2011 Maison Ilan

Not beating a dead horse, just curious why Ray changes his mind all the time, especially when his first email implies bottling is actually “underway”.

On Dec 18, 2013 he sent this out:
"2011 bottling underway

Happy Holidays everyone!

We are closing out the end of year activities here at Maison Ilan. We have had a full 2013 (more on that later). Why not close it out with bottling the 2011s? The wines are tasting, well, as they should be. The extra time in barrel has given the wines more time to settle. Prior to the extended aging, while there were a few barrels which were somewhat reduced, we were terribly happy with all of them. I personally don’t view reduction at lower levels to be of concern. However, these reductions are best to be resolved inside of the Barrel than inside of the bottle. You never know when someone might have the thought to open a one year old Grand Cru after all. :wink: As it turned out, the reductions passed without racking them, adding copper or anything else. Time sorted it for us"

Then today:

"2011 will be bottled shortly. This has been a topic of great interest for some. In short, a longer time in barrel provides the wines with more time to mature in one place without movement. It is an added benefit for the wines, especially those intended for a long evolution. In making this decision we have considered the patience involved and we appreciate your understanding that we do things quite differently here at Maison Ilan. We don’t take the short cuts. Every decision is made based upon sheer intuition. The goal is to work as simply as we can while giving respect to these vineyards that have been cherished for numerous centuries. To that end, we allow the wines to move at their own pace not the pace of our modern times. Wines of this level do best when given time to express what makes them unique. Thank you for understanding that this is an essential part of our wines.
"

“Not beating a dead horse”?!? This horse is dead, reincarnated, and beaten to death again.

They do things differently there at Maison Ilan. [snort.gif]

Ray must own a lot of barrels…

Just what issue do you as see as settled?

The larger story still continues…

By now we all know that Ray will release the wines when he feels they are ready. He may (and probably will) change his mind as many times as to what ready means. If you buy his wines you have to accept you have no control over when the wines come in. He is more great but eccentric artist than businessman.

Having been to Maison Ilan personally and seen “all” (according to Ray at the time) of his 2011s in barrel, having a case of these 2011s on order, the delays (delays and more delays) of bottling and the large number of people I personally know that have paid him for wine upfront (myself included), I will be very interested to see how this plays out. There just wasn’t that much wine in the cellar.

I personally know individuals who in 2010 were shorted bottles they prepaid for (I found this out after a friend and I paid for a split a case of 2011s).

If Ray is just now bottling his 2011s, he is among the very, very, very last to bottle (outside of experimental projects).

Nathan,

Care to explain what in the hell the bolded text above means?

I could really care less if I get them this week or in Dec; they will just be moved to offsite storage where they will sit for many years before I decide to drink them.

deleted

The problem is him publishing predictions, not the “changing of the mind” which is really more using his best judgment to gauge timing. Having his own bottling equipment is a luxury that means he can optimize the timing for each wine, and make fairly last moment judgment calls. Normally, a small winery has to group wines together to bottle to keep costs down, but that involves a certain degree of compromise on timing, and the call has to be made somewhat far out due to scheduling with the bottler (plus it’s subject to that person’s previous bookings).

He did post rain was a factor in the delay. Not clear to what degree. Of course, if you want an actual complete answer you’re quite free to ask him. He has email, a blog, a facebook page…

[popcorn.gif]

I’m not missing the big picture, I just really don’t care if the wines are late; I would rather end up with a wine that is ready to bottle vs one that was bottled prematurely to placate some pissed off buyers and meet a self imposed deadline. Does Ray need to think twice before he posts these dates…yes.

Fair enough. I’m not facebook friends with Maison Ilan, so all I have to go by is his email he sends to his customers…which I logically assumed would contain similar information…

If his email just said, “hey guys, we had rain for the past month and a half. I have to carry my wine bucket by exposed bucket up the steps to my tank and I don’t want rain to get in it” Then I would have shut up. Instead his email just mentions more about doing things the right way.

You see, most winemakers aren’t so open and honest. When the show enthusiasm, it’s purely manufactured. Ray needs to hire a PR consultant so he’ll learn how to construct a charming facade. They’d teach him how to lie to his customers, to tell them what they want to hear instead of the raw truth, so they’ll be happy chowing down on bullshit instead of trying to micromanage/second-guess his business for him online, like some nerd playing fantasy football or something.

Non-issue for me

+1

Exactly! How many other Burgundy producers try to honestly keep you in the loop, TRY to answer emails, etc. I’m sure he learned quite a bit this year that will help drive his future business plan.

LOL! [rofl.gif] [rofl.gif] LOL!

Well played, Randy.