TN: 2010 Gonon St Joseph Vieilees Vignes - and some side by sides

WINE TALK
21

This is a serious question [and I honestly don’t know the answer to it]: What do you gain by committing infanticide on a $600 bottle of wine?

Would it not be a vastly more satisfying experience if you were to hold the bottle for another 20 or 40 or 60 years, until it was actually ready to be consumed?

Again, it’s a serious question, and something which I simply cannot understand about [what is apparently] the prevailing behavior on this board - unless maybe societal time horizons are eroding to the point that highly edumakated professional types can’t imagine life in the future much past the day after tomorrow?

22

I really don’t understand this question. It’s totally personal to the individual. If someone like Fu had just one bottle of this unicorn, I might concur, but it’s pretty obvious he has far more than just one and access to even more. I’d pop one to try as well. And it’s not really an infant, it’s got 8-9 years on it. Why live just for tomorrow when you can live for the entire continuum of life? And PS. I am not even a hipster millennial.

23

As with your posts usually, this is ridiculous.

24

You think there is a single optimal point in a wine’s development and that we should as rational consumers maximize our utility by opening wines as close to that point as possible

But wines can be beautiful to drink at many different points in their life, for various mysterious organoleptic reasons. The 2010 Gonon VV was young and exuberant and an amazing experience to drink. So was the 2011 Allemand SS. Ultimately the experiences speak for themselves

De gustibus non est disputandum

25

Well, Charlie is a man of means and he can spill serious juice every day of the week if he wants. Money is no object to him. Only wish he lived closer so I could sup some of that spilled juice. [cheers.gif]

26

I bought my one bottle of '06 Gonon VV off the shelf at Chambers in May 2011 ($52) and drank it soon thereafter with Salil and Tooch. It was amazing.

27

If you’ve got a case (or half case) and the general consensus (from reading other people’s notes or just by knowing the producer) is that the wine won’t disappoint (by being totally closed), then surely opening a few before they reach their peak is not only justifiable but generally a wise thing to do. It lets you experience the development of the wine, throughout its life. This from someone who generally likes their wines with 40+ years under their belt.

28

I was listening to an old Ill Drink to That podcast the other day with Guisto Occhipinti, and even though hes not the maker of this wine, he said something that really will stick with me. Basically it boiled down to: “wines that are made to be living wines with respect and are allowed to speak are like people. A person doesn’t always have the same thing to say when they are young, middle aged, and old, but that doesn’t mean that what they say when they are young isn’t important because its loud, or what they say when they’re old is less important because it lacks energy. Wine is the same way, and we can learn things from them whatever stage of life they are in”

I think that sentiment is so true.

29

128 for the 10 VV and split the cost with Another guy at dinner.

shrug

30

Crazy to pass that up, right Nathan?

31

He’s accounting for the Fed’s imminent flooding of the wine market with case upon case of Gonon VV as part of their liquid easing through the liquor discount window.

It’s only too rational.

32

that dinner was fn amazing. my turn to open Gonon VV with you soon…

33

I haven’t had the 10, but my own experience is that the VV is deeper and more intense than the regular bottling. That was true for 06, 07, and 09 (again, for my palate). “Elegant” is a word that may have different meanings for different people, though I did use it in my notes for the 15 VV relative to the regular (I don’t actually know if a VV will be bottled for 15). Note that the 15 VV was in a single larger puncheon, not a smaller barrique. I’m also not sure if or how much extra barrel time it sees.

34

Ok, so I looked around and found the local distributor, who had 2 bottles of the 2010 VV to sell (3 or the regular) - luckily, the price nowhere near the 400 USD quoted above (more like 1/4 of that), otherwise I wouldn’t have bought. I get that this wine is great (notes look delicious), but is there really any purpose in holding on an additional 10 years? I mean, it’s St Joseph. I do drink some Chave St Joseph quite regularly, but at 10 years old, it pretty much tastes ready to me…