Burgundy Wine Club dinner 2019 - Chambolle

This was as beautiful a group of wines as I've ever experienced in one single night. In every way justified their reputations. And for those who want to doubt Roumier, I can say this with confidence, and with respect - you are wrong. The wines are absolutely glorious.

• 2007 Domaine Matrot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru

  Butterscotch on opening, and we thought maybe there was a pre-mox problem. Not sure about that, but if not, this is just not a great Meursault. I could feel the oily and ample texture of this place, but if there is detail in terroir expression in this wine, it is obscured by either pre-mox or perhaps just general flabbiness.

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• 2007 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Charmes

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru

  Very lovely wine. Fresh and clean aromas that most prominently show the limestone under transparent Chardonnay fruit. Complex on the nose, and also very elegant, although there is some oak. Delicious and pungent flavors that are well balanced and structured. This wine has class and power and seems to have a very long life ahead of it.

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• 2002 Domaine G. Roumier / Christophe Roumier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Cras

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Truly great wine, just beautiful. Decanted off sediment moments before serving. I find it hard to describe a wine like this because a lot of what is so compelling isn't a particular flavor or smell, it's the way the whole thing works, the way it ll comes together. This is a perfectly proportioned and structured delivery of the purest fruit, flower, and earth. Such clarity and depth. A striking wine, memorable.

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• 2002 Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Feusselottes

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Beautiful wine, the finest showing that I've experienced from this excellent wine. Beautiful blossoming floral and red fruited Chambolle nose, just gorgeous. And with lovely clarity and delicacy on the nose and palate. All class, silk. Enjoyed in an amazing flight with 02 Roumier Les Cras and 02 Barthod Charmes. This wine showed a leafiness on the back end of the nose that I found appealing in that it introduced a slightly rustic complexity. But I also admit that I doubt I would have been able to describe it as such had I not drank les Cras right next to it, whose aromatic expression of fruit and flower was so utterly flawless, like a perfectly cut ruby.

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• 2002 Domaine Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Opened several hours before serving in a flight with 02 MG Feusselottes and Roumier Les Cras. This wine held it's own in terms of quality. It showed very lovely fruit, smoky and herbal hints that added complexity, good depth and density of aroma and flavor, and vibrancy and length on the finish. Really an excellent wine. It was instructive to me in this flight to experience the differences in terroir - it would seem as though Les Cras and Feusselottes are vineyards that offer more in terms of overall potential. This wine was indeed very charming, and to me did not show the completeness of the other two. But it feels equally well made - without intrusion, very pure. And so I take this to be about terroir, not producer.

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• 1998 Domaine G. Roumier / Christophe Roumier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Decanted a half hour before serving. This is as perfectly beautiful, as stunningly gorgeous of a Burgundy as I have every smelled or tasted. I mean, it's just so beautiful that it provoked a visceral reaction from many at the table. It is a perfect wine, in my feeling, in that it is everything that it can be, it lives up in every way to its potential. I won't bother trying to describe aromas or flavors, but will just say that it showed a truly stunning clarity, detail, and depth in its utterly gorgeous aromas and flavors, and a vibrancy and pungency that really lasts in the sinuses. Compared to the other wines we drank with it: Les Cras was a great wine and this is a definite and unmistakable few steps above it in terms of depth and pure, raw beauty. And this is less dense in the midpalate and finish, with less overall impact than the Musigny we drank next. But no less beautiful (maybe more). Gorgeous, gorgeous wine, and likely for me a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be treasured. This surely must be near the apex of what Burgundy can do.

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• 2000 Domaine G. Roumier / Christophe Roumier Bonnes Mares

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru

  Decanted a half hour before serving. We drank this with 7 bottles of very beautiful, silken, and seductive Chambolle. This wine just showed such different characteristics that I found it difficult to evaluate it in those circumstances. At first I thought it needed more time in the decanter, but it's just a wine that is structured differently from the Amoureuses we drank next to it. It's got harder tannins, it's a more muscular wine. It's not flowery or even very fruity on the nose, it broods a bit, shows more earth. But on the palate it is deep and complex, and shows true grand cru stature and length. I imagine that had we had this wine among other Bonnes Mares, or on its own, it would have provoked a much stronger reaction than it did next to a blossoming and exuberant Amoureuses.

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• 1989 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Musigny Vieilles Vignes

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Musigny Grand Cru

  Decanted 15 minutes before serving. Wow! Stunning wine. Exudes class and breed. The old vines make it so that this wine can show such vibrancy and complexity and weight in the way it expresses aroma and flavor, and for that all to hang on a seemingly weightless frame. This wine grew and changed in the glass and I believe that although stunning now, this wine will reward further patience in the cellar.

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• 1993 Joseph Drouhin Musigny

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Musigny Grand Cru

  Gorgeous wine. Shows the house style in that it feels big - the fruit is bountiful and generous, large shouldered and muscled. It works perfectly here, as the class, depth, and complexity of this amazing vineyard also shines through. This wine has loads more to offer and although it was gorgeously expressive and pungent on this night, there is no question in my mind that this wine will reveal more detail, more of its core truth with another 10 years of cellaring.

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Any of these reds could be the centerpiece of a dinner.