France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru
Explosive nose with intense stemmy aromatics and huge spice. Huge projection out of the glass booming red and blackberry fruit with wood spice and stem detailed expression. This was one of the last wines of a marathon night, so the notes are falling short, but this was a spectacularly and highly expressive showing, even in the context of some of the greatest burgundies of all time. Very impressive.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Romanée Grand Cru
Booming nose of dark fruit, blackberry and black currant, lush but intense. The heavy handed wood polish gets you thinking DRC immediately, although there is clearly sufficient fruit stuffing to round it all out and make it work. Fairly ripe. I have no experience with these wines and was baffled by how approachable this was. A big wine but still aromatically complex and expressive. Viscerally pleasurable. 93-94 tonight, but with obvious potential to add nuance and earth.
Magnum. A pristinely fresh example, extreme chalkiness and minerality, lemon lime spritz, and searing acid. On the nose I’m missing the creaminess and toast I was I’ve found here in the past, although it does come though on the palate a little better. I find the acid a little abrasive this time. Came back to the bottom third of this magnum the next day and enjoyed a subtler showing with more yellow fruit weight. Clearly has everything to go the distance and gain complexity.
Sadly this magnum was badly oxidized. Although you could pick out some redeeming savory notes in the nose, this was undrinkable with a sour sherry palate. Very disappointing as this wine can be great, but the magnum of ‘66 P3 alongside was spectacular.
[Magnum] Big inviting nose, some reduction, classic DP yeasty and eggy notes. Icing sugar and frosting. Lemon meringue. Surprised by how tart and tight the fruit is in the first glass. Put a stopper in this and came back to it after the reds and this was really kicking into her with textbook DP toastineas paired with incredible freshness and rich yellow fruit flavors. Sometime the P3 series are underwhelming and thin, and sometime they are absolutely epic, like this mag.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru
Unfortunately this bottle is badly affected by cork taint. DOA and no debate here, although one can get a sense of the rustic and soily wine the should be underneath. A real bummer.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
[Magnum] Smoky and savory nose, leathery red and black berry. Dirty and soily in a pleasant and complex way. Dark tea spices. Quite an interesting comparison to the mag of ‘90 Meo Brulees side by side. The palate on this is terrific with developed and nuanced black cherry and blackberry. While the ‘90 is a perfect beauty, this has more interesting character with mild sauvage and underbrush. More in the way of hoisin. Came back to these after two hours and the ‘89 had fallen off a bit while the ‘90 remained an absolute beauty. A great example of an ‘89, not stewed at all, but rustic and smoked. Unique, really enjoyed this.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
[Mag] Fresh and highly expressive nose. Black cherry but with a lot of ripeness and sweetness. Round, warm, welcoming. Spectacular palate, lush and round but with an elegant soily texture. Subtle earthy and spice overlay. Nuanced and intriguing. Gorgeous perfume, dense and purple with complex spice. This is kind of perfect. Came back to these after two hours and the ‘89 had fallen off a bit while the ‘90 remained an absolute beauty. Majority of the group making early calls for wine of the night here, standing up to, and knocking down, some Cros Parantouxs and Echezeauxs from Meo, Rouget, and Jayer.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Dark and intense nose, surprisingly tense and bold, bordering on austere. The ‘93 Meo Cros P is remarkably similar, however this Rouget begins to blossom and show some dense perfume and more lifted and expressive aromatics. Palate is stuffed with dark fruit, this clearly has room to run. Delicious but still youthful. Coming back to this after a few hours it remains intense and youthful, a big wine.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Dark and intense nose, surprisingly tough up front, bordering on austere. The ‘93 Rouget Cros P is remarkably similar, although the Rouget begins to blossom and show some dense perfume and more high toned, lifted aromatic expression, while this remains dark and moody. Palate is stuffed with dark and youthful fruit. Both wines are clean and pure, but the Meo has a more interesting earth edge coming out. Coming back to this after a few hours it remains intense and youthful, a big wine.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Whiffs of bret, underbrush, and sauvage on the nose above developed red berry fruit. Lifted, floral, bright, dried cranberry. Pleasant sweetness. Highly expressive aromatics with big projection out of the glass. Spectacular bottle. Pastels, florals, roses, acrylics. In this moment the ‘95 is in a better place than either of the ‘93s (Meo and Rouget Cros P). The showing tonight suggests to me that this ‘95 is closer to peak performance whereas those particular ‘93s have a lot more room to develop and last. I may be slightly biased since this is my bottle, and it is from the Wolfgang Grunewald cellar, but this is a fantastic and immensely pleasurable wine.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Incredible bouquet, cola spice, damp earth, leathers, ripe red cherry and cranberry. A distinct dusty and soily earth. Some think this is mildly corked, I think it is great. Slightly musty, but still mostly fresh and pure. Unfortunately the cork taint is detectable, but you can clearly see what this wine is. Palate has textured sweet red cherry with a very unique and distinctly Jayer texture, mineral and spicy, but the cork does penetrate, ever so slightly.
I have never agreed that a bottle was corked but also called it the best wine of the night, so this one is a first. I put a massive zalto burgundy bowl of this away and came back to it the next day and found the cork taint to be completely gone. The array of spices and earth was the same on the expressive although less fresh bouquet. A very special wine in any case. 93-95 points on this showing, but would imagine near perfection if clean.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Gorgeous nose, expressive, sweet red cherry, mild dry underbrush, coffee and cola spice highlights. A certain floral character. More comparable to the light and lovely style of the ‘95 than the relatively dark ‘93. Dense, lush, and youthful palate. Gaining some earth driven texture and nuance. A certain roast tomato note that I find in Rouget sometimes. The palate here is absolutely silky. This is fantastic showing right now and is equally as good as the ‘97 Jayer Echezeaux.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
Comparable to the nose on the ‘97 Rouget Cros P but with even more detailed and lighter aromatics. Expressive, sweet red cherry, mild dry underbrush, coffee and cola spice highlights. Beautiful florals in a way that is more indicative of stems, although there are none on these wines. Blueberry fruit. Delicious palate with earth-laden and textured red berry fruit. Surprisingly stalky, which I think could be attributable to the Character of Echezeaux more broadly. Beautiful all around, incredible drinking. This is in my top three wines of the night for sure, if not number one, out of a legendary line up.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
Dense, rich, dark, intense. Actually tough to get a good read on up front, a little closed just now. After an hour in the glass this begins to blossom, ever so slightly, and show a beginning glimpse of incredible earth and spice. Palate is structured and intense but already has that unique soft texture and detail. A fruity vitamin minerality. Clearly a spectacular wine, just not ready to give up too much just yet. Nice to try tonight, but would bet on this long term.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
Incredible spice. Dark damp earth and lush and intense blackberry and black cherry. Notably darker than the ‘97 which has so much accessible and delicious ripe red fruit. Delicate and intricate aromatic detail and expression. The texture to the palate here is every bit as impressive as the other Jayers, if the aromatics and projection is dialed back. Structured and balanced, would also bet on this longer term.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru
This isn’t quite correct. Have had two bottles of the ‘91 Meo Cros P from the same source and this isn’t really comparable in terms of detail, complexity, and power. A couple early calls for cork taint, hard to say for sure but something less than perfect. There is still a wide array of earth and spice notes to be picked out of the nose. A bit of a disappointing bottle, I wanted this to be sensational. This is the second last wine of a marathon dinner, so it could be suffering from context to some degree as well.
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru
Youthful. The perfume is huge and dense and totally primary and takes a lot of swirling to get at the more developed and nuanced black and red fruit. Good, but given the context this is a straightforward bruiser. Drunk in isolation I’m sure this would be far more impressive, and it’s impressive now, just relatively dark and primary. Checked the tape on the last bottle of this a month or so ago and I think this was actually a better showing, notwithstanding the less than stellar commentary.
Light ruby red in colour with thinner bricked edges. Initially the nose is all fall leaves and darks teas but begins to full out and add weight. Savory and spicy. Dynamic and the complexity is escalating quickly. The palate has soft and tertiary dried fruit, lots of acid. This wine is really alive and moving all over the place, but all in good ways. More maple and hickory notes melding into the sweet red cherry fruit. Hay smoke, dusty earth, dried rose petals. I’m really tough on Barolo, but this is a spectacularly showing, no two ways around that, distinctly Italian in its spice profile. This bottle was in such good looking shape that the auction house actually flagged it for authenticity verification, and actually shipped it back to Conterno for inspection, who I guess gave the thumbs up since this made it back to us. Special.
1993 Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche 95 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru
Explosive nose with intense stemmy aromatics and huge spice. Huge projection out of the glass booming red and blackberry fruit with wood spice and stem detailed expression. This was one of the last wines of a marathon night, so the notes are falling short, but this was a spectacularly and highly expressive showing, even in the context of some of the greatest burgundies of all time. Very impressive.
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2010 Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair La Romanée 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Romanée Grand Cru
Booming nose of dark fruit, blackberry and black currant, lush but intense. The heavy handed wood polish gets you thinking DRC immediately, although there is clearly sufficient fruit stuffing to round it all out and make it work. Fairly ripe. I have no experience with these wines and was baffled by how approachable this was. A big wine but still aromatically complex and expressive. Viscerally pleasurable. 93-94 tonight, but with obvious potential to add nuance and earth.
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1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses 92 Points
France, Champagne
Magnum. A pristinely fresh example, extreme chalkiness and minerality, lemon lime spritz, and searing acid. On the nose I’m missing the creaminess and toast I was I’ve found here in the past, although it does come though on the palate a little better. I find the acid a little abrasive this time. Came back to the bottom third of this magnum the next day and enjoyed a subtler showing with more yellow fruit weight. Clearly has everything to go the distance and gain complexity.
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1966 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon
France, Champagne
Sadly this magnum was badly oxidized. Although you could pick out some redeeming savory notes in the nose, this was undrinkable with a sour sherry palate. Very disappointing as this wine can be great, but the magnum of ‘66 P3 alongside was spectacular.
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1966 Dom Pérignon Champagne P3 95 Points
France, Champagne
[Magnum] Big inviting nose, some reduction, classic DP yeasty and eggy notes. Icing sugar and frosting. Lemon meringue. Surprised by how tart and tight the fruit is in the first glass. Put a stopper in this and came back to it after the reds and this was really kicking into her with textbook DP toastineas paired with incredible freshness and rich yellow fruit flavors. Sometime the P3 series are underwhelming and thin, and sometime they are absolutely epic, like this mag.
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1985 Henri Jayer Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Aux Murgers Flawed
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru
Unfortunately this bottle is badly affected by cork taint. DOA and no debate here, although one can get a sense of the rustic and soily wine the should be underneath. A real bummer.
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1989 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brûlées 94 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
[Magnum] Smoky and savory nose, leathery red and black berry. Dirty and soily in a pleasant and complex way. Dark tea spices. Quite an interesting comparison to the mag of ‘90 Meo Brulees side by side. The palate on this is terrific with developed and nuanced black cherry and blackberry. While the ‘90 is a perfect beauty, this has more interesting character with mild sauvage and underbrush. More in the way of hoisin. Came back to these after two hours and the ‘89 had fallen off a bit while the ‘90 remained an absolute beauty. A great example of an ‘89, not stewed at all, but rustic and smoked. Unique, really enjoyed this.
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1990 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brûlées 96 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
[Mag] Fresh and highly expressive nose. Black cherry but with a lot of ripeness and sweetness. Round, warm, welcoming. Spectacular palate, lush and round but with an elegant soily texture. Subtle earthy and spice overlay. Nuanced and intriguing. Gorgeous perfume, dense and purple with complex spice. This is kind of perfect. Came back to these after two hours and the ‘89 had fallen off a bit while the ‘90 remained an absolute beauty. Majority of the group making early calls for wine of the night here, standing up to, and knocking down, some Cros Parantouxs and Echezeauxs from Meo, Rouget, and Jayer.
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1993 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux 94 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Dark and intense nose, surprisingly tense and bold, bordering on austere. The ‘93 Meo Cros P is remarkably similar, however this Rouget begins to blossom and show some dense perfume and more lifted and expressive aromatics. Palate is stuffed with dark fruit, this clearly has room to run. Delicious but still youthful. Coming back to this after a few hours it remains intense and youthful, a big wine.
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1993 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Dark and intense nose, surprisingly tough up front, bordering on austere. The ‘93 Rouget Cros P is remarkably similar, although the Rouget begins to blossom and show some dense perfume and more high toned, lifted aromatic expression, while this remains dark and moody. Palate is stuffed with dark and youthful fruit. Both wines are clean and pure, but the Meo has a more interesting earth edge coming out. Coming back to this after a few hours it remains intense and youthful, a big wine.
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1995 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux 96 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Whiffs of bret, underbrush, and sauvage on the nose above developed red berry fruit. Lifted, floral, bright, dried cranberry. Pleasant sweetness. Highly expressive aromatics with big projection out of the glass. Spectacular bottle. Pastels, florals, roses, acrylics. In this moment the ‘95 is in a better place than either of the ‘93s (Meo and Rouget Cros P). The showing tonight suggests to me that this ‘95 is closer to peak performance whereas those particular ‘93s have a lot more room to develop and last. I may be slightly biased since this is my bottle, and it is from the Wolfgang Grunewald cellar, but this is a fantastic and immensely pleasurable wine.
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1990 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Incredible bouquet, cola spice, damp earth, leathers, ripe red cherry and cranberry. A distinct dusty and soily earth. Some think this is mildly corked, I think it is great. Slightly musty, but still mostly fresh and pure. Unfortunately the cork taint is detectable, but you can clearly see what this wine is. Palate has textured sweet red cherry with a very unique and distinctly Jayer texture, mineral and spicy, but the cork does penetrate, ever so slightly.
I have never agreed that a bottle was corked but also called it the best wine of the night, so this one is a first. I put a massive zalto burgundy bowl of this away and came back to it the next day and found the cork taint to be completely gone. The array of spices and earth was the same on the expressive although less fresh bouquet. A very special wine in any case. 93-95 points on this showing, but would imagine near perfection if clean.
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1997 Emmanuel Rouget Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux 96 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
Gorgeous nose, expressive, sweet red cherry, mild dry underbrush, coffee and cola spice highlights. A certain floral character. More comparable to the light and lovely style of the ‘95 than the relatively dark ‘93. Dense, lush, and youthful palate. Gaining some earth driven texture and nuance. A certain roast tomato note that I find in Rouget sometimes. The palate here is absolutely silky. This is fantastic showing right now and is equally as good as the ‘97 Jayer Echezeaux.
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1997 Henri Jayer Echezeaux 97 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
Comparable to the nose on the ‘97 Rouget Cros P but with even more detailed and lighter aromatics. Expressive, sweet red cherry, mild dry underbrush, coffee and cola spice highlights. Beautiful florals in a way that is more indicative of stems, although there are none on these wines. Blueberry fruit. Delicious palate with earth-laden and textured red berry fruit. Surprisingly stalky, which I think could be attributable to the Character of Echezeaux more broadly. Beautiful all around, incredible drinking. This is in my top three wines of the night for sure, if not number one, out of a legendary line up.
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2001 Henri Jayer Echezeaux 94 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
Dense, rich, dark, intense. Actually tough to get a good read on up front, a little closed just now. After an hour in the glass this begins to blossom, ever so slightly, and show a beginning glimpse of incredible earth and spice. Palate is structured and intense but already has that unique soft texture and detail. A fruity vitamin minerality. Clearly a spectacular wine, just not ready to give up too much just yet. Nice to try tonight, but would bet on this long term.
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1996 Henri Jayer Echezeaux 95 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
Incredible spice. Dark damp earth and lush and intense blackberry and black cherry. Notably darker than the ‘97 which has so much accessible and delicious ripe red fruit. Delicate and intricate aromatic detail and expression. The texture to the palate here is every bit as impressive as the other Jayers, if the aromatics and projection is dialed back. Structured and balanced, would also bet on this longer term.
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1991 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Richebourg 88 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru
This isn’t quite correct. Have had two bottles of the ‘91 Meo Cros P from the same source and this isn’t really comparable in terms of detail, complexity, and power. A couple early calls for cork taint, hard to say for sure but something less than perfect. There is still a wide array of earth and spice notes to be picked out of the nose. A bit of a disappointing bottle, I wanted this to be sensational. This is the second last wine of a marathon dinner, so it could be suffering from context to some degree as well.
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1996 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Richebourg 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru
Youthful. The perfume is huge and dense and totally primary and takes a lot of swirling to get at the more developed and nuanced black and red fruit. Good, but given the context this is a straightforward bruiser. Drunk in isolation I’m sure this would be far more impressive, and it’s impressive now, just relatively dark and primary. Checked the tape on the last bottle of this a month or so ago and I think this was actually a better showing, notwithstanding the less than stellar commentary.
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1955 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino Speciale 97 Points
Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
Light ruby red in colour with thinner bricked edges. Initially the nose is all fall leaves and darks teas but begins to full out and add weight. Savory and spicy. Dynamic and the complexity is escalating quickly. The palate has soft and tertiary dried fruit, lots of acid. This wine is really alive and moving all over the place, but all in good ways. More maple and hickory notes melding into the sweet red cherry fruit. Hay smoke, dusty earth, dried rose petals. I’m really tough on Barolo, but this is a spectacularly showing, no two ways around that, distinctly Italian in its spice profile. This bottle was in such good looking shape that the auction house actually flagged it for authenticity verification, and actually shipped it back to Conterno for inspection, who I guess gave the thumbs up since this made it back to us. Special.
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