I think the strictest interpretation of QPR answer is probably Jadot or Drouhin (no surprise), but I also think that if you’re going to partake in the admittedly insane exercise on spending ~$1k on a bottle of fermented grape juice, that means you can probably can swing the ~$3-5k that Ramonet will cost — and that would be my real life pick. I’ve never had the Leflaive, but I have a hard time imagining it besting the Ramonet on QPR.
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Not understanding this logic. Saying “if you’re willing to spend 1k you can spend 5k” makes no sense. That’s the same thing as saying “if you’re willing to spend $200 you can spend $1k”
Ramonet and Leflaive are both good but very different styles as is DRC.
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No it isn’t.
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That’s just what recent release Montrachet costs now. 2019 jadot is 860 a bottle. Drouhin is around that and to my palate much better. The 19 we had earlier this year wasn’t blown away by the big guns at 5-10x the price.
Great advice.
As I mentioned in my prior post, paying 2x-4x more for a recent release than a back vintage for this purpose is very silly. Also, while it obviously affects things that Noah specifically wanted a Montrachet for this project, in the ordinary context one would be considering Montrachet against available Chevalier, Batard, etc. and the notion of overpaying for the Montrachet label vs. any number of superior options is even more silly. (For example, Jadot Chevalier is superior to their Montrachet.) Is Drouhin even using Diam yet? If not, I would put a $1,000 future premox victim on the list of the absolute worst QPRs in all of wine.
Also, anyone who’s not routinely spending $1,000 on a bottle of wine is going to be giving some thought to where it’s worthwhile to do so and where it ain’t, and I’m going to humbly suggest that a bottle of chardonnay even with Montrachet on the label isn’t the best use of $1,000 with all the Lafite, Latour, Musigny, etc. in the world.
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Thank you for saying this…
I mean, yeah, Montrachet in general isn’t a great QPR. You can get Ramonet bbm for about the same
price as the drouhin Montrachet, but he was asking about Montrachet.
Can you source some older Montrachet for cheaper than current releases? Sure. If you are getting it well before premox, you’re still running the risk it isn’t any good and provenance is super important. We had well-stored early 90s Lafon recently which was spectacular but probably at its peak or just past, and that’s probably close to a best case scenario; some random mid 90s Montrachet may just be oxidized, not prematurely. I guess I’d rather spend 1k and know I’m getting an outstanding wine rather than rolling the dice on some $300 wine that has a large probability of being bad or undrinkable. That’s why if you look at wsp all the cheaper la Tache is older vintages.
Except this thread is precisely about bottles of chardonnay with Montrachet on the label…
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What do you mean by this Tom?
- The entire premise of this thread is a bit silly - those five wines no longer represent what they once did. But, if the OP wants to buy a bottle of Montrachet to complete the set, I find that telling him to consider spending his money on Latour a bit odd. It’s as much of a quixotic adventure as opening birthday vintages.
- “QPR grand cru” is a funny concept to me. Burgundy drinkers will often say producer trumps everything else, but then buy stuff like Esmonin Ruchottes because it’s so much cheaper than the Ruchottes from good producers. If the point is to drink a bottle that says “Montrachet” on it - you can just buy a bottle that says Montrachet on it! But if not,
- Styles, vintages, etc. really make a difference. Even among the supposedly best producers. Ramonet, Leflaive, Lafon and DRC don’t make wine in the same style - talking about which one is “better” misses the point. I wouldn’t want to drink current release Ramonet Montrachet. So what kind of white Burgundy do you like? If you like your white Burgundy on the leaner and more mineral side, Montrachet isn’t generally that sort of terroir.
- I’ve had premoxed late 90s Jadot, so am unconvinced that 1995 Jadot is immune to premox . If it was, I would not expect the Montrachet be selling at auction for $250.
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I’ve had some great Montrachets by Amiot, the last was 2008, very fine now.
Instead of Ch.Grillet I’d always drink a Condrieu or a Hermitage blanc by a fine producer, the old Grillets are very variable, rarely good, the new ones too oakey …
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When I bought my $400k house, I should have just spent $2mil.
Good reminder that $1k is a very different price point than $5k.
I’m saying that it’s highly likely that if you’re spending $1k on a bottle of wine, you’re either making bad financial decisions (possible, obviously) or you CAN also spend $3k. Sometimes the upgrade isn’t worth it — even if you can afford it. But sometimes it is (the essence of the QPR discussion IMO).
I would imagine it’s not uncommon on here that people would have a $1k a month wine budget. Probably that means they’d mostly spend it on bottles that are $50-200 at most depending on how much they drink. While they may be ok with blowing a month budget on a bottle, 3 seems like a different story.
There is something fundamentally wrong in this thread. Keith and I agree on almost all of the issues. The next thing you know, there will be the crossing of the streams and the end of the world. Just saying.
Maybe so … but if you’re specifically searching out a Monty (see: thread title), you’re searching for a special experience. I think it’s worth finding it if you’ve already made that choice. Also, it’s probably more accurate to say a $12k/year budget than $1k/month budget. In that sense, if you really want that special experience, it might be worth drinking some weekday wines on the weekend for a while to get it.
I can almost categorically state that people spending 12k a year on wine aren’t spending 3-5k per bottle.
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