This past weekend, Kim and I had the great pleasure of meeting several of the Kiwi crowd. Mike During and Cathy Ferguson were gracious hosts and we ran through a great lineup of 2002 Burgs. Cathy prepared a great meal that paired well and enhanced the wines, pulling out flavors and at the same time never intruding. A fine feat. . A great group of folks, Merideth, Nick and Jill, Jeff, and Phil - on a respite from work in Piedmont. A great time and a warm welcome to a couple of out of towners. We felt immediately at home.
We started with parmesan crackers and salmon cracker amuse…
[]1996 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut - France, Champagne (1/13/2012)
(Mag) Clean and pure and incredibly drinkable. Great tactile feel, clean and very pure with great balance. I lack vocabulary when it comes to bubbles, but I can tell you this is quite fine champers that I would love to drink again anytime. 95 pts (95 pts.)
White Burgs paired with a very fresh and clean fresh pea soup. Delish. Served with a couple of Clos…
[]2002 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
The more supple and giving of the two stars here. Incredibly pure and clean chardonnay with great clarity and a purity to it. This is diamond cut clean and very while keeping not light on its feet was deft on its feet. Drinking at early peak, this was no clean and so pure, with jewel like clarity, a pure incredibly enjoyable wine. A wine that gives incredible pleasure and keeps your interest. 95 (95 pts.)
[*]2002 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
My first Raveneau les Clos. A little sulfur at first, with a far more backward start when contrasted with the Dauvissat. Tightly coiled and ready to spring. This opened up over time to show its potential… This is a tightly packed very powerful wine, punching with huge power but maintaining its focus and purity. This had more savory herbal things going on as opposed to the pure stony mineral great things in the Dauvissat. This was showing younger than the Dauvissat by quite a bit, and while I thought the Dauvissat was drinking closer to its peak, I suspect the Raveneau’s peaks will be higher than the Dauvissat’s. That said, an absolute joy to try both of these and even more so side by side. 95+ (95 pts.)
Served with A lovely cut of meat, fresh garden potatoes and avocados (coming form an Arizonan) that can compete at any level. Perfect texture and very deep flavor.
[*]2002 Domaine Jean et Jean-Louis Trapet Latricières-Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
Nice Gevrey earthiness, with some green stemmy cruch to the tannins. Over time this fleshed out nicely gaining depth and complexity. There was a nice redder fruited spectrum to this one. I kept coming back to this one and it grew in the glass. 91 (91 pts.)
[*]2002 Domaine Fourrier Griottes-Chambertin Vieille Vigne - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Griottes-Chambertin Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
restrained and quite closed at first, coming off a bit thin. I kept coming back to this over several hours, as it seemed like there was something in reserve and you could get hints of it by the end of the night, and it certainly improved, but it is very, very young now. I suspect this will bloom in several years. 90+ (90 pts.)[/list]
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2002 Domaine Denis Bachelet Charmes-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
right off the bat this was the easy to love wine. Darker fruited and with some beef broth savory stuff and great depth. There was the most fruit of any of the wines, and it was very inviting, pleasing both the brain and the palate. There was a great suppleness and midpalate sap that I flat out loved. At first it was so forward compared to the rest, but behind the beautiful veil was an even more beautiful wine that needs to make no apologies for its approachability. There was plenty of complexity and layers to this wine. This had a wealth of fruit, but was by no means fruity, with plenty of savory and earth going on. A great wine. 96 (96 pts.) -
2002 Domaine Perrot-Minot Mazoyères-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Mazoyères-Chambertin Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
At first not quite stern, but more of a brooding wine. This was reserved in a dark stony sense in contrast to the introverted earthy- red and herbal mode of the Fourrier. This was a darker walled up wine at first that really began to shine. My first time with this wine and count me impressed. I found no heavy handedness that I had heard of, with this producer, but rather a complicated, layered, perfumed, well balanced and deep wine with great purity. It gained depth and had great clarity, poise, and focus that developed over time. This was a sleeper that really came on strong. 94 (94 pts.) -
2002 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Charmes-Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
More red fruited and with a great savoriness to it. More earth and a dirty, almost mildly feral quality compared to the rest (in a good way). A bit wilder and quite enjoyable. 91 pts (91 pts.)
A great bonus at the end, Mike knew of my love for Roumier, and this showed up on the table… -
2002 Domaine G. Roumier / Christophe Roumier Bonnes Mares - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru (1/13/2012)
An incredibly generous late entry from Mr During. I have never had Roumier’s Bonnes Mares before and this was a rare treat. Even at first when tight as a drum, there was beautiful perfume that only grew with time. For me this had with a darker masculine deeper toned profile, and it took little time for the perfume to really explode. It gained a beautiful sap and weightless extraction of pure Pinot joy. Over time this blossomed into the most complex and beguiling wine of the night for me. The Bachelet came up to you and loved you and the Roumier was the coy one puling you in with just ridiculously beautiful perfume and with a mid palate sap and depth that was both very deep and simultaneously weightless, seeming to do everything effortlessly. A great wine and a privilege to taste it. 96 now and easily going up in several years (96 pts.)
We then had a nice switch of gears that flowed very nicely. Jeff, the cellarmaster at Marchesi di Gresy in Piedmont was in the house and brought a couple of lovely Barbareschi. It is always quite nice to see how well Nebbiolo, and for me even more so Barbaresco, can flow with Burgundy. A nice segue with no weirdness that often follows a varietal change of gears. I have not had many of this makers wines but count me impressed. A nice blend of the traditional and modern that finds excellent balance…
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2006 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Gaiun - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (1/14/2012)
Sweet supple barbaresco fruit with nice perfume. The wood is present but not intrusive. More red fruited than the 04. Nice rose petals and perfumed red fruits, along with some spice. Elegant and very well put together with no rough edges. A very nice balanced wine with a bright future. Well done! 92 (92 pts.)
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2004 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Grésy Barbaresco Martinenga Gaiun - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco (1/14/2012)
Pop and poured
Darker and more inward at this time than the 06. Could be bottle prep, time from vintage, and vintage, so I won’t venture any causality here. A little less giving, but at the same time more structured and darker profiled. Still with a core of mid palate sweetness-suppleness and perfume that I like quite a bit. The wood is again noticeable but it integrates quite nicely, and certainly does not strip any character, but rather adds a bit of roundness and spice. There is plenty of body and structure here, but it is nicely wrapped in a soft around the edges (but my no means do I mean flab or lack of focus) very giving style that is very pleasureable both to the palate and the brain. Lovely. 92+ (92 pts.)
Fresh ice cream and fruit with…
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1989 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer (1/13/2012)
Public Service Announcement: DO NOT OPEN THIS WINE ANYTIME SOON.
A forced last minute entry due to a shipping error from my source, my planned wine did not arrive in time for my trip, so a last minute cellar search and scramble occurred. While I thought it would show a little too young, I really had no idea it would be this backward. An inwardly focused, brooding witch’s cauldron of a wine with an almost nuclear powered level of botrytis, a pungent mix of very concentrated and hugely deep flavors that seemed stuck in suspended animation hoping to break free… Very layered, and with time developing a very nice perfumed, floral mix of honey and spice, framed with excellent acidity, and huge structure . I bet this will be riveting if the bottle sat opened another week, or in a cellar for another 2 decades, and I will absolutely not touch another one of these until I am much, much older. A very complicated wine that I feel I needed a PhD to dissect at this point in time, and for me an exercise in potential development and academic more so than sensual pleasure. Still, I am splitting hairs, and it was outstanding, but I was hoping against hope for magic. Lesson learned. 92 now with a huge upside in 20 years. (92 pts.)
Overall it was a great night and a great beginning to a wonderful trip to NZ. We met a wonderful group of wine people, and people in general. We can;t wait until our next visit, hopefully longer next time.
Thanks for reading