I think that’s good advice, been acquiring a handful of bottles that appear in this thread to do so myself as tasting these in any quantity isn’t workable financially otherwise.
Hi John,
Thanks for your reply.
Clearly if money were no object…….but my response is based solely on what’s in the bottle.
The 1989 Petrus could be the best wine produced there in the past 50 years and is surely drinking better now than the 82,90,98,00 or 05.The 88 Petrus was never really in the same league.If you have any of the above vintages you will see the huge difference.
Older Rinaldi Barolo’s from the 60’s and 70’s with 3-4 hour decant and impeccable provenance at under $500 are absolutely a steal and still showing wonderful complexity.
The Marcassin 2008 Estate from Marcassin is IMHO as good as California Chardonnay gets(I recently had Marcassin Upper Barn and Lorenzo from the 90’s that were incredible).Your also getting a tremendously long window with their wines.I’ve never had an Aubert in the same league (just had the Aubert Eastside and Lauren 2014 and thought they were low 90 point wines).
Unfortunately Rousseau is all about the Chambertin and Beze.Many of their other offerings(CDLR,Mazy and Gevrey)- are usually not very good. if you would’ve had 1959 Chambertin (as fine a wine I’ve ever had in my life) or a 1991 Beze or either of the 1999 you would see what I’m talking about.
No doubt there are many wines for far less money that provide incredible pleasure and experiences.
I hope one day that you are able to see the pleasure and heights these bottles can provide.
Cheers and be well!
Jay
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There was a lot of debate about this the last time this was discussed but I still think this is one of the best ways to get exposed to a lot of different wines.
I’m not paying, but will say, it’s a sensational, sensational wine, a personal favorite of mine. I’ve only had a few wines that I would put at 100 points, and this one is top of that field.
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Totally agree Robert…89 Petrus,59 Rousseau Chambertin,59 LMHB,33 Faiveley Corton,88 La Mouline and 47 Cheval Blanc are my top wines.I know the pricing for these are astronomical but I have an incredible memory of them all that will never diminish.
Wow, this is such an individual question.
I’d say, up to my comfortable budget, any wine I bought and enjoyed was ‘worth it.’
There are bottles out there that, no matter how good, aren’t ‘worth it’ to me because what I would have to give up in order to get them cannot be transcended by a wine’s greatness.
A year of my kid’s college tuition vs one bottle of wine: no contest.
If I were Bill Koch, however, and my worth would not change no matter what wine I bought, I might go for it and talk about some 50,000 dollar of wine ‘being worth the price.’
So, up until the “ouch” level of price, I actually hope that every bottle I buy is ‘worth it.!’
Plenty of people whose ouch level is much higher (or even lower) than mine are likely having the same experiences I am, only at different decimal places!
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People used to say this (throwing in the CSJ) back when that was where all the domaine’s new oak was used. I haven’t heard anyone suggest it in the last 15 years and I don’t think it’s true.
Alex
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I still don’t think that these are very good examples of the vineyards and other producers make better ones.
Disagree. I think since about 2010 they’ve been making fantastic wine from CDLR and Ruchottes, at the very least. CSJ has always been very good. I’m not a fan of their Mazis. Their charmes is very good, if not quite as good as Bachelet.
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Lavaux, Cazetiers are tops for me chez Rousseau. Ruchottes is a great wine. I don’t have enough experience with Mugneret-Gibourg to say which is better. Rousseau’s mazy is best in class for me although I’ve never had a D’Auvenay. It blows away Dugat-Py and I’m not a Roty fan. Clos de la Roche is excellent at Rousseau. There are a lot of great versions. I don’t think Rousseau suffers much in comparison to any of them. Charmes is the weakest of the grand crus and others do it better, but I like the Rousseau version as an elegant and pretty wine, nothing as powerful as the others. And generally Beze has a little more oomph than Chambertin for me, but I wouldn’t dump either out of the glass.
I love the cdlr although I would say the house signature is quite obvious and cdlr terroir perhaps less so than some other versions. Roumier ruchottes is pretty good too.
Agree wholeheartedly. I’m pretty new to this but having attended a few dinners/events has dramatically expanded my horizon.
In my short experience with this hobby, here’s my list of “high end” (some more high end than others):
MacDonald
Beta/Jasud
Detert East Block Cab Franc
Ch. Rayas
Leoville Poyferre
Rinaldi (barolo)
Bruno giacosa (barolo and barbaresco)
Fuligni (brunello)
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I think this is a really interesting question, because there are so many different aspects to it, which is why I didn’t list producers.
There is the basic question of palate - I don’t know what your palate is like. If I suggest some names and it turns out you like Rolland made Bordeaux, very oxidative champagne and super stemmy red burgundy, a lot of my suggestions will be worthless. So debating individual producers feels premature.
But there are other factors too. For example, I think for red Burgundy it’s very hard to have a great experience without the requisite outlay (unless it was bought years ago). Unlike most other regions, I think the market for red Burgundy is very quick to catch on to increases in quality (though much slower to catch up to its deterioration). I would genuinely struggle to recommend wines I think would provided a transcendent experience on the cheap. That does not at all mean there aren’t good values, but they are good rather than great wines. So buying a poor vintage bottle from a famous grand cru made by a mediocre or poor producer is likely to yield poor results - which is often what disappoints those looking for a great Burgundy experience. There’s oceans of mediocre Chambertin made every year.
Also, a lot depends on how you drink. Some people like drinking wine blind and get very serious about it (which some people find annoying). Other people really want to connect to wine on an emotional level, so feel special affinity for certain wines. Howard often talks about Truchot - I strongly suspects it means more to him to open a bottle of Truchot from his cellar since release. (I have some bottles I’m now opening the same way and it’s a nice feeling!) Still other get a better experience from wines that they paid more money for. (Studies show that people think wine they have paid more for is better.) Other people just want to drink labels/points or unicorn bottles they can put up on Instagram. And they’re equally valid.
And then, of course, there is the relative value of money. If a $100 bottle is a real extravagance, the list is going to be very different than if you’re bidding for things left and right at the next Acker auction. I expect almost everyone on this forum is somewhere is somewhere in between, but it really does depend. Your daily drinker may be my trophy bottle.
So what high end wine is worth it? Well, it depends, I suppose 
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IMHO Dujac CDLR is considerably better than Rousseau
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Hell of a nice post, Greg. So many great points therein.
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High end that are worth it?
Depends on how you define high end. If it means really expensive, then there are very few that are worth it merely for the gustatory experience. For me, there is no reason to spend over $100 a bottle because there is so much really good wine available for less. But if someone were to offer me a bottle or a pour of some Madeira that was owned by John Adams, I would be interested not so much for the sensory experience, but for the experience at all.
So it would be high end because it’s old, rare, and has a story. And there are a few bottles like that.
If you mean bottles that are very expensive on release today, I don’t buy any. I happen to have a number of bottles that I recently discovered are apparently worth hundreds, but I sure didn’t pay that nearly 30 years ago and I would never buy them at those prices today. To me they’re worth what I paid for them, not what someone would pay tomorrow.
“Worth it” is an interesting concept. As Jeff said - for some folks a $20 bottle isn’t worth it, since they aren’t interested.
Some people want something that is predictable, stylistically consistent, and a known quantity, and go for a particular type of wine, be it their favorite Burgundy, Napa, or Bordeaux producer. Yes there will be different vintages, etc., but that familiarity is “worth it” for some folks.
It’s what makes something like Berserker Day interesting. Some people were looking for discounts on their favorite PN or Cab. Others were looking at all the kooky, more unusual things that were popping up here and there. I wonder what the overlap was.
Jacques’ version certainly was. I think Rousseau makes a very good Clos de la Roche, but it’s a very good Rousseau rather than a good Clos de la Roche. I think Laurent Lignier makes the best Clos de la Roche right now, by a fair distance.
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Ok here is your chance for a once in a lifetime!
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The bulk are too young. This will be a 4k disappointment for most guests.
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And there’s 2 11s