One of those wines that just makes you shake your head in wonder. Filled to the gills with character and in such an accessible package, too – no guilt at all uncorking this a decade or two before maturity. There is tannin here but it’s as finely textured cashmere as the source material would suggest. And hey, what a compelling case this is for the occasional sacrilege of blending a bunch of grand crus together! This makes an impact from the very first sip, with fruit that’s intense in flavor but still slender and feminine in proportion as well as a dusting of spicy clove and iron ore. It’s particularly impressive because the actual flavors of the fruit – more of a maroon taste than red with its deep tinge of pruniness or figginess – are things that would suggest the kind of sur-maturité normally leading to a fat wine, but this is so elegant and supple that it’s almost like being teased with a feather. And it gives you a whole mouthful of all the things it has other than fruit, most prominently that evocative iron minerality. This is so good it’s almost hard to imagine how the grand cru lineup can end up being progressively better, but then again half of the DRC grand crus have never shown me anything as gripping or (ironically) as distinctive as this. I would love to know how much wine from the big guns is in here.
Great note Keith. I gorged on this in Burgundy when we found it for 99 Euros on a restaurant’s list (we drank them all, sorry to report). Still a youngster but drinking amazingly well.
Sounds extraordinary. I saw one of these recently on a wine list for a reasonable tariff and now I’m kicking myself for going a different direction.
How am I supposed to hold the two bottles of this I have now. Great note Keith.
Way to go…I would have done the same thing. ![[worship.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/9/99a8907a1d5b3c023582052741dc72dc9823c044.gif "worship"){kind=small}
Keith, thanks for the note…I’ve for a couple of bottles hanging around.
Le Gourmandin in Beaune.
After a few repeat visits, when we’d show up, the waitress that we’d gotten to know would just pull the bottle without asking and place it on the table. Damn, that was a fun trip.