Clos Vougeot Dinner

Met up with Tim, Tim, Keith and Bill for a fun dinner that ended up featuring wines from Clos Vougeot. Definitely some surprising results with a pair of 1997s showing VERY well.

• 2002 Henri Goutorbe Champagne Grand Cru Special Club 91 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

  A nicely balanced champagne with lots of energy, moderate toast notes and expressive citrus tones. Palate has bracing minerality and layers of citrus and floral notes. Nice start to the evening!

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• 2002 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos Flawed

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Nice nose of gunflint, lemon and sea salt. The palate was oxidized though. Boo.

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• 1997 Fery-Meunier Clos Vougeot 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  Wonderful aromas of spicy cherry and damp earth. The palate was silky and refined with red fruit, subtle earth, spicy cranberries and floral tones. I hadn't heard of this producer, so this was a great surprise!

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• 2001 Domaine Jacques Prieur Clos Vougeot 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  While displaying nice crunchy red fruit, this seems to be about 5-10 years away from really coming out of its shell. After some time, the floral notes started to build and combined with some nice tobacco and spice notes. I'd be very interested to try this wine again in a decade to see how it has matured.

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• 1996 Faiveley Clos Vougeot 88 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  Pop and pour. This was tightly wound and didn't have all too much going on until some nice floral notes emerged after 2 hours or so of air. Not surprisingly, this had great acidity, a relatively dark fruit profile and subtle floral tones to the firm palate. 1996s are a fickle bunch.

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• 1997 Domaine Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  This was my favorite wine of the night. The nose was off the charts with mushroom, red berry and forest spice on the nose. This just seemed primed to be opened on this night. Its flavors were in great balance, the tannins were smooth and hardly noticeable and the flavors on the palate was integrated incredibly well. A great surprise!

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• 1991 R. López de Heredia Rioja Blanco Reserva Viña Tondonia 91 Points

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  Vivid lemon notes on the nose with beautiful floral notes and minerals. The palate was structured with subtle sherry and butterscotch tones, great lemon acidity and mineral undertones. Was drinking very well, but obviously has a long life ahead of it.

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• 2003 Château La Tour Blanche Sauternes 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  Found this to be a bit too rich for my tastes and a bit flabbier than the bottle I had last February. Rich tropical tones of coconut with apricot and lemons.

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• 2007 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 71 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Alexander Valley

  This was the first Silver Oak I've had in a couple years and it more closely resembled oak juice than cabernet. This had dense vanilla, charcoal, chocolate and dark fruit tones on both the nose and the palate. I found both its viscosity and sweetness unappealing.

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• 2008 Château Lynch-Bages 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Nice aromas of cranberry, dried floral notes, and tobacco. The palate had nice energy and acidity. This should be a beautiful wine as its secondary and tertiary emerge.

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• 2006 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon 84 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Subdued nose of cassis, cafe mocha, and dark florals. Thought this was a little on the boring side...maybe a bit too much oak, too.

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• 2005 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Bougros Côte Bouguerots 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Tightly wound at first with a healthy dose of sulphur that took about 5 minutes to blow off. The wine had nice seawater tones, waxy lemons, and floral notes. While a bit of a letdown after the brilliant bottle I had a couple months ago, this was still quite good.

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• 2001 Müller-Catoir Haardter Bürgergarten Riesling Spätlese #2133 91 Points

  Germany, Pfalz

  Brilliant white floral notes, with fresh tropical fruit and crushed stones. Wonderful wine that has great energy, and acidity.

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