I was reading an article on Ramonet in WS and they mention FICOFI Girardin parcels without any context. When I look it up you get their website but little real info?
300 members worldwide with access to the “finest” wines?
What’s going on here?
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A legit company that can be engaged to run very high end tastings/events etc.
Kaesler, here in the Barossa have used them a few times to run a special event for clients, journo’s etc, and they do a terrific job. The last tasting I went to a decade ago was magnificent. Here’s a list of wines that we tasted.
2006 Coche-Dury Meursault: A ripping village wine, showed as well as it did when it won the day at a Burg lunch we had. Typical Coche flint coupled with rich orchard fruits overlaying a mineral base. Dense and long.
2008 Drouhin Beaune ‘Clos des Mouches’ Blanc 1er Cru (Jeroboam): Candied lemon, rich and heady with a tart acid whip.
2008 Domaine Leflaive Meursault ‘Sous le dos d’Ane’ 1er Cru: Has some candied peel and mineral on the nose. Full and rich in the mouth with some butter and grilled nuts. Excellent line of acidity.
2008 Faiveley Meursault ‘Charmes’ 1er Cru: Rich, fat, exotic and textured but with acid cut.
2005 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault ‘Genevrieres’ 1er Cru (Jeroboam): Aniseed, white peach and white flowers on the nose. Rich and textured in the mouth. Ready to go and very tasty.
2005 Drouhin Meursault ‘Perrieres’ 1er Cru: A little too oxidised, rich but blunt.
2006 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru: Relatively discreet and shut down. Compact and dense with some sappy candied pear fruit. A wine of good posture and density.
2007 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru: Loaded with white flowers and lemons. Very tight and linear. Needs time and should be great if it avoids the dreaded premox.
2008 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru: The most powerful of the three Bouchard CC’s, dripping with sappy ripe orchard fruits. There’s some toasty oak evident and it is piercing and long.
2007 Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru: Exotic, rich, powerful and oaky. Crammed with preserved lemons and a finish that drives on long and hard.
1998 Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet ‘Clos de la Garenne’ Duc de Magenta 1er Cru(Magnum): Relatively low acid, some mushroom development, waxy lemon fruits and quite enjoyable.
1996 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet ‘Les Folatières’ 1er Cru: An absolute ripsnorter. Toast, flint, white peach, lemons and minerals. Long and linear, superb rocky detail.
2007 Henri Boillot Puligny-Montrachet ‘Clos de la Mouchere’ 1er Cru: A little reductive but underneath the sulphur haze is piercing, intense fruit with a crystalline character. It is pure and intense but shows fabulous delicacy.
2008 Faiveley Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru: The nose shows some green melon, citrus and blossom notes. It is richly fruited but contained and sherbet acidity fizzes on the finish.
2007 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru: Fine aromatics of pure white peach, aniseed and lilies. It is tight and linear with great intensity and cut.
2008 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru: Again white peach and white flowers abound on the nose and there’s also a scent of fresh mint. It is rich and powerful with a rigid mineral spine and great length.
2009 Bouchard Père et Fils Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru : Certainly more ripe fruits evident than the preceding two Chevalier, this has loads of smoky orchard fruits on the nose and in the mouth. It is rich and exotic. It does posses the vineyards line and class and is very long.
2008 Drouhin Montrachet ‘Marquies de Laguiche’ Grand Cru: Good smoky, sappy lift to the aroma. It is a powerfully built wine with intense, sappy peach, pear and citrus fruits. It really builds to finish with a torrent of minerals.
2005 Bouchard Père et Fils Beaune ‘Greve-Vigne de L’Enfant Jesus’ 1er Cru: This is richly fruited and spicy with notes of mint and liquorice and some toasty oak evident. It is deep and dense and packed with potential.
2003 Bouchard Père et Fils Le Corton Grand Cru: Roasted, crammed with coffee, hollow, gritty tannins.
2008 Meo-Camuzet Nuits-St-Georges ‘Aux Murgers’ 1er Cru: Sweet, spicy and succulent with good flesh and a beam of mineral acidity. Very smart.
1998 Prieuré Roch Nuits-St-Georges ‘Clos des Corvees’ 1er Cru: Great nose, hard palate. Smells of decaying autumnal leaves. Is sappy in the mouth but tannins are firm and blocky.
2006 Domaine des Perdrix Nuits-St-Georges ‘Les 8 Ouvrées’ 1er Cru (Jeroboam) : Spicy with a slightly green herbal edge. There’s some nice cherry fruit and it is chalky against the gums. Just lacks a little flesh.
2007 Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair Echézeaux Grand Cru: Very sweet, spicy and succulent. Ripe plum and berry fruits are threaded with Asian spice. It is sappy and generous with good depth and is very good.
2001 Prieuré Roch Vosne-Romanée ‘Clos Goillotte’: Aromas of hoisin and soy. Sweet fruit in the mouth is textured and laced with savoury nuance. Tannins are just a bit furry on the finish.
2001 Prieuré Roch Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru: Quite brown in colour and smells of sweet cedar, liquorice and spice. There’s also a hint of beef stock and it is rich and chewy in the mouth with plenty of underlying grip.
2005 Drouhin Chambolle-Musigny ‘Les Baudes’ 1er Cru: Sweet, pretty, balanced and lovely. Very much red fruited with an engaging scent of fresh flowers. It is supple yet substantial.
2007 Domaine du Clos des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru (Magnum): Really floral, spicy and tight. It is quite linear, with good underlying material. Needs a few years to unwind.
2007 Clos de Tart Grand Cru: Has some of that 07 flytox action that Paul Hanna doesn’t like. There are some cola oak notes but they don’t dominate. The cherry fruit is rich and spicy and length of flavour is good with plenty of underlying muscle.
2005 Denis Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin-Chambertin ‘Lavaux St-Jacques’ 1er Cru: The oak monsters the fruit here. I suspect that the fruit is quite good. The finish completely obliterates all of one’s saliva with grippy wood tannins.
2003 Drouhin Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru: Quite flat showing some roasted meats and caramel and a finish that is dominated by gritty tannins.
2005 Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru: Meat, iron, red berries and mineral. Very powerful, very tight, very pure and very good.
2002 Prieuré Roch Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru: Smoked meats, soy and sap on the nose. It is powerful and chunky on the palate with chalky tannins.
2006 Armand Rousseau Chambertin Grand Cru: Power with perfume. This wine is so fresh, and pure with an engaging bouquet and exquisite balance. It is but a baby but oh so good.
1988 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tache Grand Cru (Jeroboam): Delightful nose that is full of spice, dried flowers, hoisin and iron. It is rich and powerful with a streak of mineral acid but still quite firm and in need of further time to unfurl, certainly when bottled under large format.
1996 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tache Grand Cru (Mathusalem) : Stunning wine that is just entering its drinking window. Complex aromatics of sandalwood, plum, cherries, soy and Asian spice. Richly fruited in the mouth with flavours that are really precise and fan out. It finishes with terrific detail and leaves a most pleasant calling card of minerals and earth. I asked the Ficofi chap pouring this wine I could have the empty bottle at the end of the night to sell to a friend of mine called Rudy, he sais ‘no, I couldn’t have it’.
1931 Pichon Longueville: A pity we couldn’t sit down and drink this with a slab of protein as it is a delightfully mature Claret still with plenty of vigour. It‘s well and truly into tertiary territory with notes of chocolate, black olive and salty plum. It has a vinous sweetness and some umami and is really quite lovely.
1970 Haut-Bailly: Very leathery old mutha. A little sweet and sour. Pleasant but only just.
1981 Petrus: Sweet and perfumed with lovely presence. Plump and resolved but still some structure lurking in the background.
1983 Petrus: More complexity than the 81 with layers of smoke, cedar, leaf and grated ginger. Better precision on the palate and excellent length of flavour. One senses that it will still improve with bottle age.
1982 Canon La Gaffeliere: The fruit is lightly raisined and there are some nice cedar, moss and mushroom things going on as well. It is fresh and sweet and very good.
1982 Clerc Milon (Jeroboam): Smells like a horse with a whopping big band aid slapped on its rump. There’s some polished leather boots and sweet cedar. Quite disappointing.
1982 Domaine de Chevalier (Double magnum): The aroma is comprised of smoke, tobacco leaf and red berries. It has nice flesh in the mouth and is very well balanced. Tannins are a little chewy on the finish.
1988 Cheval Blanc (Double magnum): Perfumed, understated and beautifully balanced. Highly perfumed fruits are tinged with mineral. It is complete with supportive but non obtrusive tannins. Would be happy to sit down with a couple of close friends and polish the whole thing off over dinner.
1988 Mouton Rothschild (Double magnum): Sweet cassis, cedar and tobacco on the nose and in the mouth. Good grip and balance. Classic and thoroughly enjoyable Bordeaux.
1989 Petit-Village(Magnum): Very pretty with some purple flowers mixing it up with red berries and sweet earth. Plump and juicy, soft tannins but fresh.
1990 Clos Fouret (Magnum): Sweet, spicy, lush and generous. Very tasty beverage right now.
1990 Chateau d’Armailhac (Jeroboam): Full and sweet not overly complex but delicious with its sweet cedar, tobacco and chocolate aromas and flavours.
1992 Mouton Rothschild (Double Magnum): After you wade through some pooey nappy (sounds wonderful doesn’t it?) this really is a pleasant, mid-weight claret. There are notes of smoked meats and sweet cedar. It is round, plump, generous and accessible.
1995 Haut-Brion: Nice nose of leaf, mineral, cassis and cedar. Beautiful proportion and balance in the mouth. Sneaky power and rippling sinewy muscle just below the surface.
2000 Cantenac-Brane: Some savoury notes of leather, tar and baked earth combine nicely with juicy, luscious fruit. It has good intensity and length.
2000 Gazin (Magnum): Dried herbs and curry leaf marry well with the dense cassis fruit. It is sweet and complex with good balance and proportion.
2000 Lynch-Bages: Structured but beautifully balanced with ample cassis fruit and classic lead pencil nuance.
2003 Cos d’Estournel: Black, dense, meaty, horsey and grippy. There’s a core of sweet, dense Satsuma plum and all sorts of sooty, iron and animale things going on around it. Hung like a rogue elephant.
2004 La Mission Haut-Brion (Double Magnum): An inky youthful wine with a whiff of boot polish countering the sweet fruits. It is rich and opulent with some pleasant gravel and earth notes buried just below all of the flesh. It has good grip and excellent length.
2004 Pichon Lalande: Very modern with its vitamin B oak sticking out like a sore thumb. Cassis fruit is very ripe and intense and the finish is sinewy.
2004 Chateau Margaux: A lovely delicate perfume of flowers, sweet red berry and smoke. Nice and fresh, sweet and polished with sneaky persistence.
2005 La Conseillante: Really dense and youthful but really good. Sweet and spicy with a wonderful depth of highly perfumed fruit. Will need a decade or two to unfurl but should be something special.
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I’ve been invited to (and attended) a few of their dinners. They put on a good show.
This article from 10 years ago says 300 thousand pounds per per year in annual spend.
I have no doubt the spread is unbelievable.
Possibly sounds like your event Jeremy as the exact same DRC were served?
I’d never heard of the arrangement where many of the top wineries in the world have an agreement to open their cellars to this (or any) organization.
What are FICOFI parcels? Did the organization fund the purchase of land for Ramonet, in exchange gaining access to specific bottlings?
i know several members and have attended a bunch of events - all spectacular. they’re quite serious about everything they do. it’s an impressive organization. given the means (if/when), i’d join.
William Kelley mentioned the FICOFI / Ramonet connection here, back in 2018.
Ficofi is a very high end buyers club. There is a large upfront initiation fee, and an obligation to buy minimum of maybe 300 K per year.
Wines are priced between wholesale and resale. But, when you factor in the initiation fee, it’s difficult to get your money back.
On the other hand, there are cool tastings, lunches, and dinners with owners or top people from many of the world’s best wineries.