TN: Blind Tasting of Grand Cru Red Burgundy

WINE TALK
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WCC BLIND TASTING OF GRAND CRU RED BURGUNDY - Fort Orange Club, Albany, NY (12/10/2009)
My regular Albany-area tasting group. Tasting was all blind to me since I didn’t bring any wine. (I traded.) I only knew that all wines were supposed to be Grand Cru Red Burgundy. Turned out they were (i.e. no ringers).

Flight 1.
Grilled Vermont Quail with wild rice, dried fruit, chevre timbale, and orange-thyme scented au jus.

  • 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Echezeaux - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
    Appealing, complex nose of cherries and chocolate. Sour in the mouth. OTH. [After the tasting, I got a look at the bottle. It seemed to have been abused, so I don’t know how representative this bottle was.] (87 pts.)
  • 1987 Joseph Drouhin Musigny - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Musigny Grand Cru
    Cherries and spice. Sweet in the middle but slightly bitter on the finish. WOTF, but that’s not saying much. (88 pts.)
  • 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
    Shitty nose. Sweet spice in the mouth. Pleasant. [After the tasting, I got a look at the bottle. It seemed to have been abused, so I don’t know how representative this bottle was.] (86 pts.)

Flight 2.
Prince Edward Mussel Soup. Shelled with natural mussel liquor, and shrimp crostini garnish.

Continued in the next post.

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Flight 3.
Simmered Monkfish with saffron-Dover fumet, white beans, braised greens, and pancetta.

Flight 4.
Braised Elk Osso Buco in natural jus with cipollini onions and whipped Yukon gold potatoes.

  • 1997 Daniel Bocquenet Echezeaux - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
    Stunning nose of black and red fruits. Big, rich, spicy, youthful, with a touch of sourness. This may even improve for a few years more. (92 pts.)
  • 1999 Domaine Jean Grivot Echezeaux - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
    Big rich sweet with sour tannins. Has a brilliance to it. Tied for Group WOTN. My #2 WOTN. (93 pts.)
  • 1995 Remoissenet Père et Fils Echezeaux - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
    Spicy, long, delicious. These last few have been really nice. This is my #3 WOTN. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Wow, never mind the wine…I want tasting notes on the food, it looked great.

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Yeah, the food looked great!

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+3! that quail looks delicious!

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I’ll echo the chorus, Ken - those food picture were spectacular. I skipped breakfast this morning, and I’m getting hungry just looking at them!

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Delightful, Ken. Well done. Excellent lineup – even better looking food.

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Gosh, I hate to be a total jackass, but just glancing at the lineup, that’s got to be waayyy in excess of 5000 dollars’ worth of wine [1985 La Tache and 1990 DRC Echezeaux together are worth about $4,000] - maybe pushing 7500 dollars’ worth -and your highest score on the night was a 94?!?

Yikes.

Expensive, expensive hobby.

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I was thinking the exact same thing.

As to the food…looks very, very good.

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That is quite a line up of GCs. I would enjoy that. Seems like some under performers but it is nice to see 3 of the Echezeauxs showing up to play. I would expect the 99 Grivot to be rockin but nice to see a 97 and 95 at the top of your list.

Jason

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Thanks for all the positive comments on the food pix.

The 2 DRCs in the first flight may not have been representative. The 85 La Tache still sells for over $2200. Our group was founded by 2 dermatologists after their kids were out of the house. They bought a lot of this stuff on release. About 2/3 of the guys in this group are also members of the local Tasvin group. I never joined. I have had great Burgundies, but few and far between. You’ll note that I had nothing to contribute to this tasting. Someone brought a bottle for me. I gave him a bottle of Turley Hayne PS in return. That, I have lots of! [cheers.gif]

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I love all the accompanying food porn. This board rocks.

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Well enjoy it while it lasts.

The Powers That Be have private practice medicine in their crosshairs now.

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Nathan, I don’t want this to end up in politics, but one of the 2 is now deceased (though the La Tache was originally his) and the other is well into his 70s. In any case, I don’t think the ability of dermatologists to buy Grand Cru Burgundy is a good argument against providing health care for everyone. [berserker.gif]

BTW the one who is still living owns 7 cars including various sports cars and a Rolls.

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Ken,

While I obviously wasn’t there, there is no way the two bottles of DRC were reprensentative. '90 DRC Echezeaux is one of, if not my favorite vintage from the producer/vineyard. And while IMO I don’t think '85 La Tache is a great vintage for La Tache it surely should have been beeter than the vast majority of the other wines served on the night.

On the positive, at least you had good showings from many of the other wines you drank.

And to pile on - the food looks great.

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Ken,

Looks like a great event. I am assuming the Derm you are talking about is Dr Sp&^%'s, based on the description of toys. Also, did the food taste as good as it looked?

BTW, I passed you on Christmas Day on the Thruway, hope all is well and you are enjoying the holidays.

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Yes, that would be the good doctor. He’s the member who gets us into the Ft. Orange Club. (You don’t think riffraff like me could get in otherwise? [wink.gif] ) The food is quite good there. My only complaint is that we have to wear a jacket and tie. [swearing.gif]


Funny about the Thruway. We stopped on Xmas Day at a Thruway stop and ran into fellow Barolo-lover Dan Tisch and his family. Took me a minute to place him out of context.

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WOW This is MY kind of dinner!!! A burg night was awesome food to match. I would have really enjoyed being there! Just reading about it is making me hungry and thirsty and its only 9 am :slight_smile:

Serge you back ?!?!?! I know you had a delay in B.A.

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Several people (including me) have commented on the poor performance of the 2 DRC wines in the first flight. Here is a photo of the bottles from this flight:
And here is a close up of the necks:
Looks to me like the bottles leaked at some point in the past. My guess is overheating during shipping.

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Ken:

The food images here are from the Fort Orange Club? I’m blown away. I’ve eaten there many times for business and the food has always been servicable but never looked remotely like these pictures.

I’m with everyone else, the food pics are amazing.

Sorry about the DRC’s. I’m with Ray. Something must have happened to those bottles. Shame.