Clos des Ducs was richer and more open than the CdB. Of course, it also had been resting in my cellar for years, while when I tasted the CdB a few weeks ago it had just been shipped in to a friend from California a few days before.
Our 2001 vs. 2002 tasting was very successful. But, all we had were Cotes des Nuits wines - mostly from Morey and Gevrey. I think in the coming months we either should do a follow-up of the two vintages focused on the Cotes du Beaune or tastings of 2001 CdB and 2002 CdB.
Howard,
I had the 2001 Iles de Vergelesses a few weeks ago. It was my first wine from CdB and I was curious about how it would be due to it being a 2001 Beaune. (The shop/restaurant also had some 2003 and 2004 Lavieres I believe. I went for the 2001) I enjoyed it, but to be honest, I couldn’t tell if it gave all it could or not. I guess I agree with the nose giving more than the palate though. Thanks for your assessment of its present state.
Interesting note on the 2001 Ducs.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}