I’ve been sitting on some 93, 95, 96 and 98 Gouges … and sitting and sitting and sitting. A couple of bottles of the 98 Chenes Carteaux – a village wine – were giving some fruit and pleasure by 2021, but I had too many notes on the premier cru bottlings in the form “all tannin, no fruit” up to 2020. Would these wines ever come around?
So what a pleasant surprise it was to open a 98 Clos des Porrets on Tuesday and find that it is beginning to show well. I got a whiff of madeirization when I first pulled the cork, so I held off decanting until an hour or so before we sat down. But there was no need for caution; the nose was clean when we started drinking the wine.
Jim’s description of his 98 Vaucrains is pretty close to our experience. This opened up over more than two hours. The fruits are dark, and they slowly come out. There’s substantial tannin there, but it’s rounding out and doesn’t stand in the way of pleasure. Very Nuits. No one would mistake this for a Cote de Beaune. It’s muscular and it’s early in its drinking window, but it’s the real thing. I have one more bottle. I’m in no rush to drink that, but I will decant it further ahead than I did this bottle.
Like Jim, I’ve had too many disappointing red Burgundies in the last few years (including a corked 2001 Fourrier Gevrey-Cherbaudes in August 
). This wasn’t etherial/profound, but it was real Nuits and a pleasure. It paired very well with pork tenderloin with a mushroom/mustard sauce and roasted, herbed new potatoes.