Last night saw pretty most of the group get together to open special wines and welcome Fred into his new house. We also split about 4oz of black truffles. Fred, who it turns out is an amazing chef, prepared truffle pasta, truffle buttered chicken, and a lamb dish with yet more truffles. Really excellent food, and every single wine was absolutely on point and showing wonderfully. Just a great night of wine, food, and friends to close out 2015.
1988 Krug Champagne Clos du Mesnil - You know it’s a good night when you start it off with some ’88 Krug Mesnil! Really wonderful aromas of freshly baked bread, apple, citrus, and chalk. Lively acidity, terrific balance and depth. A stunning wine, and an absolute reference Champagne.
1988 Pierre Morey Montrachet - Wow. This was just stunning. The color was shockingly light, which was consistent with the youthful presentation. With a little bit of air, the nose blossomed into a gorgeous symphony of yellow fruit, umami, lightly buttered bread, stone, and all sorts of other things. This had amazing depth and power on the palate with enough acidity to keep it fresh and lively. Based on its presentation last night, this has years left. This was my only bottle of this, but fortunately Fu has one in his cellar. Anyway, a really excellent wine, and probably one of the best white Burgundies I’ve had.
2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières- A very different wine from the Morey Montrachet, but absolutely fantastic in its own right. This had the characteristic mountain-stream clarity of Roulot, but with added gravitas and power. Very precise with great length.
1993 Domaine Dujac Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Gruenchers - Aged Dujac seldom disappoints, and this was no exception. Beautiful perfume of flowers, spice, red cherries, and earth. This was darker on the palate, with some earthier notes in there as well. Classic Dujac, and a damn good bottle of wine.
1993 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Mazis-Chambertin - 1993 was just a great year for Burgundy. While the Mazis is certainly one of Rousseau’s lesser Grand Crus, this was a really great wine. The nose wasn’t as soaring as the Dujac, but it was very nice with all sorts of spice and earth tones. On the palate this was nice and integrated, with plenty of fruit left and nice depth.
1996 Domaine Leroy Corton-Renardes - While this was beautiful and wide open right out of the gate, it shut down after a few minutes in the glass, so we decanted this. After some decanter time, this displayed really pretty Leroy perfume, with deep red fruit, exotic spice, and earthy elements. Lots of power and deep, dark fruit on the palate.
1995 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino - Apparently this was decanted for a few hours prior to consuming. Initially tight and unyielding, this unfurled with a compelling nose of dark fruit and tar and a lot of umph on the palate. Very nice now, but obviously young. If the tannin doesn’t outlast the fruit, this would be really excellent with an additional decade or two of age.
2002 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes Mares - An absolute baby, this needed hours of decanting to really get going. When it finally did, this was really nice with meat, earth, and dark cherries and hints of flowers. Plenty of structure here, but very good even now, with dense fruit and meatiness on the palate.
2008 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières - After dinner treat. Bright yellow fruits and citrus, with an exotic green tinge to it that I really enjoy. PYCM Perrieres is just great juice.
