2021 JC Ramonet Chassagne Montrachet 1er Clos de la Boudriotte Rouge
Beautiful nose with intense, pure cranberry and ripe strawberry fruit. Palate had some forest floor as well as more beautiful fruit, but was just a bit reticient lacking full mid palate intensity at this time. Finish was long and beautiful. Even from 375 this probably needed a little time to fully blossom but was very enjoyable and of obvious high quality.
Cross-post from Charity thread:
Tonight was a 2022 Emmanuel Rouget Nuits St. Georges. Surprisingly open for the producer. Deeper plummy fruit but silky mouthfeel. Nothing rustic here. Maybe finish is a bit short but this is solid village wine from a producer who makes unfussy, sexy wines.
That top picture is excellent!
Ralph Steadman would approve.
Some short takeaways from the past couple months.
2023: Some wines need 2-3 more months to settle in to the bottle but early impressions are that these are charming with pleasant fruit.
2022: Most of these have come across as less open than a few months ago. Maybe 30% are still open and 70% are transitioning into the next phase. Producers seem to have done very well judging ripeness in 22, as I have encountered very few underripe or overripe wines. Will stop opening these soon and switch to 23’s.
2021: Grand Crus are tight but everything else is relatively open. The best wines are elegant, lacy, and well-balanced, while the worst are underripe.
2020: Nowhere near ready.
2019: Showing nice fruit but some wines are clearly in a transitional phase - although I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily shut down as the fruit still shows through. While some are good now, most will be excellent in time so I’d rather hold.
2018: Not opening any of my own 18s (or 19s or 20s), but the few 18s I’ve tasted recently seem to be coming around a bit more quickly than I expected. I initially thought 18 and 20 wouldn’t be ready for at least 15 years but some 18s might be accessible starting around 2028.
2017: Open for business. Thought these may have been shutting down earlier this year but I think it was just a few uncharacteristic bottles. Some wines are underripe and some are more developed than expected, likely lacking the structure to age much further. But the best wines are very good now, showing some tertiary characteristics, and likely to improve and keep for a while.
I’ve had some 18s recently which have been very nice, like lignier CDLR.
Is that not an argument for not decanting red burgundy? I think it’s a good idea when there is significant sediment in older bottles but the virtues of aeration are in general overwhelmingly exaggerated, to the point where people actually prefer wines denatured by oxidation.
Yeah I never decant burgs. Always just slow ox.
Sure, anyone can take one example and create a theory.
Yeah, at home would just open the bottle and follow over the course of a night / only decant if it was super tight on opening, but was at a restaurant and for a few reasons wound up with it in a decanter
That’s exactly what I’m not doing.
2006 Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne Romanee 1er Suchots
This was open for about 90 minutes before pouring. Absolutely stunning nose of black currants, violets, and rich loam. The palate had lithe acidity, more dark fruits, and elegant tannins. The finish was long and beautiful. This is drinking phenomenally right now; hopefully 06s are in the zone as I have a 06 mg clos vougeot lined up for this week.
Xpost
We are having special dinner guests this Sunday and I want to break out a special DRC La Tache. My options are 1999, 2013, 2015, 2019 and 2022.
I have multiple bottles of 2013 and 2019 so if a tie I would pick one of them
If my objective is to maximize the chances of a wonderful experience and minimize the chances of a head scratcher due to poor timing, which bottle would you choose to open?
All are well preserved.
99 is showing the best of those; probably needs a bit of air before pouring maybe an hour or two of slow-ox. The 13 might be my second choice; I haven’t had it in awhile but it was rounding into shape. I wouldn’t want to open one of the youngsters especially the 15. The 13 is nowhere near as good as the 99, though.
Thank you, my finalists were 99, 13 and 19 and 19 only because I have two bottles
2017 Frederic Esmonin Ruchottes Chambertin
Wow this was phenomenal. Nose just burst from the stem with red currants, mushroom and some forest floor. The palate had lively acidity and some more red and dark fruits with stately elegance. The finish was long and pleasurable. This was open for business and stunning. While it may not have the depth or finish of the MG or Rousseau versions, it was extremely enjoyable and a relative bargain. Highly recommended.
Cool. I picked up some '23s on a lark. Even got some 375s. It was damn cheap for GC burgundy…
I also really liked the '14 from 375ml earlier this year. Maybe not a powerful GC but plenty of depth
Geez those are inexpensive. Might be worth a flyer
Esmonin sorta has an interesting reputation I’m still trying to understand. Clearly underperformed for some time? or just traditional wine making that needs lots of time?
But the few I’ve had have all been good to excellent, including a '93 Griotte this year that was much better than expected and the aforementioned '14 Ruchottes
I’ve had more Frederic than Sylvie, not sure which sibling is “better”
Sylvie is definitely better as a whole. I’ve had quite a bit of both and Frederic is a good value, but rarely really over performs like that Ruchottes seemed to for Michael.
I have some of that, but haven’t popped one yet. I haven’t found the more recent solar vintages to be particularly kind to Frederic’s style.
Sylvie is married to Dominique Laurent, so uses a ton of new oak in her wines with Dominique Laurent barrels, so the wines can taste more modern. She has the better plot, having a big chunk of CSJ.
Frederic is more traditional and in my experience the wines need more time. I decided to pop this bottle at a work dinner on a whim and it was phenomenal. I have a case of 17s in the cellar so am gonna go work through some more in the years to come with higher expectations. I agree with Andrew that the wines may be better in cooler vintages although the 93 was very good a few years back. I do think the wines need some time.
