TN: 1969 Remoissenet Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques, etc..

Hung out with some of the usual suspects last night. Some really great wines, including 1989 Lynch Bages, and 1990 Cos D’Estournel, which were equally brilliant each in their own way, 1996 Robert Groffier Chambolle 1er Sentiers was on it, 1991 Domaine Leflaive Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles that I really liked for the first 30 minutes, and some other goodies…the 2010 Edmond Vatan Clos la Néore Sancerre was a bit of a revelation. Thanks, John. And the Remoissient below was pretty remarkable to me.

• 1969 Remoissenet Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru (6/6/2012)
  Beautiful floral and earthy nose. Aged Pinot, but strongly red fruited, too. Palate is rather remarkably vibrant for a 43 yr old, even a Gevrey CSJ. The fruit is almost sappy upfront with a really deft touch of acidity. Excellent balance and poise. Some strength and finesse. Really tasty. Now…what’s actually in the bottle?

Posted from CellarTracker

I’ll never forget a 1971 Louis Latour CSJ, absolutely amazing.There’s a restaurant with 78 Drouhin on the list I’ve got my eye on. It’s only in the last 20 years that negociant CSJ has been rarely seen.

These Remoissenent '64s, '66’s and '69s continue to amaze me with their youthfulness and vigor. There has been speculation since they hit the market that they might not be “genuine”, but at this point, I’m not sure I care

I like this wine quite a bit. I bought a few through Brandon’s source. Great provenance. Sounds like this one really was singing.

I have tasted numerous older Remoissenet recently, they have been on the whole superb wines.I picked up some cases that had been perfectly stored, I believe they were released from the negociant mid eighties . I have tasted vintages 49/52/66/69/78 over the past 6 months and the vibrancy of fruit has been a topic of great discussion in our group tastings. As mentioned above, the balance and poise of the older wines have been intriguing. My most recent Remoissenet was a 90 Richebourg, and it was drinking extremely well also.

Thanks for the comments, guys.
Seems that we are struck by the youthfulness in these older bottles.
Don-Missed ya last night.
Some nice wines, good company as usual.

I have had '69s and '64s, and maybe a couple of '76s if I remember correctly, that have been very impressive. The last, a couple of years ago, was a GC Combottes that was very red fruited and very delicious.

Does this producer recondition these wines?

The vintages I have have been in my collection since the late '70s, IIRC.

I had a bunch of older Remoissenets which came through Boston retail several years ago. They were some of my first fully mature burgs. With a few exceptions, they were quite excellent, particularly the whites, which were really extraordinary. I remember some bourgogne blancs from the 80’s that are still my benchmarks for white burg, and that’s after drinking leflaive, Roulot, etc in the years since.

Some of people in one of my tasting groups have jokingly referred to old Remos as “single bottle verticals” since at least the mid-90’s when a local retailer sold lots of these. The reputations of the negociant and the proprietor of the retailer did little to quell the scepticism. That said, a lot of the older vintages (some that come immediately to mind are the '45 and '47 VR, '49 VR Clos de Reas, and several different '69’s), were delicious when purchased back then and have held up well for more than 15 years since then, which is no mean feat.

I still have fond memories of the late 80’s and early '90’s whites as well, which were consistently very good to excellent and terrific values as well, and really outshined the reds from that period IMO. Unfortunately I finished off all of mine years ago.

Yeah,

I also have a number of the '69’s…

These are supposedly from their museum stock, in very cold cellars, but I do suspect (know) that they have been topped up…what with is the question??

That’s a pretty nice label for a 43 year old wine, no?

*caveat - I have minimal experience with wines this old, but I’m sure I couldn’t keep the label that nice in my cellar

Wines are kept unlabelled in bins and labelled on demand.

We opened a '69 RSV a couple of years ago that overshadowed a '71 DRC GE opened the same night. Whatever it was, it was delicious.

I asked Pierre Rovani the question regarding topping up these older wines before release. He neither confirmed nor denied, but did say that it was common practice among negociants in times past. He said bottom line what is important is level of satisfaction the wine provides your taste buds. If a positive experience does it matter?

That’s what I am talking about! Nice note Todd.

It’s a good question, Roger.
The purist in me wants to say it matters, but at the same time, maybe not.
The wine kicked butt the other night. But did it taste like a 43 year old Burg, even a great one, should?
Probably not.