Community Tasting Note

JohnMcIlwain wrote:

Thursday, March 2, 2023 - Old-fashioned, yet somehow new-fangled Burgundy. Heavy, fancy (did I say heavy?) bottle. But this is Burgundy not Alto Moncoya—no need for the 1.5kg trophy bottle. Opened an hour ahead of service. The robe is a dark ruby/with a fair amount of bricking on the rim. The nose shows some residual wood influence: a touch of brûlée, some espresso and cream along with some old school funk and stank. There’s some black fruit and cherry pit, iron filings, as well as Bovril, beef broth, and a little tar. Nothing too bretty or flawed, but the at crux of sous-bois and decay. Meaty, beaty big, and bouncy to borrow from The Who, emphasis on meaty. And given the remaining fruit there’s balance here, though the degree of extraction, cooperage, and that dumb bottle are all worthy of discussion. I don’t hate this, but I can’t say I would pour it for anyone either. It’s a one-off bottle purchased on release and may have gotten a breathy score which inspired its purchase and cellaring. That said, I kinda forgot about it in storage. And though there’s a lot of damning with faint praise in this note, my sense is that opening earlier would have revealed far more new wood élevage that I prefer. Maybe there are fresher bottles out there, or ones where the cooperage isn’t so evident. Re-buy? No. I don’t mind the stank, but the winemaking seems to trump soil signature and doesn’t do the remaining fruit any favors. And I know it’s Nuits-Saints-Georges (by the label) absent the affectation, I’d be grooving on the rusticity.

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