I started drinking their '09 Bourgogne Rouge about two years ago (and liking it) and I went into my local Wegmans a couple of days ago and I’m still seeing it on the shelf. I went in looking for a 1er Volnay from Remoissenet that I purchased about a year ago, the 2005 Clos des Chenes, and it was out of stock but on the shelf was another Volnay 1er (can’t remember which vineyard) from 1993.
I picked up the bottle and examined it. The fill was very good and the capsule pristine as well as the label. The shelf price was $49.99 and if I wasn’t so concerned about provenance, I might have picked it up.
I know that they are a huge negociant concern throughout the Cote d’Or so that would explain the huge production of Bourgogne Rouge, but a '93 Volnay 1er in such fresh physical appearance? Do they bottle/release late even with negociant wines?
Don’t know about that particular bottle, but on a visit there they have stocks of older wines that (as far as I know) they acquired when the business was purchased - my guess is they do releases of some of these older stocks from time to time. They were all available for sale at the domaine.
They produce current vintages a very ripe style that isn’t necessarily to my taste, but I’d guess that the older bottles are variable - for that price I’d take a shot, some are quite good.
I’m guessing that’s a recent release. Always hard to know what you’re getting from Remoissenet, the best wines can be spectacular but at least in red wine by 1993 not so much. Probably a decent drink though.
Wegman bought Century in Rochester to enter the wine business. Their owner was a personal friend with the Remoissenet owners and he only got their good products and avoided their garbage. Over the years I have had amazing wines that Sherwood recommended. He used to have a lot of great old bottles from them. It is generally a producer that I would avoid but in this case I readily make an exception.
Remoissenet have bins and bins full of old wine. All unlabelled as is the normal practice. Nothing to be concerned about to see a pristine clean bottle - the bottle was probably cleaned and labelled only months ago. However the wine will be from that vintage etc.
I have had some very lovely old Remos over the past few years and would always be interested in the older bottles that they release from time to time. I have had a couple of duds as well, but that’s wine. The only bottle I have left is a 1985 Echezeaux 1.5. I’m kind of excited to drink this bottle when the time is right. I cannot speak of anything young as I have not seen or bought any in years.
Remoissenet have bins and bins full of old wine. All unlabelled as is the normal practice. Nothing to be concerned about to see a pristine clean bottle - the bottle was probably cleaned and labelled only months ago. However the wine will be from that vintage etc.
Yes indeed. They have an amazing amount of older vintage wines in their cellars. The oldest wines I saw in quantity during our visit were 1947s (bins and bins of them, all vineyards). There were even older wines in a private area. As others noted the quality varies from year/year/vineyard so if properly priced it would be worth a shot. I would have picked it up at that price.
it is not the clean bottles that bother me w older Remoissenet, but the high fills and new corks. I wonder about reconditioning w younger wines, as they taste too “new.”
All the members of my local tasting group are older than me, some much older. About half of them used to buy from Sherwood regularly back in the day. Over the years, I have a lot of Remoissenet. Based on what I’ve tasted, I might say they are my favorite Burgundy producer, but from what you are saying, that may be a biased sample. To me, the wines (all older wines) always had some tannic structure and appealing earthiness to balance the sweetness of Pinot.
What do I know, but I’d be pretty stunned if this was happening now - could have been reconditioned under the old regime, but the current one is pretty reputable both in terms of the ownership group and those running the operation.
Surprisingly, I’ve been delighted by a 2017 Remoissent Pere et Fils rouge [Bourgogne] the last two days. I drink little pinot noir – and even less from Burgundy – so was thrilled to find that this was so lush and (almost RRV-esque) fruity. 13% abv, light to medium bodied flavor, no tannins and low acidity. It drinks very well as an afternoon sipping, dinner prep kind of libation. On the nose I find it has cinnamon, nutmeg flavors with ripe red berry fruit on the palate. The tech sheets (from NBW) suggest that it has declassified Volnay/Pommard grapes, but that’s beyond my ken. This fruity basic Bourgogne is tempting bait to coax New World fans over to the expensive, pale garnet side. This earns a B+ in my personal ledger, but perhaps jaded Burgundy enthusiasts would find that too generous.
My Dad bought loads of wine from Sherwood too, and Mont is spot on about his relationship with the producer. Yes, they recondition the older wines. So from a philosophical sense are you getting 100% of the vintage playing out? Does it matter to you? Either way, they are solid and I think they’re honest. And the pricing is fair.
This brings back great memories that make me chuckle.
About 5 years ago I was at the Wegmans in Chestnut Hill, MA. I was perusing the fine wine room and they had some Remoissenet from the 60’s at ~$500 a bottle. A couple walked right in, took all 12 bottles and went straight to the cash register and out the door.
This brings back memories. In the early to mid-1990s, a local merchant sold a ton of old Remoissenets and I’ve had bottles with vintage labels from every decade of the 20th century starting in with the 1940s. A lot of them were really terrific, particularly those from 1945, 1947, 1949, 1969, and 1978, but they all showed signs of reconditioning such as high fills and little to no sediment and we often referred to them as “single bottle verticals.”
I was reminded recently that Remoissenet had been accused of blending younger wines, and perhaps other than pinot noir, into some of his products in the 1950s and 1960s. I have a few 1959 Remoissenet wines that I plan to try in the near future, so will be curious to see.
From Burgundy Report:
There has been some criticism of older wines for their apparent youth and inferences that the bottles are not 100% pinot noir. Bérnard [Repolt] is very open when discussing this point, and although he was never part of the team that either made or procured the wines, he makes two simple points:
The wines are what they are, and reflect the era in which they were produced – but no-one around today could tell you anything about the what was put into the bottles.
The important fact to consider for those that claim the wines ‘too young to be believed’ is that the wines have only ever rested in one place since they were made – storage has been impeccable
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}