Two lovely wines, one perfectly mature and the other with plenty of upside remaining.
The 1991 Jobard Blagny is about as good as this wine can get. Brownish-red in color, bricking at the rim. Lovely nose with scents of forest floor and plum. Very mellow mouthfeel, tannins completely resolved. A great match with roast chicken. I love wines from this vineyard, whether they are from Pernot, Jobard, Ampeau or Matrot. Clive Coates description of what Blagny reds are like is not bad: “Blagny rouge is a fairly sturdy, if not robust, wine, a sort of cross between a Chassagne-Montrachet and a Pommard, but a cross of good examples. In its youth it can be dumb and four-square. But given time, it will mellow out to something with no lack of character or depth.” Even backfilled recently from Envoyer, this was a smoking great deal.
Kevin Harvey’s recent note on a 2002 Launay Pommard “Les Chaponnières” gave me the resolve to open one of my 2002 Launay Pommards; the “Perrières - Vignes Centenaires.” This, too, was a fine bottle. Just beginning to enter a good drinking window. The old vine sap is evident, but the tannins are pretty fine so there was no harshness or bite. Nicely structured, and finely balanced. A pretty nose, with hints of iron shavings sprinkled in the with red plum and rhubarb scents. The quality of the vintage is evident. Good, long finish. I think this wine will get noticeably better in 3-5 years, but it’s damn good now. The only tiny nit is a lack of true complexity, but it is, after all, only a villages lieu-dit.
Thanks Harry, I’m a big Blagny rouge fan too. Unfortunately this, like those of Leflaive and Pernot, is no longer made but I comfort myself with the three dozen bottles of the 99 I have in storage. I’m just coming to the end of my enormous stash of magnums of the Matrot 76 but it keeps getting better and better.
Tom, you lucky dog, you! I only have a pair of the Jobard 99s, and some 02s. When I was in NYC last spring, I had a bottle of the Matrot 02, and it was delicious. Luckily, I was able to score a half-dozen 2010 Faiveley Blagny “LPSLB” at a great price; this came from holdings previously in the hands of Matrot-Wittersheim. Leflaive’s is from a different vineyard, no?
The crying shame is that the foolish demand for Blagny/Meursault chardonnay (in a premox world) has caused much of the lovely Pinot Noir vines in Blagny to be pulled out.
Perfect description of this wine, Harry. Thank you. My wife and I drank a bottle of this while vacationing at Lake Tahoe last week, and the decriptors that came to mind for me were soft red fruits, decaying forest floor and fully resolved tannins. Clearly we drank the same wine. I like Blagny rouge a lot, too. I can’t think of a much that comes close for $50. My bottle, and yours I expect, are part of a “library” release direct from the domaine, brought in by Kermit. They are in perfect condition coming out of Jobard’s cold cellar.
Disclaimer: I sell this wine (and the 96, 99, 05 and 06).
And I tried to access your website via your signature link, but got this message:
“This is the placeholder for domain martinsteinley.com. If you see this page after uploading site content you probably have not replaced the index.html file.” Any tips for correcting this?
Great to see a note on that Launay. I just bought a few recently after they caught my eye on a sale list and I remembered how enjoyable the non-Centenaires version was.
Tom, I understand that the 06 was the last produced by Francois/Antoine Jobard. I purchased it when it was released a couple of years back (after I tasted it, I bought all that the importer, Kermit Lynch, had). Kermit just recently brought in the 05 direct from the domaine and I bought as much of it as I could get, as well. The wines won’t bowl over anyone with their power, but the gently spicy perfume and cool, red fruits on the palate are perfect at the table.
Picking up on this old thread, opened a 2002 Launay Pommard “Perrières - Vignes Centenaires” last night. Very nice wine that I think still has life ahead of it. I would say the description above of “A pretty nose, with hints of iron shavings sprinkled in the with red plum and rhubarb scents” pretty much nails this wine.
Purchased on closeout from the Wine Club SF for $29.99 a bottle back in 2005. Should have bought a case or two instead of two bottles.