Peter Solberg
Tasted Thursday, August 30, 2007 by gorm with 973 views
Last Thursday our tasting group - Uncorked DK - got together to taste through a selection of 1993 burgundies from some of the best appellations and producers available. We were quite anxious as we did not now what to expect. This is a controversial vintage hailed by some as perhaps the second greatest vintage in the nineties (after 1999) and deemed as very problematic by others. Well, this was going to tell us what to think!
All bottles were in pristine condition from four seperate good cellars. All wines were tasted semi-blind except for some jokers.
As always we started with a little bubbly. A great way to start.
And then a bit of white which were truly great.
We started with some village level wines. All of them problematic and acidic, but somehow that was to be expected.
As we moved into 1er Cru level we started to get a bit worried.
Hmmm... the disaster seems to be spreading.
The flight presented the first pleasurable wine of the 1993's, but also the evenings greatest disappointment so far...
Last flight of the 1993 burgundies held another somewhat pleasurable wine.
At this point I was becoming really disillusioned, not only about 1993, but about Burgundy in general. Why am I buying all those 2005's? Maybe I shouldn't... One of the participants brought this, which helped raise the mood a bit.
Then our host served this one blind. WOW!!! It took just one wine to undo all the damage done by the preceding 15 wines. I am back on the Burgundy track!
No need to say anything. This was mindblowing and also an example of extra-ordinary generosity from our host.
The overall conclusion has to be disappointment! Even with a problematic or controversial year you would expect at least some of these great producers and terroirs to cope better. We fear that 1993 is yet another year to avoid in Burgundy together with the 1995's and 1996's which has also turned out to be unbalanced wines. Perhaps also adding to the disaster is that this was a time when the winemakers simply didn't focus enough on quality and getting satisfactory levels of stuffing into the wines.
Luckily afterall the 1967 Yquem and 1959 Chambolle-Musigny all had os leaving Peter's house smiling!
1998 Taittinger Champagne Artist Collection Zou Wou-Ki 92 Points
France, Champagne
Very fresh and floral on the nose with some sourdough. Green apples and lemon and a bit of caramel dominates the taste, but the aftertaste reveals some pleasing dark breadcrumbs before it turns a bit dry and acidic. A nice champagne, but still backs 1998 as a somewhat weak vintage.
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