I agree with your comments Don. Frederic is making some very fine wines. He brought an 85 Ducs to the Collectors lunch that was spectacular. Complex with such balance and texture. Long beautiful finish. I know there are doubters on this board about drinkability of his wines. This wine would dispell that concern. The 99 and 02 Ducs also showed very well with a nod to the 99. Dark cherry, spice, soft tannins, elegant with beautiful balance. It still is pretty primary, but certainly enjoyable now. The 99 Chenes on the other hand is a bruiser. Still primary with dark fruits, licorice, smoke and very firm tannins. Needs lots of time. I don’t think there are any nicer people in burgundy than Frederic and Chantal.
Tasting these at the grand and verticals events were an epiphany to me. I can see how they would not be for everyone but they really worked for me. Talk about power without weight.
Last year I opened a 1990 Clos du Chateau des Ducs, a wine that is much maligned as suffering from “1990 disease”. In the first hour after decanting, I could see why folks felt that way, as the wine seemed heavy and sweet, lacking verve and freshness. Over the next several hours, the wine totally transformed, the heaviness disappeared, the freshness came forward, very powerful and intense, yet weightless. If I’m smart, I’ll wait a decade or more before opening my other bottle… but not likely to be that smart.
I went in about as deep as I could on the 09 Lafarge wines. Not everything was offered and quantities were restricted big time but I’m glad I did and glad that they were shown at this intensely heavily WB attended event!
1990 disease is just that one needs to wait on the whole, as this wine proved yet again.
Lafarge hardly put a foot wrong even when it seems as though they have,
Tom, the 1990 wines are not as consistently great as we thought when they first arrived, nor as consistently bad as the many revisionists proclaimed, beginning some time in the late 1990’s. I think the overall standards of winegrowing and winemaking are higher now. But I do agree with you… there are many great red Burgs from 1990, and many of them are just getting to where the greatness can be seen, or will get there over the next few years. For the most part, the revisionists were fooled by the long, awkward adolesence of the wines, IMO.
Right with you on the Mitans Don. Circled and starred. Wonderful balance. Really enjoyed the alertness of the Volnay VS as well. My wine of the verticals was the wonderful 98 Volnay Clos des Chenes. At the grand dinner, madame Lafarge poured some 88 Clos du Chateau des Ducs from a mag, surprisingly youthful.
OK, thanks. I was indeed pretty buzzed at that point. Nice meeting you briefly BTW. I was going to look for you earlier but the wines were comming so fast and furious I never even stood up except to pour wine.