2001 Vosne-Romanée Grand Cru Dinner

This was a tremendous dinner, with a line-up that featured a stellar cast of the great and the good of Vosne-Romanée. It was a real delight for me to be able to taste through a wonderful range of wines united by vintage and only separated by producer and the slightest differences in terroir.

Vosne really shone in 2001. It may be something to do with the lusher depths of Vosne-Romanée fruit being better able to "absorb" the heightened acidity of the vintage, so that all but one of the wines showed no sign of the slight angularity and obvious brightness that their brethren from other villages tend to do, with the vintage quality showing up more as a sense of transparency, precision and minerality that really benefitted the wines. Even the Richebourgs and Echezeaux had a sense of finesse that one rarely associates with their terroir. Many of the wines were starting to show beautifully on the night, although I would say that as a lot, they would generally have benefitted from just a couple or so more years in the cellar. All in all, a truly marvellous evening. This will be hard to beat.

• 1985 Krug Champagne Vintage Brut 96 Points

  France, Champagne

  What a start to the night. This was a wonderful champagne - from a magnum, it was even better than the 750ml I had several months back. It had a beautiful nose – broad, creamy, with deep wafts of apples, pears and kumquats, toasty brioche and a deep seam of spicy, minerally undertones. Wow. Wonderful palate too, not quite as immediately broad or deep as the nose, but it had a quietly insistent depth and subtle power running through its complex panoply of flavours, with generous notes of apples and lime zest, cream and brioche, honey and white flowers. At the finish, it opened up even more with warm nuances of spice, mineral and bread that went on and on and on in the backpalate. Wonderfully full and warmly generous yet also effortless and beautifully integrated, with a round, softly matured feel that made it so easy to gulp down, this would have popped down the hatch in an instant – save for the fact that it had that breathtaking quality that forced you to pause and pay attention. Magnificent stuff, drinking wonderfully now.

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• 2001 Domaine Jean Grivot Echezeaux 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru

  Probably the pick of its flight – this was a masculine, minerally Richebourg in the typically reserved, brooding Grivot style. It had lovely nose with deep draws of spice and earth and stony minerality arrayed around lush aromas of blueberries and plums with a hint of violets at the sides. A very insistent, masculine bouquet. The palate seemed to be a natural extension of that – it felt really solid, with a true Grand Cru depth and a good bit of power to its masculine flavours of meat, earth and mineral, all packed under a cloak of dark black cherries and berry fruits. Yet for all that, it also had a sense of noble balance and elegance, even transparency to it, with fine, slightly prickly tannins and lovely fresh acidity giving the wine a very nice, open structure all the way into a fresh finish that trailed away in a stream of mineral, spice and a tiny kiss of herb. Lovely. Starting to drink well now, but this should be even better in a few years’ time.

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• 2001 Domaine Dujac Echezeaux 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru

  Disappointing – I have always felt that Dujac’s Echezeaux was one of their weakest Grand Crus, and this bottle showed just why. It did have a lovely nose, with lush, deep, almost liquered wafts of sweet black cherries and wild berries packed together with shades of damp earth and brambly herbs, spice and wilting flowers – at once sweet and masculine, that was a real beauty of a bouquet. Unfortunately, the palate was a bit of a shock after that. Reserved, almost austere at points, it showed a flush of jammy dark berry fruit on the attack that quickly leaned out into brambly, herby midpalate and a slightly truncated finish of warm woody spice. This needed food to bring out its more pleasing, fruitier characteristics, but even then it never showed all that well. There was certainly some quality here – it had a clean clarity to it, the tannins were fine and the balance was just about perfect, but it was just not giving much in the way of charm. I would give this a few more years and hope it improves. It was rather anonymous on the night.

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• 2001 Domaine Francois Lamarche La Grande Rue 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Grande Rue Grand Cru

  A nicely complete Grand Cru and a rather pleasing wine, even if it did not quite share the effortless elegance of some of its more illustrious cousins in the later flights. This had quite a tight nose to start off with, with shades of meat and wood spice and a gentle earthiness underlying subtle notes of black cherry – a very Vosne bouquet I thought, albeit a rather reticent one. The palate seemed a tad rustic on first sip, with ripe notes of plums and black cherries touched with a chew of rather obvious tannins. With a bit of time though, a nice brightness and clarity lifted the wine quite nicely, with satisfyingly full dark-fruited notes melding with more subtle nuances of herb and wood spice in a nice finish. This lack some of power and intensity you would expect of a top Vosne-Grand Cru, but it had good enough depth and a nice solid, well-balanced structure that lent it a nice sense of focus and clarity throughout. Starting to drink nicely now, this was an understated yet very complete wine. I liked it

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• 2001 Domaine Anne Gros Richebourg 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru

  Super. This was a different animal from the Hudelot-Noellat Richebourg on the same flight – the voluptuous siren to the HN’s more understated, sparer elegance. The Anne Gros had a beautiful nose, with sweet perfumed aromas of red cherries and berries, gentle wafts of earth and spice, and a faint floral drift at the ends. A really pretty bouquet in a thicker, more modern fashion. On the palate, the wine seemed to be in its adolescence, just on the cusp of maturity I thought, with a slight rasp of velvety tannins gliding alongside deep but pure flavours of sweet cherries and red berries seasoned with subtle notes of spice and earth and stony mineral. This was a beguiling mix of masculine and feminine notes all underscored with a lovely intensity. The finish seemed a bit primary, with sappy fruit punctuated with flashes of sweet spice and a light hint of bittersweet mineral notes. Even with all that though, fresh but wonderfully integrated 2001 acidity still gave the wine a beautiful clarity and balance. Anne Gros makes great Richebourgs, but even by her standard, this was great stuff. It needs a few years more in the bottle though. Try again in 2018-2020.

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• 2001 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Richebourg 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru

  I love Hudelot Noellat’s subtle, elegant style. Tonight, a lesser wine would have suffered from being served next to the lusher, more immediately welcoming 2001 Anne Gros Richebourg, but this stood its ground, showing entirely wonderfully in its own inimitable way. What a lovely nose we had here, with motes of spice, earth and stony mineral laced together with dark cherries, powdered herbs and a whiff of dried flowers. The palate was clean, spare and elegant, with subtle notes dark cherries and earthy minerality wonderfully integrated with mouthwatering acidity and beautifully fine tannins that still gave quite a grip at the finish. A lovely, elegant expression of Richebourg strength, this certainly had a sinewy core, but it came across more like a male ballet dancer then a bruiser, with a long, lean grace to it. Very nice indeed. This is starting to show well; I thought it was quite a bit better than the last bottle we had some 9 months ago, probably just needing another couple of years more in the bottle before it really hits peak.

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• 1996 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Hands down the best Leflaive Pucelles I have had through numerous vintages, this was showing incredibly well on the night. The nose just exploded out of the glass with wonderfully intense aromas of gunflint and stony mineral swirling around a core of ripe white fruit, pineapples and kumquats, with a base of earthy, chalky accents running underneath. Woah. If anything, the palate even better. Here, beautiful, bright 1996 acidity framed a deeply intense mouthful of delicious yellow-fruited flavours, with subtly honeyed tones of peach and melon and little flowery notes leading into a superb finish that just gripped the the backpalate with savoury, stony seashell and flint notes. This had everything – power, depth and elegance, all beautifully integrated in a wonderfully drinkable package. Drinking at absolute peak now, it was easily the standard of a great Grand Cru white. Wow.

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• 2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg 96 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru

  The first of a truly great triumvirate of Richebourgs, this just about blew my mind. It had every hallmark of a great DRC, starting with a lovely, super-complex nose, with whole cluster nuances of boiled herb and bramble accompanied by blush of dried flowers and sweet Vosne spice, a gentle earthiness and then deep aromas of dark cherries and sweet blueberries. Wonderful. The palate elicited a big “wow” on my notes. This was at weighty and velvety and pure, with a truly luxuriant feel in the way its wonderful flavours of dark cherries and blueberries with a gentle infusion of spice and dried flowers coated the mouth in a deep, velvety cloak. Pure luxury someone said. A deeply integrated reservoir of acidity kept it beautifully clean and defined in spite of all that velvety depth, all the way into a long minerally finish. Superb stuff – this was power wed to elegance, purity and finesse. Drinking beautifully now, this was another bottle that showed even better than 9 months ago.

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• 2001 Domaine Leroy Richebourg 97 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru

  It is hard to choose between the three truly special bottles of Richebourg in this flight, but if I were pushed, I would probably say the Leroy by a whisker. This was a monumental bottle, representing everything that is best in Madame’s wines. It had a captivating nose that wafted out of the glass in layer after layer of of ripe black cherries and sweeter red berries, herbs and spice, and deep draws of earth. Woah. Like the nose, the palate was deep, rich and thick, yet somehow also absolutely effortless, pure and transparent. The Richebourg muscle was clearly there, but it was so elegant and gentle in the way in inexorable filled the palate with deep flavours of dark cherries and berries, earth and mineral, and wafts of fragrant spice. This was a wine of stunning purity and finesse; hedonistic yet perfectly controlled, with an almost obsessive compulsive sense of perfection and balance – truly special. While drinking well now, I am quite sure this will last until just about forever.

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• 2001 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Richebourg 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru

  Magnificent. It is difficult to come after two truly monumental bottles of DRC and Leroy Richebourg, but this managed to hold its own pretty well. It had a beautiful nose, clearly different from the other two wines with its smoky layers of mineral and chalk and earth floating around a dark core of black cherries and plums and more lifted orange peel scents wreathed in fragrant spice and dark flower petals. Lovely, arresting stuff. The dark-fruited palate was thick and rich and powerful in a very Meo-Camuzet fashion. It was certainly well balanced and nicely structured, but it almost came across bit muddled compared to the effortless elegance of the other two wines at first. With time and some air though, this opened up beautifully to show a superbly delineated, almost linear character to its pure flavours of dark cherry and berries and orange peel lined with a lovely savoury undercurrent of dried earth, meat and stony minerality. The fruit almost felt secondary at the finish, with all those savoury notes really capturing the imagination on the backpalate. This had flavor and intensity, complexity and finesse, combining Meo-Camuzet’s characteristic weight and richness with the clarity and precision of the best 2001 Grand Crus. If anything, it actually felt unusual lifted and light on its feet. A great wine, drinking wonderfully now.

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• 2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée St. Vivant 95 Points

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

  This amazing wine was the last of three repeat bottles that we had also drank back in September 2014 during our 2001 Grand Cru dinner. Back then, it was easily the wine of the night from amongst a superb field, showing absolutely brilliantly. It seemed to have lost some of its virtuosity amidst the even stronger line-up this time round though, with some of the other wines, including the Arnoux RSV later on in this flight just shading it somewhat. That is not to take anything away from this bottle though – this was a great, great wine in its own right. As before, it had a just incredible nose, with sweet cherries and berries, swirls of boiled herb and bramble and wood spice, a sprinkle dried flowers, all tumbling out of the glass in a wonderful mélange of fragrant aromas. The palate seemed a little tighter, rather last openly giving and seductive than with the previous bottle, but it shared the same wonderful, juicy clarity in its glorious flavours of sweet dark cherries, haw flakes and orange peel, then wood spice and gentle notes of earth, all carried on a bed of soft, silky tannins and lovely acidity that still held the wine in a gentle grip as it lingered into a beautiful finish. There was such a lovely sense of finesse here, so much so that one barely felt the considerable depth and breadth of the wine as it caressed the palate. I said that this was the archetypal RSV the last time I tried it, and that remains the best way I can describe the wine. Beautiful, and with this bottle at least, it would have shown even better with a couple more years under its belt.

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• 2001 Sylvain Cathiard Romanée St. Vivant 94 Points

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

  An impressive wine, but this stood out somewhat like a stylistic sore thumb amidst the two elegant beauties that shared its flight (a 2001 Arnoux RSV and the 2001 DRC RSV) The Cathiard was a rather gruffer, more robust expression of the terroir. It was actually a bit grumpy when first popped and poured, showing a deeper, tighter, more masculine nose than either of the other wines, with more earth and mineral and sous bois notes drifting amidst a core of rich, almost liquered dark cherry and blackberry aromas. Attractive in its own way, but lacking the floral and spice perfume of that so entranced me with the other wines. The palate came across thicker and more powerful than the others as well, almost bearing more of a resemblance to the Richebourgs in the earlier flights, with rather tight notes of sweet dark cherries and filling the mouth with a pure, intense, beam of flavor that then pulled away in robust, pungent, earthy finish. This impressed in its own fashion – I was quite struck by the marriage of power and purity here. It packed a real punch, and yet was clearly a wine of finesse. On its own, I would even have said that it had a rather nice elegance. However, for all its quality, it somehow always felt rather less refined and effortlessly graceful than either the Arnoux or the DRC. That aside though, this is a great wine. Give it 4-5 more years in the cellar though – it will reward the patience.

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• 2001 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Romanée St. Vivant 96 Points

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

  This was one of my red wines of the year back in 2013, but I wondered how it would do placed next to the 2001 DRC RSV (which blew me away last year) and a highly reputed 2001 Sylvian Cathiard RSV. The Arnoux was absolutely superb once again tonight, actually putting both the other wines in the shade – and that it really saying something. It had the best nose of the three, unfolding out of the glass in a wonderfully perfumed mix of chalk and earth, sweet spice and fragrant fresh cut flowers, and then lovely lifted aromas of red fruit. Wow. The palate was absolutely singing too. This had all that beautiful purity that I remembered from the last bottle – depth without weight, intensity without effort, it filled the mouth with sweet wafts of dark cherries and red berries, spice and dried flowers, all held in the silkiest tannins and beautifully fresh, yet wonderfully soft and integrated acidity that gave the wine an almost ethereal weightlessness. A complete wine, yet one that never had the need to be demonstrative about its strength or its mouthcoating depth, this was absolutely captivating. A wonderful wine at a perfect place now. Bravo.

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• 2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche 96 Points

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

  A rather rich, opulent expression of La Tâche, this was surprising given the context of the vintage and the genererally finer and more minerally than usual tones on the wines that came before, but boy was it ever good. It had a dazzling nose, wafting out of the glass in arresting tones of sweet blueberries and dried plums, fragrant spice and smoky mineral, rich earthy notes that brought to mind a forest after a spring shower, and then perfumed drifts of fresh cut flowers. Wow. One always expects a fantastic nose on a La Tâche, but even then, this was breathtaking. Like the nose, the first impression on the palate was one of weight and stuffing, with wonderfully deep draws of dark cherries and berries infused with warm spice and gentle earthy notes filling the mouth beautifully. Yet in true La Tâche fashion, this carried its weight effortlessly, with juicy acidity and beautifully silky tannins lending it a wonderful sense of purity and finesse. This was a crazy delicious wine, yet one that oozed class beneath its hedonistic surface. It probably suffered a little from being placed next to a truly superb bottle of 2001 Romanée-Conti, perhaps the only wine in a sterling line-up that could have knocked this down a peg. Even with all its airy elegance and precision, the La Tâche seemed almost like a weightlifter next to the RC’s supremely graceful gymnast of a palate. On its own though, absolutely superb and starting to drink very nicely indeed.

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• 2001 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti 98 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Romanée-Conti Grand Cru

  So, finally to the Holy Grail. This was perhaps the most subtle and understated, perhaps even reserved, of all the wines on the night – one that demanded time and attention to appreciate. Yet coming at the end of a few tremendous flights of the very best Vosne-Romanee can offer, it was clearly Primi Inter Pares, the first amongst equals. It had a deep yet subtle nose, not dazzling like the La Tache or seductive like the RSV, but quietly captivating, a perfectly integrated jewel of a bouquet with gentle notes of earth and toasted wood spice, sprigs of herbs and a little floral perfume, and then shades of dark cherries and berries. Lovely. It was the palate that truly took my breath away though. This was a wine so comfortable in its exquisite quality and its hallowed position at the apex of Burgundy that it had no need to trumpet its own graces. It was subtle, gentle, but insistent, showing layer after layer of glowingly pure red cherries and blueberries seasoned with fragrant spice, and then a deep, gentle earthiness that led into neverendingly long finish that knitted together deeply integrated acidity and a gentle bite of the most velvety tannins. It had a reservoir of depth and power, yet the words that kept coming to mind were “harmony” and “purity”. A profound wine combining the perfumed elegance of Romanée St. Vivant with the strength of Richebourg, the generosity of La Tâche with the spicy masculinity of Echezeaux, all effortlessly melded into a zen-like completeness – this is the synthesis of everything Vosne-Romanée is supposed to be; so long, so quietly compelling that I was still savouring its imprint on the palate a full 30 minutes after we left the dinner. What struck me most was how seamless the wine was, it had a wholeness and singularity that perhaps only a great Musigny of all the other wines in Burgundy can achieve, yet this was wed here to a beautiful, weightless transparency that I have yet to taste in any Musigny. I feel extremely privileged to have shared in this wine; it is an experience that will live for a long, long time in the memory. On the night, this seemed ageless, already drinking well, yet feeling as though it will age effortless for decades to come.

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