Looking forward to it!
Great notes!
Well, in light of all this Vintage confusion (& Leroy Pidgin), my first thought might actually be: Get your shit together, Wil Raley 
These are some of the wines of the year & they deserve your goddamn respect & attention to detail.
(narrows & rolls eyes)
Taking a breath and getting back into the scene, I’m fascinated by your 1999 Leflaive BBM note. When I was with Chuck & the group in the summertime, the 2000 BBM & Batard presented gorgeously from the off and I remember pretty vividly that man who brought them gave them an enormous decant time. Like 3+ hours. [@Chuck_Miller was this also opened by the same man, or another gentleman?] I’d be curious if this still showed that much reduction with multiple hours of prep. It reads to me as if this got a few hours less prep (even with the vintage difference).
I’ve been discussing/mentioning this era of Leflaive a lot since having the 2000 side-by-side with Chuck & the group. And then 2001 Batard in Atlanta. Other folks have been grouping the 1999 vintage in with the other two, which your experience would seem to justify in the end. Fascinating that these wines need/benefit from so much air.
I’ve never had the village Coche with that amount of age to it. Your note is kind of what I would write blind, actually :).
Obviously, we are totally Jel of this Red lineup.
When Michael, Robert, and I had the 2009 Rayas (also blind, actually, courtesy of @Steve_McL ) in October, our impressions were quite similar to this bottle of 2005. Guessing on pure aromatics can make go Burgundy first. In the mouth the 09 was obviously not Burgundy. Your 05 reads as little more classically restrained, though. Of course the group nailed it in one with Chuck as the bringer 
.
I’m so glad the 2001 Dujacs both presented so well. I’ve never had that particular duo/vintage combination. The older Dujac I was hoping to try this year didn’t survive its journey into 2025. Your notes present beautiful texture & lightness of being. Bonnes Mares can definitely get a little wild on the nose. Very glad these were in the class of that beautiful 2010 
.
So, I’m only Leroy-Adjacent rather than having any real knowledge on Leroy. That said, in my minimal experiences, I think Les Beaux Monts is a stunner. At @Andrew_K birthday dinner in the summer, the table had a great conversation about Leroy. Particularly in that with all the producer signature and general high-quality, the premier cru wines often feel a little more ‘custom’ compared with some of the GCs. I don’t have the knowledge of the GCs to have a ‘real’ opinion, but I intuitively I was on the same page as George & Andrew and the other guys with more comprehensive Leroy databanks. Particularly because I think Beaux Monts is a glorious site in the right hands. I can only hope I shall be so fortunate to get a moment with the 09 one of these years.
And 2000 Rousseau Chambertin was my Wine of the Night on that Summer with Andrew & his birthday gang. On an evening with many Rousseau and two La Tache. In a moment of symmetry with your evening, it was a younger premier cru wine (12 Rousseau CSJ) that was in the similar zone of brilliance. Oh, how I long to have that wine again. Shortlist for red wine of entire year.
As I wrote in my summer notes: the 2000 was gloriously head-and-shoulders above every other Chambertin & Beze on the table. Your note of beautiful viscosity but with elevating, enchanting, dancing flavors… (sighs). Rings familiar
Enchanting evening, you two. Gloriously epic. One of the beautiful privileges in life is having wines of this quality; particularly as it allows you to recall them so vividly when reading your friends have the similar (or exact same) wines months/years later
Gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not there
(winks)
I certainly do. Happy Holidays, guys. Enjoy reflecting on these beautiful wines in the weeks to come. And the joy of having them with that special group of wry smiles & high palates.
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The ‘99 Leflaive BBM was brought by James. Bill brought the pair you had this summer. I am not exactly sure how long the ‘99 was decanted, but certainly 1-2 hours if not much longer. Interesting that there was a discussion at this tasting about how some Burg drinkers do not decant their wines (red or white). This group decants EVERYTHING and often many hours in advance. The only things generally PnP are spur of the moment Riesling dessert wines just pulled from the cellar.
Personally, I didn’t find the Dujac pair to be all that great, and they were not (to my yak palate) very Dujac-y. They seemed quite lean and drying on the palate and I questioned whether time was on their side.
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Coaxing reluctant wine information & palate preferences from you has become one of my favorite pastimes, Chuck 
Very helpful. Thank you.
Yeah I never decant burgundy of any color. Nick would’ve also mentioned that I’d almost certainly prefer the 19 BBM to the 99 as well.
I often gravitate more than most to leaner more restrained reds which likely sums up where we diverged a bit on these two. I also think they may have suffered a bit next to the Rayas, Leroy, and Rousseau!
I can’t remember, what was Jacques last vintage?
Hey my palate is old and jaded. At least I am not yet adding a sugar cube to my glass.
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You have a great talent for writing notes- for the wines with which I am most familiar they conveyed the experience perfectly with great enthusiasm.
I smiled reading about your tasting group- very early in my experience I had the same good fortune to be the newest and youngest in a well established burgundy group. I did my best to keep up, but nothing compares to the generosity of those who have cellared well for decades and offer up perfectly stored examples properly decanted/aired in advance as needed. It is encouraging to see others finding the same fortune, and that even in these days there are so many generous collectors wanting to bring the next generation along- it makes such a difference in your total wine experience.
2001 Dujac CSD was gorgeous from the day it was released. Nice to see it is still going strong. Reading your note gives me a picture perfect image of where I was when I first tasted the wine two decades ago.
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I believe it’s 2004, so that 2005 is the first vintage without him.
Still think about the 2010 that @Chuck_Miller brought!
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@MChang I’ll add that I believe many of the major shifts associated with the style change occurred before Jacques retired. Jeremy advocated for, and Jacques agreed to implement, some big shifts during the handoff period—dialing back the whole cluster percentage and cooling the cellar to delay malo, which were implemented as early as 2002—although someone should probably validate the vintage. 
Delaying malo is something that was picked up from Christophe Roumier, and although the Dujac wines are different, there can be some striking similarities between the two producers at times. Delaying malo preserves color and whole cluster strips color, so the effect of dialing back whole cluster while simultaneously delaying malo is why the modern Dujac wines are darker and less transparent in the glass than the previous generation of wines. I’ve mentioned this in another thread, but Roumier failed to delay malo in '22 and '23, and if you have tasted the young wines, they are much more open and delicious in their youth (possibly better for it). Rousseau likes a quick, speedy malo right after primary fermentation, which contributes to how open Rousseau can be in its youth.
People are probably getting tired of me posting the same links, but the “I’ll Drink to That” episodes cover this in great detail if anyone is interested.
Cheers and thanks for the kind words Tom. It really is a privilege to drink with these gentlemen and I look forward to carrying that torch one day.