Burgundy - Corton blanc et rouge
Scopri restaurant
Excellent food and service as usual. Seven participants.
All wines were tasted blind. All participants contributed wines but each did not know the wines others were bringing. I was the organiser so I knew the entire line up and filled the gaps with extra bottles. The ranking is shown alongside the bottle (1 is tops).
Champagne
1990 Dom Perignon Oenotheque
Corton-Charlemange
2010 PYCM Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 2
2010 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 1
1998/1999 Corton rouge bracket
1998 Prince de Merode Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
1998 Prince de Merode Corton Renardes (Aloxe) 3
1999 Chandon de Briailles Corton Bressandes (Aloxe) 4
1999 Rapet Corton (Les Pougets and Les Perrieres, Aloxe) 2
2010 Corton rouge bracket
2010 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 2
2010 Dubreuil-Fontaine Corton Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3
2010 Dupont Tissenderot Rognet (Rognet, Ladoix) 4
2012 Corton rouge bracket
2012 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 1
2012 Dubreuil-Fontaine Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 2
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3
Port
1975 Hardys Museum Release Port
Tasting Notes:
1990 Dom Perignon Oenotheque
Good colour and still bubbling. Most picked it as possibly 1996 to 1998. It had intensity and depth but it lacked the desired acid drive and thus looked a bit broad. It was not as attractive as before.
Corton-Charlemange
2010 PYCM Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 2
2010 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 1
I had the 2010 Corton- Charlemange yesterday. Intense chewy fruit. Colour was nice but the bottle just lacked the energy that I would have expected in a 2010 and there was a feeling within my wine group that it was showing the faintest hint of premox. The wax capsule was perfect and so was the cork. Purchased at release and kept at 15C.
I thought PYCM were a bit immune to premox but my friend reported another bottle of 2010 PYCM Meursault which had obvious premox.
The Bonneau on the other hand was fresh as a daisy. There was matchstick sulphur evident which eventually blew off to reveal the underneath fruit. More linear than PYCM but good persistence on the palate and very attractive. I had gone off Bonneau du Martray for quite a few years because of premox issues but todays showing was welcome.
1998/1999 Corton rouge bracket
1998 Prince de Merode Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
1998 Prince de Merode Corton Renardes (Aloxe) 3
1999 Chandon de Briailles Corton Bressandes (Aloxe) 4
1999 Rapet Corton (Les Pougets and Les Perrieres, Aloxe) 2
The Rapet and de Merode Clos du Roi came from ultra cool cellar and they looked fresh as a daisy. The main difference was that the de Merode Clos du Roi looked very attractive to drink now as it was very open and inviting whereas the rapet while lshowing excellent fruit appeared to be still coiled up and wanting a few more years to unfurl. Nobody picked there were two de Merode in that bracket as the Renardes looked quite different. More rustic with a touch of leather. Chandon de Briailles looked very odd initially on opening but with time in glass settled down and the off flavours/nose dissipated. Again looked more rustic and gamey but with more or less resolved tannins.
2010 Corton rouge bracket
2010 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 2
2010 Dubreuil-Fontaine Corton Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3
2010 Dupont Tissenderot Rognet (Rognet, Ladoix) 4
There was a huge stylistic change in the younger Cortons. Vibrant fruit. Its plusher style without any rusticity that was a hallmark of the older vintages (in this tasting and in general). There was not many points seperating these wines. All were uniformly good with stylistic changes. The Dubriel-Fontaine appeared the most feminine and uber attractive. The new Faiveley regimen showed how attractive this wine can be. It has amazing florals and length. The Maldant was medium bodied with great finesse. The Dupont looked bigger and more intense but also most backward. It would need more time to coax the best out of it.
2012 Corton rouge bracket
2012 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 1
2012 Dubreuil-Fontaine Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 2
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3
Like the 2010 the 2012 also showed the polish and refinement in style that perhaps has become the norm. Accidently, there were two 2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres. The wine from the earlier bracket was revealed as a 2012 only after the bottle was unblended. One person had picked the wrong vintage by mistake. The idea of this bracket was to compare the 2012 vintage of the wines from the earlier bracket (2010). Again, all wines showed extremely well and it was splitting hairs to rank them. Overall, there was a feeling that 2010 has more acid drive and thus vibrancy than 2012.
Port
1975 Hardys Museum Release Port
There were few top “vintage port” makers in Australia from the days gone by - Reynella, Saltram and Hardys. This wine re-released as a ‘museum release’ approx. 20 years ago. It looked very fresh back then and even now. The base wine being shiraz its notably sweeter and richer than the ones from Portugal. I liked the style although two long time Vintage Port drinkers in the group felt it a bit too sweet, less refined and mono-dimensional.