TN: Paulee Blowout Dinner at Marea

[Andrew_K]

We skipped the Gala craziness and did our own small dinner at Marea. Great food that paired beautifully with the wonderful wines. A few iffy bottles, but so many showed out. A treat.

PAULEE AT MAREA - (3/8/2025)

Openers

• 2007 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut - France, Champagne
  PnP. Wide open and drinking well, if not extremely complex.
• 2007 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut - France, Champagne
  PnP. Rather tight and not showing as much bright red fruit as I would hope. A bit linear.

02 from Mag

• 2002 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut - France, Champagne
  PnP from mag. Drinking very young and needed air to open. After 30 min, much more complex and interesting.
• 2002 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut - France, Champagne
  PnP from mag. Young and a bit tight, but even with air never seemed to develop that complexity. The Brut was definitely the winner tonight.

Lafon Monty

• 2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Drinking young, but multi-dimensional with layers of depth. Had a warm honey complexity, starting down the maturity pathway, but still fresh. Continued to improve with air. A close second on the flight.
• 2014 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Rather shy on first pour, this needed a couple of hours to shine. Has a great depth and laser focus with some petrol notes. Continued to improve throughout the evening, but never quite reached the highs of the best previous bottles of this vintage.
• 2017 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Also a bit shy at first and needed air to come around. Very good and splitting hairs, but a touch behind the 2014 tonight, which is to be expected.
• 2020 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
  Wide open out of the gate, nose exploding from the glass. Power and drive on the palate with a finish that fans out and lingers. Much more open than previous bottles, this was Pierre's pick earlier in the day for WOTF and he was correct.

G-Max

• 2008 Weingut Keller Riesling G-Max - Germany, Rheinhessen
  Rather oxidative and didn't improve with air.
• 2009 Weingut Keller Riesling G-Max - Germany, Rheinhessen
  Almost had a touch of effervescence. This wine was electric from the get go and continued to improve throughout the evening. Power and drive, tension and depth, truly spectacular.
• 2010 Weingut Keller Riesling G-Max - Germany, Rheinhessen
  More subtle than the 09 next to it, but had a nice depth. A great wine, but didn't have the wow factor found in the 09.

Blind Intermezzo

• 1952 C.V.N.E. (Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España) Rioja Viña Real Gran Reserva - Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
  Blind in honor of the birth year of one at the table. Tons of sous bois and mushroom on the nose with a touch of persimmon. Palate really tasted decades younger.
• 1988 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru
  Blind. Had the classic DRC stemmy nose. Tasted resolved, but very fresh and bright, so guessed much younger. This was a perfect bottle, very enjoyable and one to savor. At the end of the evening it had started to fade a bit.

Birth Year Wines

• 1955 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino Speciale - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
  Noticeable VA on the nose, possibly with a touch of TCA to mute things out. Didn't quite have it tonight.
• 1958 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino Speciale - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
  Iodine on the nose, fully resolved tannins, great structure and depth. Drive through to the finish that lingers. A treat.
• 1958 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley
  Drinking young and gorgeous. Sexy and lively with vigor this continued to improve throughout the evening. A truly epic wine.
• 1974 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha's Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville
  Sous bois and a touch of mushroom on the nose. Very lively on the palate with a great balance of acid and fruit.

Leroy

• 1990 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
  A bit reserved at first, but continued to improve with air. Drinking beautifully right now, but still tasted young and not quite at peak.
• 1993 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
  Much more expressive on the nose out of the gate. Had a lushness to the nose, fully ripe, clearly from a warmer vintage. Seemed like the better wine, but the 90 was the better bottle.

Tache

• 1993 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
  Epic nose that bursts from the glass. Lush and fully ripe, balance and drive. A complete wine that checks all the boxes. Very special and just kept coming back to this glass all night long.
• 2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
  Clean and bright, drinking quite young. A touch reserved, this improved with air, but was a treat all night. Great bottle, amazing wine.
• 2002 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru
  Nose had something funky going on that did blow off eventually, but felt a bit clipped. Palate was good, but missing pop. Something was definitely off about this bottle.

JFM Moose

• 1999 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Musigny - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Musigny Grand Cru
  Had some ox on the nose and continued to degrade. Not the best bottle.
• 2000 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Musigny - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Musigny Grand Cru
  Bright nose with lots of red fruit. Drinking very young. A touch less verve on the palate compared to the 01.
• 2001 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Musigny - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Musigny Grand Cru
  Nose was a bit shy, but real pop on the palate. Still young and a bit tight, but did continue to open with more air. Neck and neck with the 00 for the WOTF.

[Karl_K]

Well done

[Shan_A]

How many bottles per person is that!?

[Andrew_K]

Most brought 3 I believe.

[B_Buzzini]

I was going to say before you posted the pics this has @Jonathan_Favre written ALL over here! Then…there he is front and center! Wonderful job fellas!

[Joshua_Kates]

Had Comtes Rosé 2006 last night; it was showing beautifully.
Thanks for posting, Andrew.

BTW, how was the food? I’ve had up and down experiences with them.

[Andy_Sc]

@Andrew_K

Most brought 3 I believe.

That‘s crazy…

[paul_rosenberg]

well done!

i suppose it made our little marea gathering look rather plebeian!

say what you will, i dig lafon, but i am in the ramonet camp for sure… assuming not premoxed… which our bottle was not!

[Andrew_K]

Thanks for sending over a glass of the Ramonet last night! Hope you guys had a great time.

[Jeremy_Holmes]

Nice.

[Brad_England]

Great night guys. Highlights for me were:
All the Lafon Montrachet (no surprise there, I know). The 2020 was amazing and open in a surprising way.
The two 58’s were fantastic.
And the 88 DRC Richebourg was wonderful for my palate.
Food and service were outstanding as always at Marea.

[Bill_Sweeney]

With so many bottles, there must have been a fair amount of wine un drunk. What happened to all the leftovers?

[wbeshears]

Looks amazing, and what a great slate of bottles and thanks for posting the TN.

For dinners like this do you just call Marea ahead of time and say “heads up we’re going to be doing a big wine tasting with dinner, about X bottles, etc.”? Have not done a big tasting dinner like this myself but love the idea of doing one.

[Brad_England]

@wbeshears

do you just call Marea ahead of time and say “heads up we’re going to be doing a big wine tasting with dinner, about X bottles, etc.”?

That’s essentially the opposite of what occurs. Massive amounts of mutual planning.

[Andrew_K]

Not as much as you might think. Most of the leftovers are cleared from stems, so not much you can do about that. We did share pours with neighbors and friends who were at other tables. And then I think @Nick_Christie stayed around and finished the rest of the bottles.

[Nick_Christie]

For scientific purposes only

The 2001 Musigny was still showing tremendously (as you’d expect). And the surprise (for me) was how well the last glass of 1993 Leroy Beaux Monts showed from bottle. I hesitate to use the word ‘better’, but with that much power & aromatics bursting out at 11:30pm: it gives one some idea of how much composition is in that wine. At least in that bottle, anyway.

[Jonathan_Favre]

Thanks for posting Andrew! Man, the Lafon Montrachet bottles were all flat out beautiful - splitting hairs really when trying to find a winner. The '09 Gmax is and always will be a top wine IMHO. The older wines were all great especially the '74 Marthas (my Bday year…) - this may be the last time a taste a terrific bottle of this - perfectly kept for many years. It has still soft and creamy “lingerings” of mint and chocolate - soft tannins - nothing drying of old about this bottle. The Leroy Beaux Monts duo was fabulous - the first of the '93s that I have from a nice purchase maybe 15+ years ago - hope the others are as beautiful. Yep, Tache didn’t disappoint - I just love the '02 - they were all on point for me. The Mugnier Musigny bottles were fun with the '99 showing some heavy raisin textures. AND - we can’t forget the 2019 Bizot Jachees!!! This was opened as we were enjoying the champagne in the lounge. I was the only one that kept some in a stem until the end of the night - so much depth - blue fruits, spearmint, dense soft tannins, and all the acidity to balance this wine out for the long haul. Bizot unfortunately is the real deal IMHO…

Lots of fun guys - can’t wait until the next time!

[Dan_A]

What a great lineup it was truly and embarrassment of riches. Just curious if most of these wines were bought on release or auction etc… I know that finding older bottles and knowing their provenance is the key to decreasing the chance of a dud. Thanks for the great write ups from the attendees. Cheers!

[wbeshears]

Gotcha, that makes sense.

[AndyK]

When you forget to mention the Bizot, it was probably too much wine