Jim,
I haven’t the slightest idea. I know it has to be from one of the five. The above guess is probably the most educated since Dominque Laurent and Sylvie are close.
Cheers and my best to you.
Hope your wine projects are going well.
Sylvie Esmonin is indeed where the Clos St Jacques comes from; his long time partner…
Laurent only “owns” land in a few appellations, when he bought the Haegelen Jayer estate a few years ago. Otherwise, he has long term lease contracts.
I’ve always been a fan of the wines, strongly defending them from the “boogie man” mythic grotesque oak treatment that is purported. With age, they’re gorgeous.
I put out an offer on the '11s on Berserkers over a year ago, with little to no response. If people got a chance to taste these wines, they would judge for themselves and find them chock full of substance.
I think that his rather strong personality has kept much of the press at bay. Tanzer obviously makes a point to go and visit, out of his personal long term appreciation/interest in the wines.
I think that I will have to wait until '13 to make another offering, provided that there is enough wine made…
These were my (extremely positive) experiences from a tasting last year:
Bonnes Mares 1997/ 8/ 9 Dominique Laurent - I put on this mini vertical as I have quite a few Laurents and have shied away from them in recent years due to their oakiness. Served blind. All very typical of their vintages and none carrying an excessive oak signature. One of the guests thought this was a vertical of DRC GE from the 1990s which indicates how well they were received. The 97 showed beautifully from the start, with the 99 showing its breed and potential after a couple of hours. The 98 while extremely good was outflanked by its siblings
I’ve only had his 2006 Corton, which was fine, if too young. I researched web notes about him once, and the general drift was that the wines showed very well with decent aging. I also read somewhere that the original high-oak treatment was an attempt to get around excessive SO2 as a preservative; somewhat analogous to Fourrier’s bottling with C02. PC usually carries his wines about every year.
To add to the data base, my notes on the few that I have had:
1997 NSG Les St Georges - 12/9/11 (tasted twice) Very big perfume of dark fruit, herbs, and floral notes. A little ‘greenness’ which was not bothersome . I wonder if some stems in this? One of the bottles had some VA initially, but blew off. Good depth and balance on the palate. Still sweet fruit and a nice finish with some dusty tannins still present. This should continue to improve with more bottle aging. 92 pts
2002 Mazis-Chambertin - 10/1/10 Dark color. Rustic wine. Some burg funk initially. Not a lot of fruit evident in nose, but a fair amount of oak present. There is a big void in the mid-palate. Dusty tannins on back end in so so finish. 88 pts.
Gevrey-Chambertin Estrournelles St Jacques - 12/15/09 Medium ruby with some amber on the rim. Nice nose of raspberry and earth. Medium bodied. Nice balance. Very enjoyable. 91 pts.
Fwiw, most of Laurent’s wines are vendange entier, aka whole cluster.
Not a big fan of Laurent’s 05 Charmes(had a few). But decided to try another tonite.
Found it on the sweet side with some reduction-not for me.
had the 97 bonnes mares at ma cuisine last april, and thought it was great.
Glad lots have enjoyed their wines, personally I have never had one I liked, out of maybe 18-20 bottles…
Is Laurent doing his own farming/fermentation now? My understanding from a few years back was that he was bottling mostly purchased wines.
Yes, the Domaine wines are the Haegelen Jayer vineyards. Great Clos Vougeout, adjoining the Chateau.
The Clos Vougeot is the Laurent wine that has most impressed me. The old vine Haegelen Jayer parcel is very well located (high) and the wine can be fantastic. The '99 was our blind tasting favorite across a broad range of Clos Vougeots.
The guy had amazing sources for most of his cuvees. He paid high prices to the vignerons to sell him specific barrels so he could transport and “raise” them in his cellar. He did himself no favors by bragging about “200% new oak” and other chararacteristics of his elevage, as many people dismissed him as a showman. A shame, as his sources were so good and what he was doing was not enough to ruin them, as many feared.
Of course, as a result of the hype, the cost of securing portions of winemakers’ most prestigious holdings, etc…his prices were often multiples of the same bottlings of those from whom he had purchased. Did he add that much value to his neigbhors’ , the Chevillons’ wines? I think not…nor to others. But…that was very different from making bad wines that were too stylized for their own good. I don’t think he really did that…though…he inartfully rode the line between hucksterism (ie, justifying a premium for his input) and the “truth” of what he mainly did…cherry pick great barrels by paying premium prices to the winemakers early enough to get those barrels.
I was always satisfied with Robert Chevillon’s versions…and those of Bernard Maume and others…they always seemed better values to me.
That’s a pretty good summary Stuart.
In a side by side I preferred the Chevillon rendition of Les St George as it showed less oak (Assuming his Les St George source was Chevillon, does anyone know?)
Les St. Georges, Pruliers and Vaucrains vielles vignes…all came from Chevillon at various times. In some vintages, I think, particularly with the Pruliers, Laurent bought all they had, they told me. He might have bought other things, too…there was no “standing” purchase…the guy came (in their case from a few houses away) tasted and bought.
Whether Laurent also had other sources, I don’t know. I know he did for Mazy Chambertin in addition to the Maume version. I think he used to call them “A” and “B” or something equally clever.
I have some 05 DL Chaignots - also Chevillon grapes?
Who does his Corton come from?
In speaking w Dominique at his winery, he declared the Mazis and Clos de la Roche as “house specialties”. Two cuvees of each produced each year.
There are at least three Laurent Clos Vougeots-are they all from the Haegelen-Jayer plot(s)?
The Haegelen CV is now titled Sui Generis, and bottled as Laurent Pere et Fils (all domaine wines bottled that way)
You’re right, Stuart, but at least on this side of the pond the wines fell so far out of favour that for a while they could be acquired extremely inexpensively at which point they were terrific value. Much confusion was caused by the use of new barrels but I think what people didn’t really understand was the low sulphur/high CO2 regime. What’s always impressed me particularly have been the stunning ‘little’ wines, including the best passetoutgrains of all, great Bourgogne, village old vine Savigny and Marsannay as well as grander village cuvees which can be a kind of quintessence. I will say that that my enthusiasm for these wines has raised eyebrows very high among the most informed burgundy lovers of my acquaintance.