1982 burg vintage?

WINE TALK
41

That’s “okay” and not “oaky,” right, Bill? neener newhere [smileyvault-ban.gif] deadhorse [whistle.gif] blahblah [head-bang.gif] [oops.gif] [berserker.gif] [headbang.gif] [gen_fro.gif]

42

Ponsot’s 86 Griotte Chambertin and particularly Clos De La Roche came around wonderfully in the end, the latter a glimpse of heaven some five years ago.

43

Tom – You might enjoy this little essay by Kermit Lynch (http://kermitlynch.com/newsletters/0502-February2005.pdf - scroll down to “Losing Parker and Ponsot”), especially the last paragraph.

44

I remember that well, Claude, and the article in his book. It was a great, magical, wine in 2006, though-I’m absolutely certain you’d have been bowled over by it, which just shows that you never can tell.

45

On the subtopic of Ponsot and no new oak, I asked Laurent Ponsot yesterday about the claim by Remington Norman in the first edition of his book that Ponsot used 20% new oak (see post no. 18 in this thread) and Laurent said that Norman had been mistaken. He said that the estate always tried to avoid the use of new oak, although until the use of new oak became widespread in Burgundy, making used barrels widely available, the estate had from time to time had to purchase new barrels to replace some older ones or to provide for extra capacity as new vineyards were added. Accordingly, for example, Jean-Marie Ponsot purchased new barrels in 1963 and Laurent did in 1985. But even then, the barrels were washed and treated to eliminate any taste or aroma of new wood.

46

When would you say this was? Early 90s?

47

End of the 1980s is when it began. Ponsot referred to it as the Parker effect* – for those who weren’t following Burgundy at the time, I think it is difficult to conceive of how influential Parker was in Burgundy for a brief period of time (and he continued to have significant influence, although more among a certain group of purchasers than producers, for quite some time after that). I and other friends recall noticing many wines with too much new oak at that time. Fortunately, some of the new oak mania has subsided, although many producers continue to use a very high percentage of new oak.

Laurent Ponsot posed an interesting question: why does anyone need any new oak now that there are techniques and technology to assure that used barrels will be adequately cleaned? Different producers would give different answers.

  • The irony, of course, is that Parker was a huge fan of Ponsot’s wines and always cited that fact to argue (with faulty logic) that it proved that he was not an oak hound.
48

Thank you Claude. I suspected Parker was at work. I bet his influence led to alot of cold soaking too.

49

Cold soaking is a more complex subject, Berry. Henri Jayer had a big influence on a whole generation or more of producers, and not just on cold soaking. Some that are now tiptoeing into using some stems say that it was Jayer who had convinced them not to use any stems.

50

Who do you think was more influential: accad or Jayer?

51

In what sense, Berry…?

52

Got some of these today. Drinking pretty well - won’t hold up much longer though, so they’ll be gone in the next year or so.

53

Cork-soaking too.

54

When the 1982 vintage came out, the few wines I tried didn’t impress me. I thought the vintage was light and simple and wouldn’t age well. I recall the Jayer wines were decent and the Roumier wines were too, but I felt no urge to stock my cellar with 1982. I owned more 1980 and 1981 than I did 1982. !982 whites were a different story and I did buy a number of those wines.

So when one of the guys in my burgundy group (Peter Funsten) said he wanted to bring a flight of 1982 red burgundy to one of our dinners in June of 2010, I was admittedly skeptical except that I knew Peter wouldn’t propose it if the wines were awful.

So when we tasted the wines, I was very pleasantly surprised as were the other members of the group. Here are my notes from that evening:

#7 [1982 Dujac Clos St. Denis]
Light red color with some browning at the edges; strawberry and rose petals aromas; simple, but very nice strawberry, earth and light brown sugar flavors; but this had an amazingly long strawberry/spice finish. Very nice and really exhibiting the wonderful secondary elements you want to see in a well-cellared old burgundy. 93

#8 [1982 Roty Charmes Chambertin]
Medium red color with browned edges; clean, soft strawberry aromas and flavors with some underlying earth/spice tones; long, light almost airy finish; not quite as nice as the other wines in this flight, but very nice despite the vintage’s reputation. 92

#9 [1982 Ponsot Clos de la Roche]
Light red color with some notably orange edges; soft, attractive strawberry and spice aromas; on the palate, this has some strawberry, orange, and spice flavors; an amazingly complex spicy, earthy finish. Pretty impressive for this vintage. 94

#10 [1982 DRC La Tache]
Deeper red color – darker than the rest of the flight; some rose petals and soft asian spice aromas; on the palate there is soft background cherry fruit and asian spice; this is amazingly complex and yet on the lighter side of medium weight; very long asian spice and dried fruit finish. My favorite of the flight. 94

As you can see, our experience with the 82 Ponsot was pretty favorable but I would add the caution that all of these wines had been acquired on release and well stored.

55

Don,

Thanks for the notes. I don’t have any of those wines, but know a geezer who has some of that Dujac in the cellar. I will redouble my efforts to get him to open it!

56

You might using a different descriptor of him for your snake-charming, Mike.