1998 Henri Gouges Nuits St. George’s Les Vaucrains 1er: Opened with some Gong Bao Chicken I made. I have been on a remarkable run of flawed/OTH/not very good/just okay but disappointing Red Burgundies dating back awhile now. Honestly didn’t have high hopes here but this really was excellent. Terse and minerally both aromatically and on the palate. Blackberrry compote and chipped beef. Still very strong sense of grippy, integrated tannins. Freshness due to nice acidity. Lean mean fighting machine. Doesn’t make up for something like 5-6 pretty crappy bottles in a row (things that should have been better for sure) but at least it didn’t join the pack.
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Thanks, Jim, that’s very good to hear, as I have some '93, '95 and '96 Gouges I’ve been waiting (and waiting) on, plus '98 Chenes Carteaux, Chaignots and Clos des Porrets. This gives me hope.
Jim, we had the '95 version of this a couple of weeks back at our Saturday L&E regulars group, and it was showing very well. It still has some of those '95 tannins, but was in really good balance and everyone seemed to enjoy drinking it, but thought it would be even better in another 5 years. I’ll wait on my couple of '96 Clos de Porrets.
I bought 3 cases of 1998 Gouges (Vaucrains, Prulieres and LSG) at auction in 2008. I paid $1,800 with the auction house fee for the whole lot. That was probably my last real wine score of note.
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Had a 2001 Gouges LSG last night (along with a beautiful '01 Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche) that was showing wonderfully. Deep, broad, ripe blackberry that fills the palate as only Gouge can, plenty of acid to complement things. Nothing lean or mean though. (the Gouge was great, but the Lignier stole the show. That guy could really make wine.)
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