My family and I just got back from a great trip to Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Chicago – to visit family and friends and see some sights! Springfield, IL is a lot prettier than you’d think 
. This past Saturday night a group of friends in St. Louis gathered up a great set of bottles for a wine dinner at Niche there in downtown Clayton, MO. Niche provided a fabulous menu for us up in their private room!! I threw in some bottles also from my lockers that I have there - they are packed way more than I thought they’d be ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
. I’ll add pictures here and there and if any of the attendees wants to chime in please do so!
We had a few nicies back at Domaine SL before heading to dinner:
1989 Taittinger Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne: This was in perfect shape and delicious! There were plenty of yeasty tight bubbles, limestone, flashs of tart lime tossed in. The length was excellent with just the right amount of age on it to add that extra dimension that Taitt can show. Bravo!
2006 Wittmann Westhofener Morstein Riesling Großes Gewächs: Another absolute winner IMHO. I didn’t know what this was until after I got back from raiding lockers and the '89 Taittinger but knew it was good. This had touches of tropical along with plenty of savory notes to add depth. The length on this one was very impressive - glad I just looked and see that I have some of this locked away in one of my lockers there .
Dinner wines in order of consumption:
1985 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut from magnum: This was spot on with touches of fresh yeast, smoke, banana and lime mousse, and a lengthy palate presence. Another fine example of aged champagne - traditional and pure!
2002 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon from magnum: There was just something a wee bit off about this one. Didn’t seem corked - maybe heat damaged at some point. Anyway, didn’t come up to the standard '02 Dom performance for me.
2009 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne: This was definitely young but oh soooo good. I really do think that PYCM hit the right spots with many of their white burgs in 2009 - Puligny, Meursault, and GCs included. This was marked by classy touches of vanilla and lime laced oak up front. The palate really was rich and balanced in a way that really marked its presence in the mouth. I very much liked this - it got better in the glass as I saved several of my whites wines until the end of the dinner. Yum! Wait another 3-5 to taste another one of these if you have any.
2000 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet + 2001 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet: I really liked this flight of Leflaives with the '01 edging the '00 slightly for me. Kelly loved both of these and was successful in snagging the last of my pours later during the dinner . The two wines were similar in profile as you can imagine with the '00 having a slight bit of austerity on the palate if I had to nit-pick about anything. Like these both! There was a bottle of '07 D.Leflaive Chevalier we didn’t get to believe it or not…
1993 Louis Carillon Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Referts: Another winner IMHO - the oldest Carillon Referts tasted for me and from such a nice vintage. Before the split of the domaine between the brothers I always thought the Referts was the winner in the cellar after the BBM - this tasting confirms my beliefs. Broad flavors throughout with lots of cold yellow orchard fruits and spiced apples - nice levels of acidity to pull it through. Lovely!
1999 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne: Well, Well, Well!!! Yowzer - these are always special when consumed and this was no different. Touches of smoke, perfumed orchard fruits, maybe some notes of lovely cotton-candy aromas. Layer upon layer of flavors! Saved a good pour of this until the end and shared with some at the table after it was long gone. A monument to white burgs and my WOTN.
First flight of reds:
1988 Domaine Denis Bachelet Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes: This was ever bit as good as a bottle consumed last summer with friends - this has to be one of the best (if not the best…) '88 red burg I’ve sampled. This had several layered notes of sweet earth, leather, black tea, and savory mushrooms. There is a lot of stuff going on in this bottle that brings it up to a different level! Loved it.
1985 Domaine René Engel Clos Vougeot: This was holding it’s own with the next wine but couldn’t hold a candle to the Bachelet IMHO. There was plenty of deep earthy cherry and soft new leather scents here - the tannins seems fully resolved and balanced. Like it but not as much as the Bachelet and the next wine.
1993 Domaine René Engel Grands-Echezeaux: This had the beefed up personality that many '93 red burgs are showing now with quite a bit of charm showing through. Layers of earthy raspberry, cherry, and cola shine through - lovely length! Loved it - actually always love older Engel bottles .
Moose flight:
1996 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes: This showed well - marked by balanced acidity and layers of flavorful dark spiced cherry fruit. I very much liked this but it’s still very young so try back in 10+ years or so.
1999 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vieilles Vignes: This is a monument to young age-worthy musigny if you ask me. This has officially transitioned into the “don’t touch” stage of it’s life so hands off ! Still - it showed plenty of musigny personality but still need lots of time and/or lots of air to get the most out of it. Shame, this was off the charts good the last time I tried one of this maybe 3-4 years ago.
**2007 Faiveley Musigny (bottle #93 for future reference):**The Unicorn has entered the room! There is one more of these there in St. Louis that will surely be shared with the fine folks there in due time. There are touches of high end oak on this one to start - flashes of perfumed blue fruits and spiced cherries. There’s a savory profile here this is distinctive and attractive. So young - the next one will show up at a dinner there in a few years or when they request it . Wow wine!
Some older negoc. bottles:
**1978 Pierre Ponnelle Bonnes Mares (750ml bottle):**This was great but still further along in the tertiary spectrum of aging than expected. Still very good with notes of spiced tea, mushrooms, tart cherry, and leather spice. The palate was much longer than expected pushing this bottle into the low 90’s for me if I had to score it. Lovely old red burg…
1947 Pierre Ponnelle Musigny: Lovely old bottle of wine - touches of cola spice, cherry compote, leather, tobacco, and super savory tannins. This one had the length on the nose and palate that really showed GREAT. Super cool to try this bottle of wine - loved it!
1945 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino: Well - this was a treat to try! This had an orange rind component + sweetness that pleased at first but quickly turned a wee bit sour. It just couldn’t hold it together to get a good picture of what this wine was in the past - shame. I liked it for what was in the glass which was a bit of history that I’ll likely never get to try again.
1978 Pierre Damoy Chambertin: This was quite good even if it was at the end of the night - the oldest Damoy bottling I’ve sampled. What a pleasure - touches of earth, dark berries, smoke is what I wrote down later. I wasn’t the only one that really like this bottle of wine - several of us agreed that punched way above its weight class. Loved it!
*There was a trip to a local spot or two for a beer or two after dinner .
The next day we watched the WorldCup final at a friends house and sipped on a fresh bottle of 2007 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage with down home St.Louis BBQ. This is an old school rendition of Hermitage with plenty of blackberry, earthy granite, and meat aromas. Fabulous with the BBQ.
We love St. Louis and can’t wait to visit again! CHEERS
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If this bottle of Bachelet Charmes Chambertin is better than the one we had last summer in mag, it must have been near perfect. The one we had was one of the better wines I had last year. I would have loved to have tasted the Pol Roger. Sounds delish and WC is one of my favorite wines. See you soon.
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