Had a bunch of my wine friends over last night for dinner and we did a Rossignol Trapet Chambertin vertical. The wines ranged in quality from outstanding to spectacular. There seemed to be a consensus (although I did not discuss this with everyone) that these wines were even better than a wonderful Clos de Lambrays vertical we did a couple of months ago that one of the friend’s house.
We had five Chambertins, although one of them technically was not from Rossignol-Trapet.
We started with an excellent 2006 and a still young but outstanding 2001. Paradoxically, the younger wine was perfectly mature, while the 2001 was still a bit young and tannic, although it had a wonderful long finish. The highlight of the 2006 was its perfect balance, something I found pretty consistently in all these wines. I think the 2001 is the better wine, but on this night, the 2006 was the more mature one. 2001 keeps surprising me with its ability to age and get better for the long run. [Note that the 2001 was stored at the winery for a long time at the winery as I bought this in 2016 when I visited there. At that visit, they had for sale 2001 Chambertin and Latricieres Chambertin at really excellent prices and I took advantage of this.]
The second flight were the 1998 and 1999 and then a 1988 From Domaine Louis Trapet Pere & Fils. Since Trapet estate had not been divided into two yet and since the back label noted the contributions of Jacques Rossignol-Trapet to the creation of the wine, we thought it would belong. [Jacques apparently was the father of Nicholas and David Rossignol, who currently run Rossignol-Trapet and Jacques’ wife was a Trapet.] And, in taste, it really fit in. Although older, in flavor profile, etc., it really resembled the other four wines and in fact seemed like an older version of the 1998. I say this with the caveat that if I didn’t see the bottle I would not have guessed that this wine was 35 years old. Full of fruit and everything else one could want this was so well balanced and just a joy to drink. The 1998 also had this perfect balance and I was really pleased at how well this wine is doing. I have now had two wines from 1998 in the last couple of months (the other was a Clos de Lambrays) and am fascinated by just how good wines are from this vintage were from a vintage that was supposed to be an off vintage. Have not had any other 1998s in a long time, so don’t know if this is typical of the vintage today or just emblematic of two fabulous producers. The 1998 is a longtime favorite of mine and I was thrilled to drink it again, although I am a bit sad as this was my last bottle of it.
The third wine in the flight, the 1999, was the best of the Chambertins. It had all of balance and finish of all the other wines, but added more richness. I love 1999s (competes with 1978 and 2010 as my favorite Burgundy vintage) and this wine shows why. Just a great bottle of Burgundy. Thankfully, one of my friends volunteered to bring this so I still have one more bottle of this to drink in the future.
After these wines, there was appetite for one more red (obviously, we also had whites to start and finish the evening) and I decided to change things up and opened a 2021 MSD Ruchots from Domaine Amiot et Fils. I was really impressed by Amiot’s 2021s when I tasted there in June and I knew that a couple of my friends liked their wines generally although they had not had any 2021s. This was a very impressive wine with excellent fruit, a lot of acidity and a very long finish. Seems like it should age very well, but one person worried that the acid might be too high and that the wine could have issues over time as the fruit fades like some 2006s have had. I hope not because I really liked this wine. For more on my visit this summer to Amiot, see Relatively short visit to Burgundy - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers