The discussion of '98s in another thread intrigued me. Overall, I like '98s quite a bit. In fact, the vintage seems every bit as good (if not more) than preceding vintages going back to '93. In side by side comparisons, I have usually preferred the '99s, but the '98s have great complexity, depth and abundant acidity. IMO, many '98s show an unusual combination (which may not appeal to everyone) of depth and ripeness in the mid palate and slightly unripe tannin combined with firm acidity on the finish.
What do others think of the vintage?
Here is a great example of '98-
'98 Hudelot Noellat Romanee St Vivant-
The nose here is terrific with complex spice, sage and emerging secondary notes. It is delicious, smooth and intense on the palate with loads of irony things. The finish snaps it back into shape but this pretty resolved even now. I love the depth and dazzling complexity. Great stuff and drinking well with many years ahead.
Ive mostly tried higher end 1ers and grand crus from the vintage but Ive liked pretty much everything Ive had. 1999 might be the riper and longer lived vintage but for drinking right now I find the 1998s have more complexity and development. 1999s still seem very primary by comparison.
well, as I think you know, Kevin, from the other thread, I am a great fan of the 98 vintage, at least from certain domaines. I don’t usually buy things at the RSV price point (althought I’d be happy to drink yours!) but I don’t think you need to be drinking at that level to get excellent wine from the 98 vintage (I understand you weren’t suggesting otherwise). That vintage seems to have evolved more quickly than the 99 as I think the 99s are more than a year behind the 98s, at least the wines of comparable or identical pedigree. I haven’t had too many CdB wines, although I suspect many volnays are quite good (or at least I hope so as I’m sitting on a mag of the d’angerville CdD), but certainly the chambolles, gevreys, vosnes, and nsgs I’ve had have been quite attractive. I don’t find the vintage particularly structured. Or rather, I don’t find the tannins coarse or unbalanced (I do like a bit of structure, I admit - but then I’m a burg lover and appreciate the edges, as do we all I suspect!), a charge that’s been leveled at the vintage. I continue to backfill when I see good opportunity although I have about three cases of 98s left and I’m not sure how many more I need.
is there a specific area you think 98 performed very well in? I’ves had a few NSG and they’ve been a weird mix of ripe and woody. I will test the waters of the gev chamb region soon!
I’ve been a fan of 1998s. With time, I think that several other vintages will surpass it, but for drinking now, it’s hard to think of a 1998 that I would pass on.
Answering Charlie above, I think that on the Côte de Nuits, the vintage improved as one went further north, which is not to deny that there are excellent examples from Nuits and Vosne.
1998 was the first time that I saw some sunburnt grapes in Burgundy. That said, I was pretty new in the vineyards at the time. Still, I think that it played a role in what Kevin describes as the slightly unripe tannins on the finish of some wines. It was one of our serious preoccupations at harvest to sort out the botrytis AND the dried sunburnt berries. Following on the Spring frost in some of the Grand Crus, it made for some diminutive yields in some of our main vineyards.
I totally agree, for some time this has been my favourite young vintage for drinking, and I am lucky enough to have a lot-often these wines were sold for a fraction of their cost having been written off by the absurd Wine Advocate. What I think is not generally known is what an outstanding vintage it often is for Beaune 1er crus. I’ve had superb wines from Germain, Lafarge, Jadot, Laurent and Morot among others.
Agree, on your comments. I think you were asking after the 98 Mugnier Musigny - had it a couple of years ago and it was the star along with 01 in a line up which included 93 96 98 99 00 01 02. Cheers Mike
If I recall correctly, Rovani refused to rate the 98 DRCs, saying they were too disappointing. Meanwhile, he raved about the 97s across the board. Ha! Our good fortune!
I’ve had very good experiences over the years with 98s, including:
de Montille - Volnay-Taillepieds (in 2004, 2007 and 2009)
Barthod - Chambolle - Les Cras (2006)
Lamarche - Vosne-Suchot (2006 and 2008)
Faiveley - Gevrey-Cazetiers (2009 and 2010)
To my mind, the 1998 vintage shows that one can have an absolutely complete Burgundy vintage at more moderate ripeness levels and one does not have to solely focus on the more opulent and fleshy vintages to find great Burgundy. It is a vintage that I have been trying to keep my hands off of at the premier and grand cru level (not always with success), as I think the wines will continue to improve over the short-term and are not yet at their apogees, but I have drunk a great many wines at the village level with great enjoyment over the last few years. Most notably, I have just been finishing up cases of Domaine Dujac’s Chambolle-Musigny and Coche-Dury Auxey-Duresses and Monthelie, and have been absolutely delighted with every single bottle from these three options. I did break out a bottle of Domaine Dujac’s Chambolle “Grunechers” for a tasting in Germany last year, and it showed brilliantly amongst a lineup of decidedly older vintages of fine pedigree.
The vintage’s evolution reminds me quite a bit of the 1991s, as the wines started out fairly tannic (particularly in contrast to the 1999s that followed hard on their heels), as did the '91s (coming after the youthful opulence of both '89 and '90), but have hastened on their way and really began to get delicious from age ten or so. Given how beautiful the balance is to so many of the '98s, with great expression of soil and pure, discreet and almost sappy fruit at the cores, coupled to that classy backend touch of asuterity, I suspect that this vintage will cruise along many more years into the future. Like the 1991s, I suspect that most wines will be drunk up (due to their beautiful apogees) long before the vintage actually begins to lose steam and begin to decline.
Claude,
I totally agree, I’m a fan of lots of communes in '98 (e.g., really nice Volnays), but I think that Gevrey, Morey, and Chambolle were especially good generally.
Jeremy,
Really interesting point about the sunburnt grapes, thanks for sharing that.
John, interesting analogy to 1991, a vintage that did get lost in the shuffle of 1990. Have you had what you consider “great” wines from 1991? I’ve always had good ones, but until recently not “great”. I think the vintage is just coming into its “apogee”, but am curious about people’s experiences with it.
I’ve never looked at 1998 as “bad” in any way. When I visited in very late 1999 and in 2001 and tasted 1998, I bought as much of 1998 as I did in other “non-great” vintages; I really disliked 1997, so…I look at 1998 as similar to 2001 in some ways: a vintage for people who like more “classic”, ie, more average, normal vintages to the “great” vintages with all the fireworks (which I’d have to say, I prefer on balance.) What do you and others think of the future of 1998…? When will it peak? when will it decline? I’ve been holding them for age 15, which is my sense of when they’ll be best…but…am all ears.
Count me in as another fan of 1998- Some of my favorites from the vintage include the aforementioned Dujac Gruenchers, Drouhin’s Musigny, Mugnier’s Fuees, Bize Latricieres, and I really enjoyed Rosseau’s CDlR in 98- perhaps most importantly, it was the vintage that introduced me (via Alan U) to Fourrier- he killed it across the board in '98.
The “bad” 1998s I had were some Chevillon Vaucrains that seemed rot infested. I had a terrible Dugat-Py Gevrey 1er, but that could be winemaking and not vintage.
The last bottle of 1998 Mugneret Ruchottes was shut down as was a bottle of Lambrays in February.
I’ve had great bottles of Chevillon Les St. Georges and I’m pretty partial to Geantet Charmes.
There have been others (a good bet at restaurants) and I’ve mostly been happy, IIRC. As far as communes are concerned, I’d say Gevrey and Chambolle are the safest bets.
I doubt that it was I. While I thought the wines from Chevillon were good in 1998, I did not think that they were up to some other recent vintages there (e.g., 1993, 1995, 1999), so I didn’t buy any and no one has served me any, either.