Going to The Herbfarm Sunday. The list is chock full of great wines at great prices. Probably one white and one or two reds. I didn’t bother putting prices. Amazingly none of the wines are really even close to $200 and most are around $100.
Raveneau 1999 Butteaux or Mont Mains
Raveneau 2000 same as above but also Chapelot, Foret and Vaillons
Ramonet 1998 Bienvenue Batard Montrachet
Pernot 2002 Puligny Pucelles
Lafarge 2001 Clos des Chenes
D’Angerville 2000 Volnay 1er
Dujac 1998 and 2000 Morey and 2001 Chambolle
Chevillon 2001 Pruliers, Cailles, Roncieres, Vaucrains, 1996 Perrieres
Bize 1996 Serpentieres and Vergelesses
Probably get an older Oregon as well. These are uniformly other than the DDOs under $100.
Adelsheim 1992 Elizabeth’s Reserve
Bethel Heights 1993 Flat Block
Brick House 1998 and 1999 Cuvée de Tonnellerie
Cameron 1999 Abbey Ridge
Cristom 1999 Reserve
DDO 1992 and 1996 Laurene
Again, price doesn’t matter as they are all relatively close and not insanely expensive by relative measures. You can go to The Herbfarm website if you want to see pricing. This is just inquiring if folks have had any of these lately and what their impressions were.
I can tell you that the 2001 Chevillons are all drinking great right now. I’ve had all from your list recently except Roncieres. I’m assuming you meant Vaucrains rather than Vaillons.
2000 Raveneau Chabis Vaillons: This was great. Young, fresh, saline oriented, full and generous. This was a total treat in every way. We were always psyched when the somm came back with the bottle and there was still some in it. For $130 this was a steal.
2001 Chevillon Nuits Vaucrains: This too was terrific. Dense, earthy and rustic on the nose with hints of a rich and dark fruit base. Perfectly Nuits in the mouth with dark fruit, rare meat, earth and iron riding on a wave of rich tannins. Very drinkable and potent but with years ahead of it. The sort of beastly sexy quality of Vaucrains is evident here in spades.
1999 DDO Laurene Pinot Noir: Uh oh. This smelled like a dead ringer for a 2004 Red Burg. Less green meanies and more crushed pine needles but pretty damn similar. The fruit is darker than one would expect and quite youthful but the pine scent gets stronger and stronger over time to the point that we left half the bottle. I would be cautious here.
We’ve only been once, but to my knowledge the pairing are not an option and the price does not go down if you waive them, or request a non-alcohol option. We ordered 2 bottles off the list and also tried (but did not finish) the pairings which were very inexpensive and mostly WA. For example the opening sparkler was Treveri - about a $12 supermarket wine. In fact, the only fairly good wine among the pairings was a private label pinot from Patty Green Cellars. The rest were very, very pedestrian.
To me the only reason you go to this restaurant is to exploit the wine list. I mean the food is good, but it is not $225 good, especially when the Canlis tasting menu is $125 (without wine). But drinking equivalent wines at Canlis will cost you hundreds more and obviously they do not have that aged Oregon list.
By the way, very cool of Jim to report back. It irks me slightly when people solicit input on restaurant lists, get a lot of people to post suggestions, and then don’t report back what they tried and how it was. It seems appropriate to close the loop that way.
I thought about the Ramonet but was concerned about the pre-mox possibility and that even if it wasn’t it would be too rich. Was just too hard to pass on aged Raveneau at the price. I’m bummed we went against my own pre-selections on the Oregon PN. Good advice on the 2001 Chevillon.
Hey Jim, I plead ignorance on 2004 Red Burgs, what is the problem you referenced here?:
This smelled like a dead ringer for a 2004 Red Burg. Less green meanies and more crushed pine needles but pretty damn similar. The fruit is darker than one would expect and quite youthful but the pine scent gets stronger and stronger over time to the point that we left half the bottle. I would be cautious here.
See any of the 100s of topics here concerning this. Alternately click on Stuart Beaunehead’s profile and peruse his entries. Plenty of data to mine with thorough explanations.
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