Clos de la Roche Dinner

Custom House - Chicago IL
Tasted Monday, May 4, 2009 by Burgundy Al with 792 views

Introduction

My Chicago Burgundy tasting group, the Lieu-dit Cru, had one of our regular Burgundy dinners at Custom House, with the onerous task of having to taste 14 bottles of Clos de la Roche from top producers. As always, Custom House did an amazing job preparing a menu that truly matched with the wine, complementing each flight. Each flight was served “single blind” so that we know the wines in the flight but not which glass had which wine. This worked well helping us avoid vintage bias. Each flight focused on a single producer, other than the 2nd flight, which just paired the Lignier 1993s (Hubert vs. Georges) against each other.

Flight 1 - Champagne (1 Note)

Flight 2 - Blind Whites (2 Notes)

One person brings two bottles of white Burgundy with a relationship between the two (producer and/or vineyard and/or vintage) and we try to identify what we can based on what we taste and smell. Actually, we mostly just embarrass ourselves, but have fun trying.

  • 2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Montrachet 96 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru

    Served in double blind flight. Sensational from the start. Incredible floral character and dense layers of ripe fruit throughout with great power and scale. Fruit came across almost as tropical tonight. Everybody recognized it as the superior wine (alongside Bouchard 2002 Corton Charlemagne) but I was still surprised to find out it was Montrachet since it didn’t show the “precision” I associate with that vineyard. But this wine was truly sensational.

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  • 2002 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Domaine 90 Points

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

    Served in double blind flight. Apple and pear on palate and nose, with hints of spice. The fruit was good, but the wine came across as a bit shut down and short. It also didn’t show as well as other bottles we have had in the past year so think it might have been a slightly imperfect bottle.

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Flight 3 - Dujac (5 Notes)

  • 1993 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche 96 Points

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

    Tasted in single blind flight. Opened 2 ½ hours before serving, with 30 minutes spent in a decanter. A lot of depth and complexity, this was really just starting to show secondary character on the palate (bit more on the nose). More spice than classic Dujac "perfume" on the nose. Still has lots of potential to improve, this wine is entering a great phase. My Wine of the Flight and Night, and most others had it in their top 2-4 wines. Just showed traces of the forest floor, barely any trace of the bretty character others have encountered with this wine.

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  • 1998 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche 90 Points

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

    Served in single blind flight. Dark fruit with lots of earthy smells emerging along with some Christmas spice. Seemed slightly pale and tired on palate. Quite a few people guessed this was the 1993 because it seemed the oldest wine, and it was everybody’s least favorite of the flight, albeit in a spectacular flight.

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  • 1999 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche 94 Points

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

    Served in single blind flight. Opened and decanted 2 ½ hours before serving. Black cherry on nose and palate with good spice in deep background. Lots of power and structure, but not particularly accessible. Everybody liked this wine for the long-term but not for the next five years.

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  • 2000 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche 95 Points

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

    Served in single blind flight.This wine is absolutely at its peak right now. Lots of intense red cherry and berry fruit with great floral and spicy aromatics. Powerful and persistent. Huge positive surprise. WOTF for almost everybody (2nd place for me behind Dujac 93 CdlR) and almost everybody’s WOTN. Most people thought this was the 1999.

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  • 2002 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche 93 Points

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

    Served in single blind flight. Also opened and decanted 2 ½ hours before serving – but that barely helped. Great perfume on nose, then just hints of fruit on the ever-evolving, slowly opening palate. Darker fruit (and "everything") than the other bottles of Dujac CdlR tonight, this wine will need until 2015-2020 for the complexity to really show. Great, great potential.

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Flight 4 - Lignier 93 Showdown (2 Notes)

  • 1993 Georges Lignier et Fils Clos de la Roche Flawed

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

    Served in single blind flight with its Hubert Lignier 1993 counterpart. This was slightly flawed or completely fallen apart. Most likely flawed since I recently had a G Lignier 1993 Clos St.-Denis that was good.

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  • 1993 Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche 93 Points

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

    Served in single blind flight with its Georges Lignier 1993 counterpart. Beautiful but incredibly primary. I would never have correctly guessed the vintage blind, but would have guessed something like 1998. This showed bright fruit with lots of power and energy. At first I was disappointed with the wine (a 1993 shouldn’t show like this!) but liked it more and more as I thought about its balance and elegance. I have one more bottle and won’t touch it until 2020.

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Flight 5 - Leroy (4 Notes)

  • 1997 Domaine Leroy Clos de la Roche 88 Points

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

    Served in single blind Leroy CdlR flight. This showed some of the stewed character many 1997s are showing today. Nice wine that I’d be drinking up in the near-term. Not quite worthy of Mr. Rovani’s “98 point” score.

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  • 1998 Domaine Leroy Clos de la Roche 91 Points

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

    Served in single blind Leroy CdlR flight. Very nice but a little disappointing given how incredible we have found most of Leroy 1998s to be showing recently. Mostly red fruit with moderate length. Fragrant in the classic Leroy manner, this was a pretty wine but didn’t show the serious power or fruit depth that I expected. Opened and decanted 2 ½ hours before serving, which in retrospect was a mistake.

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  • 1999 Domaine Leroy Clos de la Roche 94 Points

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

    Served in single blind Leroy CdlR flight. Great perfumed nose in the Leroy style, this vintage had more dark fruit, spice and structure than the other Leroys in the flight. Very dark and muscular, it came across almost as more Chambertin tonight than Clos de la Roche with lots of exceptional meaty character. This bottle was sensational and a top wine for most of us at the dinner. Most people’s WOTF, mine included. Not as powerful as some other Leroy wines, CdlR didn’t seem to work as well in her style as I’ve found with Richebourg, RSV, Chambertin or others. Opened and decanted 3 hours before serving.

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  • 2000 Domaine Leroy Clos de la Roche 92 Points

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

    Served in single blind Leroy CdlR flight. Lots of bright red fruit and great Leroy aromatics on the nose, then really good spice and red fruit on palate. Nice minerality and elegance. A weightless, seamless, very charming wine. Not incredibly complex, I’d probably drink these up within the next 5 years. A very pleasant positive surprise and WOTF for several attendees.

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Flight 6 - Ponsot (3 Notes)

  • 1996 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes Flawed

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

    Served in single blind Ponsot CdlR flight. Forget other mediocre tasting experiences with this wine, this bottle was cooked, dead and undrinkable.

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  • 1998 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes 90 Points

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

    Served in single blind Ponsot CdlR flight. Good balance of fruit and earth. Lots of good things going on – structure, concentrated fruit, spice, but nothing great. Much better with food than on its own. Very good but reserved and a bit short. I found this to be very similar to the 1999 tasted alongside but just a little less of everything.

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  • 1999 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes 94 Points

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

    Served in single blind Ponsot CdlR flight. Opened 4 hours before serving, decanted for 2 hours. Lots of bright fruit, concentration and energy that gives this a long finish, this wine is probably just entering its drinking window, which I expect to lasts for 10-20 years. Not quite as good as a bottle I had a few weeks ago, this was still very impressive. In most people’s “top 5” wines of the night, with 1 vote for WOTN.

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Closing

So what did we learn as we tried to ascertain the character of Clos de la Roche based on what we tasted that night? First lesson, that Coates’ description from his book seems about right – Clos de la Roche is lush, ample, classy and a bit exotic. You don’t see the austerity of Chambertin, or density of Bonnes-Mares. Second lesson…Dujac rocks.

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