I agree. Sauzet, with their expanded cork diameters, appears to be doing much better on the pre-mox front as well but Diam is really a game changer for the formerly afflicted estates.
The 19 Pucelles is fantastic, made by former winemaker Pierre Vincent. I haven’t had them side by side but with your comment I will try to have that comparison soon. Pierre Vincent is a gifted winemaker. We will see how Leflaive does in his absence.
Pierre Vincent’s own wines are pretty great too.
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Hello…J. Cangiano gave you a reply : I opened this about a month ago and would hold longer, or a very long decant of 4+ hours if you can.**
I am guessing that he enjoyed the wine about a month ago and that the wine would hold longer and also hinted the wine reached its top ( for expression or singing ) after 4 hours with open-air.).
Here are the other facts for you ( perhaps your know it already ) but for clarity, I would like to repeat : Mallard owned 2 g-crus - which need bottle-age to show their best. Then… his mid-range wines - which included 2 : 1er cru from Aloxe-Corton but not his 1er cru from Ladoix. In other words, his 2 - 2 1er crur from A-Corton also need bottle-age.
Then come his lower level reds : his Ladoix 1er and his A-Corton village and Ladoix village.
Needless to say, his entry wine is : CdNuit village.
Mallard knows what he is doing…and he priced his wines accordingly.
Here is how I enjoy his wines…for years and years.
I bought his whole portfolio - each year by each year ) from SAQ if they are here - for example : his CdNuit ( 14 bottles ); then mid-range : around 6 to 7 bottles each;and 14 bottles of his C-crus.
Let say if 2020 are here…I will do the same thing.
Since we are now at 2025 - which means the CdNuit village is 5 years old. I will open a bottle - no decant - and drink it for 2 to 3 hours to see how it evolve.
The above is my way ( or Peter’s way ) to see ( or check ) and guess…**how is Mallard doing in 2020 vintage ** .
If you own one of bottle of the 2020 1er cru from A/Corotn…try it as suggested by CJ. Decanted for 4 HOURS and enjoyed the wine at its best in expressiveness.
If you want to see how the wine evovled…just open it and start drinking RIGHT AWAY AND keeping on going back for a sip and another sip …for 4 to 5 hours.
Just my 2 cents…
God bless you, Peter, my Corton brother from another mother, you and your family! I hope you have a very nice weekend.
FYI - I just had a 2010 Thibault Liger-Belair NSG Les St. Georges. It was amazing!
Then I learned that TLB makes a very rare and hard-to-find Corton Renardes. Let’s go on a hunt together, Peter, to see who can find a bottle.
Thanks for listening - once in a while, I talked too, too much.
May God bless…and crossed your fingers for good hunting.
Peter
After 4 hours in decanter:
Wonderful nose! Gorgeous!
Flat, clipped, nearly nothing palate. Acid and tannin discernable, nearly nothing else.
5 years?
Can we get any recent checks on 2012 aka the forgotten vintage?
I had an MG Les Feusselottes recently and it shut down hard shortly after opening and pretty much stayed that way. Was a little better on day 2, but it was mostly uncooperative
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Just had the Tâche over the summer and it’s amazing.
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12s have been variable at upper levels.
Wines showing well:
2012 hudelot RSV
2012 LT
2012 liger belair la romanee
Wines needing more time:
2012 roumier bonnes mares
2012 lignier CDLR
2012 DRC richebourg
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Went to an Arlaud tasting this week. A mix of 22s and 23s. Wines tasted were:
• 2023 Bourgogne Rouge Roncevie
• 2023 Gevrey Chambertin
• 2023 MSD
• 2023 Chambolle-Musigny
• 2022 & 2023 MSD Aux Chezeaux
• 2022 & 2023 MSD Les Ruchottes
• 2023 Gevrey- Chambertin Aux Combottes
• 2022 & 2023 Charmes-Chambertin
• 2023 Clos de la Roche.
I can’t give detailed notes on all of the wines but can offer some general feelings:
- Arlaud’s entry level Roncevie is a terrific value at $44. Has the somewhat intense fruit house style ( at least, that was a common thread across all the flights here) but also a very noticeable perfume as well. So good is the Roncevie that the villages suffered by comparison ( as in, yeah, they’re better, but are they 2x better as are the prices?
- the MSD villages at this stage had more perfume to it than the Chambolle. The Gevrey villages was surprisingly limpid and energetic, not coarse at all.
- The 1ers were a revelation for the 23s, which were not weaker than the 22s. The Chezeaux 23 in particular stood out for forcefulness. The Ruchots in both years were chewy in a good way. The 22 Ruchots was the only one that really stood out relative to its 23 corresponding wine in terms of overall quality.
- The 23 Combottes was WOTN for me, vinous, stalky, good salinity, fine tannins, fine grained minerality, gobs of red berries, an excellent balance of sweet and sour and bitter.
- The Charmes were “classier” wines , more delicate than the Combottes, but almost took a back seat because of a reticence that I attribute to youth.
- The CLDR was objectively the “best” wine, with extra contours, a little mint, but… not sure if I’d pay the extra freight for it.
Overall, these were unmistakably Burgundy wines, earth and fruit and a little spice, with oak playing a very unobtrusive role. Enjoyable now but here’s a case where, IMO, you’ll get a lot more by cellaring them, except the Roncevie and, for different reasons, the Combottes.
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'23 is turning out to be fantastic. More tannic than '22, but not necessarily with less fruit. I do think it will be more variable. These two vintages honestly remind me of '09 and '10.
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I think 23 will end up being a good vintage but not as good as 10 (despite my misgivings about 10 for the long haul). I will give my final judgement next year after paulee though.
I think 22 has way more balance and harmony than 23. I’m sure there will be some awesome 23s but I’m leaning towards 22 in my purchases…
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Michel Lafarge Volnay 1988
so charming directly after opening - red fruited, bright acidity, ending with more complex spicy fruity notes. High salvation score. Great showing at this level.
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22 and 23 are both good. I mean we’ve had a lot of good vintages recently. But if you really want to split hairs none of them measure up to 19. So either way you’re talking about a secondary level vintage. Maybe in time the 22s will outperform the 23s, but I think there’s enough heterogeneity in each vintage that it really depends on the producer and cuvée.
I would sort of consider 22 to be a less good 19, or perhaps maybe a 12 with slightly more fruit. Not enough experiences with 23s yet. I tend not to buy a vintage until after La Paulee, so have relatively few so far.
Fair enough. I do agree re:producer/cuvee of course. Still, I’m thinking about these less in terms of overall quality and potential, but in their character. In my limited experience with both vintages 22 conveys a lot of balance and 23 does not. That’s enough of a marker for me to lean one direction. I do not find 23s to be heterogenous. I’ve had spiky ones and broad ones lacking acidity. It actually seems all over the place to me… I’m still buying 23s of my favorite wines or where the prices are right, but I’m tentatively putting 22 as one of my favored recent vintages that I’m a bit quicker to pull the trigger on. It may not be 19, but sometimes you want some Neil Young instead of Crazy Horse.
To turn back the clock a bit: has anyone tasted village level or above 2017s of late? I loved the vintage when it arrived and couldn’t resist opening a bunch within a year or so of release. They were so gorgeous already.
Have they developed enough to take another look? They were certainly never tannic or forbidding to begin with, of course, but I’d be curious to see where they are in the curve.