Great Dinner Wines

Healesville Victoria
Tasted Saturday, August 10, 2013 by AJ72 with 984 views

Introduction

After an auction where a 99 La Tache was put forward generously by James the other wines were brought along by others on the night.

Flight 1 - Krug Flight (3 Notes)

Brilliant N.V and Clos du Mesnil

  • NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée 94 Points

    France, Champagne

    Awesome N.V. Very fresh, great acid cut, a lot of substance without any of the bs often associated with Champagne. No pretender. Great.

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  • 1998 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut 84 Points

    France, Champagne

    The N.V was much better than this. Seemed to have an aged character which was undesirable. Too grand for its own good. Lacks freshness and just another disappointing expensive Vintage Champagne.

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  • 2000 Krug Champagne Clos du Mesnil 98 Points

    France, Champagne

    After just bemoaning the amount of substandard expensive Vintage Champagne to pass my lips I must dip my lid to this wine as the exception to the rule. This was simply incredible. Like the N.V it had a wonderful freshness. It also had a much tighter, more complex flavour profile and extraordinary length. Best Champagne Ive ever had and a real wine lovers wine as there's nothing fake at all about this. Thrilling!

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Flight 2 - Mixed white Burgs (3 Notes)

Coche a bit of an off bottle and a brilliant Corton Charlemagen from Boillot.

Flight 3 (4 Notes)

Two out of four gone due to cork. theother two great with an even better Corton Charlemagne from Bonneau du Martray

  • 2000 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur 95 Points

    France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

    Great wine. Classic wet stone, wet wool mineral thread through this wine. Very creamy, bees wax like and great balance. Looks like its in a good spot now. Not as detailed as The 02 which is a knockout. A beautiful wine.

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  • 1997 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur Flawed

    France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

    Horribly horribly corked!

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  • 1996 Louis Carillon Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Flawed

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

    A tragically oxidised bottle. Can only imagine the brilliance of a good bottle as not anywhere to be seen tonight. Rusty colour a dead give away. Ive seen bottles from the 80's from this producer look less than ten years old so definitely the bottle. Damn shame.

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  • 2005 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne 97 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

    Absolutely brillant wine. Up against the mighty Raveneau in this bracket and started off slowly but ended up being my preferred wine by the finish. Great minerality in that trademark Corton Charlemagne way. Not like the prestigious climats further south which have an underlying creaminess and richness. This is pure jagged stone, like crushed rocks or something not lacking in texture and gives a wonderful tight line and extraordinary finish. I was never a huge fan of the Bonneau wines until recently but boy are the recent vintages 05,06,07 fantastic. Doing something right for sure. If you want to see what top shelf White Burgundy is all about this is it. The best part about that is whilst not cheap they are not ridiculously priced. Anyone new and looking to try the best but cant afford Leflaive etc this is the ticket to dip your toe in the water. For the moment anyway.

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Flight 4 - Red Burgundy Royalty! (4 Notes)

Wow! Speechless!

  • 1999 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin 100 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru

    I was lucky enough to try this ten years ago and at the time I thought great wine but will it ever evolve into the stunning Chambertin wines I had seen previously? In its youth it had all the silk and composure of a great wine but gave absolutely no indicator of the greatness it would one day express as it did tonight. Yes it was Grand cru pedigree but that majestic aroma of Chambertin was not present, not even a tiny bit. In short when I first tried this wine ten years ago it did not in any way resemble the wine we had tonight. I realise now with experience tasting the wines from this region what a waste it was to open this ten years earlier. This vineyard and the Clos de Beze from Rousseau have produced the most electrifying wine experiences I've ever had in my life. This 99 is the absolute top of the tree. I have only scored a few 100 pointers but I can not express how profound this wine was to me and a unanimous favourite around the table. A perfume so perfect and a palate to match. Extraordinary length. On this showing I would say perfect maturity. My only suggestion is you try it now before you die and the 99 La Tache but you'll need to wait another twenty years for that wine to show its best. Incredible. Check out my original note ten years ago on this wine. I had no idea!

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  • 1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche 100 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Tâche Grand Cru

    Will be 100+ in another ten years but because the Rousseau next to it blew everybody away and was the far more approachable of the two today it gets a rather meaningless score. Meaningless because these two wines are perfect. The Rousseau has reached the peak a bit sooner than the LaTache but it will also be off the scale, other worldly, with more time. A great opportunity to see this wine and will I ever get the chance to see it again? Who knows but at the price it commands today I doubt Ill ever be able to stash a few away. Tonight this has been donated by James and I am absolutely blown away by it. Dont expect to see that hedonistic LaTache aroma for at least ten years I reckon as this wine is backward. There are hints of beauty in this. At the moment its losing its rawness of youth but is like a sleeping giant yet to awake. Its all there, power, finesse mindblowing stuff. Two of the most profound wines I've ever had. I will make myself a promise to try this wine again one day somehow but not in the next decade.

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  • 1971 Marey-Monge (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) Romanée St. Vivant 96 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Romanée St. Vivant Grand Cru

    brilliant wine. Only slightly overshadowed by the brilliance of two wines of a lifetime. This was singing! A beautifully mature Marey Monge with elegance, grace and no lack of substance. Still got a few years left in it but drinks beautifully now so why wait any longer?

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  • 1989 Domaine Jean Grivot Echezeaux 80 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru

    Im not sure if it was the strength of the bracket made this wine look worse than it was. If you like mocha/coffee oak character then you'll love this as it was very much the profile of this wine. Totally, understandably, outclassed here tonight.

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Flight 5 - Rousseau 07 revisited (5 Notes)

Overall great wines but looked better 12 months ago so maybe going into a bit of a shell acrooss the board.

  • 2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin-Clos de Bèze 95 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

    Just starting to show the trademark kaleidoscopic characters of this brilliant vineyard. Still needs more time though. A question mark over brettanomyces in this wine which I didnt see? Sometimes it really bugs me when a technical debate spoils the enjoyment of a wine regardless of its composition as was the case here. The Brett questioning also reared its ugly head with the previous brilliant 99 Chambertin only to a lesser extent as all agreed "if" it was brett it was good brett!? A brilliant wine is just that and as everybody unanimously agreed then lets just leave the technical hat at the door and enjoy the beauty of the wine. Maybe my threshold for Brett detection is higher than others. Aren't I lucky! This bottle not as memorable as the first tme I tried it but did follow the best bracket of wines I've ever had.

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  • 2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Clos de la Roche 94 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru

    Actually preferred this over the Clos St Jacques tonight which looked a bit oaky. A beautifully balanced wine showing loads of upfront fruit that caresses with its softness and fine tannin. Great.

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  • 2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Charmes-Chambertin 91 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

    Could be a bit low but I rated this on an unusual character present in the wine. I did notice this last time I tried it but it was a bit more prominent this time around. Hard to describe but it was a wet almost peaty character which detracted a bit for me. Maybe even a touch of greenness. Still Good though.

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  • 2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques 93 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru

    Very good and has all the components in place except the oak? Really showy tonight and maybe its the vintage being a bit lighter as the oak pokes out quite noticably. Very nice wine all the same still needs more time to open right up. Perhaps gone back into its shell a bit.

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  • 2007 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Mazy-Chambertin 92 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru

    i liked this but questions raged over a slight Brett issue. I didnt see it but not saying its not there. Anyway the wine had a lovely perfume and succulent palate. Classic Rousseau and will only get better with time.

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Closing

Incredible night!

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