Just 11 months after our beloved Heidi’s burned down, our tasting group met at the newly re-opened Heidi’s (aka Heidi’s 2.0) for a mid-week Burgundy offline. Chef Stewart Woodman and his team are back in a big way. We had several courses that surpassed the cuisine at the original Heidi’s, and one or two that were still works in progress – overall, the crew is executing at a very high level already.
Unfortunately, this evening was by far the worst wine night we’ve ever had. Six of our eight reds were flawed – some were obviously offensive, and others were more subtly messed up. It must have been the full moon. Brad blamed our bad luck on the group of North Dakotans at the next table. We did enjoy three nice 2005 Puligny-Montrachets, all of which I liked about equally. I didn’t name a WOTN, but it would have to be the 2001 Dujac Clos St. Denis (by default) for the reds, and the 2005 Louis Carillon Les Perriers for the whites.
2005 Henri Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles- France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
No signs of premox whatsoever. Pale white gold color. Young and intense, and showing plenty of new oak. Lemon- and tangerine-driven fruit profile; started out tight and grew bigger and riper-tasting with air. This could be really special in a few more years as the oak integrates, assuming it doesn’t succumb to premox. (92 pts.)
2005 J.M. Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Referts- France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
Tasted blind; I guessed 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet. Intensely lemony/grassy nose, almost Lemon Pledge-like at first. Bigger and riper fruit than the 2005 Henri Boillot P-M Pucelles, tasted side-by-side (see TN) – really young and intense, but with a sense of breed and elegance that complements its full-throttle power. Super-long finish. In an ideal world this should be buried for at least 10 years, but since this producer is apparently premox-prone, I would be dipping into my stash now if I owned any. (92 pts.)
2000 Domaine Dujac Clos St. Denis- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos St. Denis Grand Cru
Beautiful tea/brick red color with some cloudiness. The nose is a drop-dead gorgeous kaleidoscope of spice – wide open and beautifully complex. Barely mid-weight palate that shows pretty secondary/tertiary flavors, resolved tannins, and a core of savory rhubarb/watermelon fruit. Kind of 2004 Leroy Bourgogne-like. The finish turns a bit tart and attenuated. Based on this bottle, this seems to be at or perhaps slightly past peak – I would be drinking these up if I owned them. (90 pts.)
2001 Domaine Dujac Clos St. Denis- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos St. Denis Grand Cru
Consistent with prior TNs. Notably younger and more structured than the 2000, tasted side-by-side (see TN), with more of a black fruit profile. A bit stern at first, but unwound beautifully over a few hours. Earth, dark fruit, and spice that build to an elegant, long finish. This has the structure to age gracefully for many more years. (92 pts.)
2001 Domaine Dujac Bonnes Mares- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru
Something wrong here – great cola/sassafras nose, but turned swampy and skanky in the mouth. Some nice dark fruit but not what it should be. Flawed bottle. NR (flawed)
1989 Domaine Dujac Bonnes Mares- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru
Brett and VA on the nose. The palate is riddled with VA. Nasty. Flawed bottle. NR (flawed)
2001 Camille Giroud Chambertin- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru
Another bottle that wasn’t quite right. Reticent dark fruit on the nose; the palate is thick, foursquare, and flat. Apparently not a representative bottle. NR (flawed)
2001 Domaine Maume Mazis-Chambertin- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru
Sweaty, cheesy nose that only partially blew off. The palate is dull, tart, and metallic, with some odd, cheesy red fruit flavors. Not what it should have been – guessing low-level TCA. NR (flawed)
2004 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Tasted blind. I guessed 2001 CDP (after almost guessing Burgundy). Floral/violet nose. Initially this showed nice, clean, complex red fruit, but over time it developed a really unappealing burned toast character that totally overwhelmed everything else. No garrigue flavors, or any CDP-like character. This bottle was sourced from a local reatiler with notoriously poor storage, so this was most likely a heat damaged bottle. NR (flawed)
2005 Louis Carillon Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Perrières- France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
Opened at the end of dinner after a historically bad run of reds… with the worst possible food pairing (braised lamb shank and beef tenderloin). In spice of these handicaps, this showed quite well – intense lemon curd flavors, smoke, lots of new oak, and nascent minerality. Big and ripe. Another 2005 Puligny that will handsomely reward cellar time, if it doesn’t succumb to premox. (92 pts.)
That is a reboot kind of experience.
You just want to press the reset button.
Glad you had a good bottle of the 05 Boillot Pucelles. I have that one and absolutely adore it.
Fingers crossed for no premox.
Re: Roulot 02
I had an 05 Clos de Mon Plasir from Roulot last night.
The wine was quite nice but to me there was an element that was almost early premox.
It should have been painfully young.
Maybe just the oaking?
Maybe not however.
That is one producer I hope that doesn’t start turning in premoxed bottles. I have more than a few.
Steve my palate must have been really off last night as I found myself liking both of these wines and in particular the Mazis I brought because it was less ripe. I posted notes on Mazis earlier today. My sinuses were majorly out of wack for a couple hours last night as it seemed like I was experiencing the onset of cold. I was having trouble smelling but, these two both tasted good to me. At the end of the night my nose had cleared up completely but we were done drinking. Must have been the perfume from ND people?
“2001 Camille Giroud Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru
Another bottle that wasn’t quite right. Reticent dark fruit on the nose; the palate is thick, foursquare, and flat. Apparently not a representative bottle. NR (flawed)”
“2001 Domaine Maume Mazis-Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru
Sweaty, cheesy nose that only partially blew off. The palate is dull, tart, and metallic, with some odd, cheesy red fruit flavors. Not what it should have been – guessing low-level TCA. NR (flawed)”
Such hate for Nodak. Is it our booming economy or the fact that the Sioux can skate circles around your Gophers when they aren’t in the penalty box. We will be down to to MSP end of February for Cosmos and Heidi’s. We will be packing a load of wine with us. How was the food?
P.S. The reason North Dakota is so windy is because Montana blows and Minnesota Sucks!!
I’m letting my '01 Giroud Chambertins sit at least five more years. Burghound has the start date in 2015 and probably more time is better for me. David Croix had great things to say about this wine but I have seen some widely varied comments on the Giroud '01’s from tasters.
It’s always a tricky call when the bad bottles are still somewhat drinkable (as opposed to the '89 Dujac Bonnes-Mares, which was totally shot)… what pushed me over the edge into calling these “flawed” was that, according to various folks at the table, they were markedly worse than other recent bottles from the same sources… e.g. the '01 Camille Giroud Chambertin, which Chris Palm said was nowhere near as good as his previous one. Also, a couple bottles tasted dull and metallic to my palate, which are symptoms I tend to associate with low-level TCA. I can’t remember which ones were decanted, but most were pop-and-pour, followed over 3-4 hours.
I think the general consensus pretty much mirrored mine – that we had an unusually bad stretch of luck, which just happened to exactly coincide with the time the North Dakotans showed up Craig did like the Giroud and Maume much more than I did. I’d be interested to hear Brad and Dave’s views…
The food was terrific, by the way. Perhaps not as consistent (yet) as the old Heidi’s, but they’ve only been open 1 week, and already the culinary “highs” seem to be higher than the old place.
Steve, I took back the 02 Roulot to Lonny today. He speculated that maybe all the new paint and materials in Heidis was causing my sinuse issues. Maybe it threw off everyone’s taste buds too and a lot of those btls were actually great
Actually I did decant the 00 Dujac Denis and the 98 Roumier about 45 minutes before dinner, removed any sediment (essentially none in the Dujac and very little in the Roumier), and re-decanted right back in the bottles. The 89 Dujac Bonnes Mares was opened at the restaurant. I share Steve’s opinions, a number of these bottles were just not right. Hard to say why, but for my bottles, they were purchases at auction over the last year or two, and I’ve had less than stellar luck with burgundy at auction, unless its specific single cellar auctions. I don’t really buy much burgundy through that channel these days, and wanted to try these specifically to check out the parcels. Nights like this keep me buying new releases on burgundy, because in 10 years the 06/07/08’s will be aged enough to start drinking, and I’ll have perfect provenance bottles.
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Craig did like the Giroud and Maume much more than I did. I’d be interested to hear Brad and Dave’s views…![[stirthepothal.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f40faec63ca1018898a40805efbf9f0066a3d205.gif "[stirthepothal.gif]"){kind=small}
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