Another Christmas Function: Salon, Dagueneau, Bouchard, Le Moine, Rousseau, Clos de Tart, Nacional

WINE TALK
1

Christmas function
December 20014 @ Bellota

Cured trout canapés
Sydney rock oysters from Batemen’s Bay
1996 Salon Cuvee S Blanc de Blancs

Chilled cucumber soup with scampi
2009 Silex Blanc Fumé de Pouilly (Didier Dagueneau)
2010 Chevalier-Montrachet (Bouchard Père)

Beef carpaccio, regiano, red anchovies and pepper cress
2010 Griotte-Chambertin (Lucien Le Moine)
2010 Mazis-Chambertin (Lucien Le Moine)
2011 Chambertin (Armand Rousseau)
2011 Clos de Tart (Mommessin)
2010 Griotte-Chambertin (Marchand Frères)
1993 Castello di Fonterutoli ‘Siepi’ (Marchesi Mazzei)

Duck with farro, lentil, cavolo nero and charred onions
1997 Clos de tart (Mommessin)
1997 Mazy-Chambertin (Joseph Roty)
1983 Clos Vougeot (Gros Frères et Soeur)
1978 Richebourg (Remoissenet)

Cheese
1955 MacKenzie
1963 Cockburn
1962 Quinta do Noval Nacional

Very enjoyable event. Nice way to spend an afternoon (12 noon to 5 pm).

All wines tasted blind.

Briefest of notes:

1996 Salon: Concentrated, chewy, very structured. Amazing.

2009 Silex: Characteristic Dagueneau signature. Picked it blind (as I had just tasted one the week before!). Tropical yet quite flinty. Loved it.


2010 Bouchard Chevalier: Tight. Bit of oak showing but intense fruit underneath. Great structure and freshness. Excellent wine if it survives premox.

Bracket #1
2010 Griotte-Chambertin (Lucien Le Moine)
2010 Mazis-Chambertin (Lucien Le Moine)

Bracket #2
2011 Chambertin (Armand Rousseau)
2011 Clos de Tart (Mommessin)
2010 Griotte-Chambertin (Marchand Frères)

Over all the two Griottes looked a bit lesser wines. While nice they did not have the stuffing or structure or appeal compared with their counterpart within their bracket. More valid for the first bracket when vintage and producer were the same. Rousseau Chambertin looked excellent. First time I have tasted the Rousseau 2011 but if this is anything to go by they have done well in this vintage. The Clos de tart was nice too but for the asking price it does not make the cut.

Bracket #3
1997 Clos de Tart (Mommessin)
1997 Mazy-Chambertin (Joseph Roty)
1983 Clos Vougeot (Gros Frères et Soeur)
1978 Richebourg (Remoissenet)

As a bracket these were clearly older and mature. They were all very nice to drink on their own but the earth did not more. I had expected bit more from the Richebourg.

1955 MacKenzie
1963 Cockburn
1962 Quinta do Noval Nacional

The MacKenzie and Nacional were just fantastic. I had never heard of MacKenzie previously but it was an eye opener. Cockburn was not in that league.


Looking forward to the tastings in the new year.

2

Sanjay, any winemaker signature in common with the two Le Moines? From what I’m reading, the more he gets out of the way of the juice/grapes he is given, the better, and after 2005 or so he started to realize that. My personal experience, except for his excellent racy Echezeaux, is too narrow to have an opinion.

3

Great line-up. You would have had me kicking and screaming serving wines of that calibre blind. I much prefer to just reflect on what I’m drinking, and hopefully have a better understanding of what I’m drinking. :slight_smile:

How did you find the Mazis?

4

Difficult for me to comment.

I haven’t had a lot of exposure to Le Moines to understand their signature. Having said that there were some similarities but hard to draw a lot of inference.

5

With my other wine group we tend to have the end of year function as an open one. This is my first year with this group. They prefer it this way.

This was a lazy lunch spanning 5 hours so a lot of time reflect on the wines and to retaste them at will.

6

Sanjay, that’s my prefered approach too.

Taste the wines initially blind, no matter how good, but leave enough to retaste after the reveal. That way you get the best of both worlds. Tasting blind you get to really test your preconceptions and prejudices, I feel. Usually the good and great do shine through blind. And I find that the fact it is blind really forces me to focus my senses on the attributes of what is in the glass, which, after all, is what it is all about.

Nice notes BTW, looks like (another) good event.

Cheers, Howard

7

Were they noticeably oakier than the other wines?
I ask because although Le Moine wines are heavily criticized especially pre-2005, there is a chance they are a bargain for my palate. Dominique Laurent certainly is except for 1995.