Our wine group friends Marc and Sandra hosted a dinner with some very old wines from his collection.
1988 Salon - Nose of brown sugar. Obviously some oxidation because of the rose color to it. Lots of acidity left on this and plenty of fruit. Nice finish. Shows very well. #5 wine for me.
1983 Roulot Meursault Les Mieux Chavaux - Lots of sewer funk on the nose. But it had a beautiful palate showing sweet wood Got much better with air and the sewer funk disappeared leaving a highly perfumed wine. Even the empty glass had a powerful nose after the wine was gone. A very memorable and controversial wine. #4 wine for me.
1980 Clair Dau Bonnes Mares - Had an appealing camphor nose with soy flavors to it as well as some spicy cloves. Went well with truffled cheese. But it fell apart after a while.
1980 Lucien Jayer Echezeau - A very clean nose and palate. Cherries still showing nicely with wonderful balance. Drank very young. So smooth and elegant. My #2.
1982 Dujac Charmes Chambertin - Nose of musty plums. But palate was too hot and sour for me. Not my favorite but others said it improved over the evening.
1982 Maume Charmes Chambertin - A bit bitter and acidic on the palate but some nice red fruit to it.
1969 Misserey Romanee St Vivant - Bottle said they are a negociant but also labeled that is was bottled by the domaine. Beautiful nose so smooth. Fresh and surprisingly young. A bit of cinnamon on nose and palate. My #1 as well as the groups.
1986 Dujac Clos St Denis - A got a lot of raspberries on this one - nose and palate. Very Nice wine. Definitely bramble berry showing up everywhere. Beautiful. My #3.
We also had a Port for dessert which was good but I forgot what it was, something old, but my palate was dead by then and I don’t really care for Port.
Our hosts were so gracious to open up such wonderful bottles for us. We truly enjoy tasting wines with this group.
Man, you are so good at taking notes. Shockingly, I agreed with you on the #1 and #2, which almost never happens! My #3 was the Salon, but I love old Champagne.
The Port was a 1970 Graham Porto. After you left, as it was in the decanter for about 2 hrs, it finally came around and was really good. Drinking really primary with mostly sweet red fruit, and has a lighter body and mid-palate than some others so it turned out pretty elegant as Ports go and the perception of alcohol really went away. I would have preferred a bit more maturity, but it was a really good Port.
Question for anyone who is knowledgeable, we had some discussion about whether the Lucien Jayer Echezeaux was made by his brother Henri. There was some places that said it was, but I honestly have no idea.
Thanks! I’m curious about provenance. Were these wines all sourced from the same place? Seems like bottle variation could explain a lot here, which of course is always the case with older bottles.
yeah, His storage is solid and most bought at or near release. Interestingly, the 1969 RSV was bought in the early 80s. All the fills on the bottles were in the neck with the exception of the RSV, which was mid-shoulder. When I pulled the cork, I could see that the RSV probably had some very light seepage at some point.
I used to purchase the Misserey wines through the Great Lakes Wine Company back in the 1980s and '90s and used to have a blast going through their old cellar. 1947,'49, 1952 and '53 were all in abundance. The estate mainly owned vines in Nuits St Georges, and purchased fruit for all the other appellations they would bottle. Their Nuits St Georges Premier Cru wines were just glorious. And I would have to say that the first memorable bottle of Burgundy I tasted in my youth was a 1969 Bourgogne Haute Cotes de Nuits from Misserey back in the late 1970s. Marc Misserey owned the domaine at the time, and he was just amazing to taste with.
