Drinking with New Friends
Tasted Tuesday, November 26, 2024 by TheThirstyArab with 131 views
Introduction
Got to enjoy meeting new people, the first major event after my move which was driven by the attendees instead of something like a producer showcase.
2019 Marguet Champagne Grand Cru Le Parc 93 Points
France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru
Criminally short tasting notes, given I was rushing around and could not give this bottle its full attention. Was opened for the best part of 90 minutes before I arrived and drank it, and this put the champagne in a very good spot. Lots of citrus, but none of the sweetness that can come with citrus.
Small production, and really yet another example of just how quickly the grower movement in champagne is going to supplant most of the big producers in my drinking rotations. Great QBR, worth drinking if you can find it!
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1996 Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux 94 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard 1er Cru
Tasted blind, which is a personal weakness of mine, so ended up guessing a young Vosne-Romanee based on the firmness of the tannins when tasted. Way off, though it was austere to begin with before opening up in the glass.
Surprised by how a wine basically 30 years old managed to maintain a stemmy quality on the nose, would almost be described as green but there is a good degree of equilibrium. Surprisingly little tertiary quality for a wine of its age, but one suspects they are just around the corner. On the mouth it was much more bright and fruity than I would have expected, the fruit was not too dry at this stage. A lingering finish meant you had to give the glass some respect before moving on.
One to be drunk in the next year or so, and will gain a lot of pleasure from doing so.
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2018 Mas d'en Gil Priorat Coma Blanca 93 Points
Spain, Catalunya, Priorat
Full context should be that I have comparatively little experience with Spanish white wines, so this is going to be an evaluation through a 'French wine' lens, for good and for ill. This was decanted for 45 minutes, and I was surprised by how necessary that was. Served before the red wines at the dinner, but honestly you could have committed the cardinal sin of switching multiple times between wine colours with this and few would have complained.
Nose was lighter than it tasted, grenacha blanca smells like riesling to me but without the stony qualities associated with it. On the palate, a very enjoyable herbacious note, combined with limes. Oak is perceptible, but with a 30% new oak/ 70% old oak split, woodiness does not dominate. Really had this lovely, creamy, Burgudian mouthfeel that that was enjoyable. Finish was middle length and a hint of oiliness.
QBR on these bottles are excellent, and held up very favourably to wines which were significantly pricier on the evening. Drink now, but you can wait a few years and it will do no harm.
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2019 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne 95 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru
This bottle of wine was drunk at my behest, even though I knew before it was even opened that it was going to be drunk at least a couple of years prematurely. Was decanted for 45 mins, but there were some issues with temperature control so I suspect it was more like 1 hour - 1hr 15 by the time it was served.
This is a bottle that was still so so primary, and the moment it went in the mouth you got a sense of it. The fruit was very very ripe (as other tasters have pointed out) but I personally thought that this was accompanied with a tartness that did not make the fruit profile overwhelming. 'Minerality' also accompanied, making this a remarkably complete wine. Texture was great, filling the mouth is something of a cliche but have no other ways of describing how good the feel of this wine was.
This is great now, and will be even greater with more cellaring time. The Cellartracker age range is somewhat optimistic as to the ideal start date, give it until at least 2027 before revisiting. Very poor taste to do this, given it was my suggestion, but was my WOTN.
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2019 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Chambolle-Musigny 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny
This was part of a pair of bottles drunk blind, which would turn out to be the 2019 and the 1999 Vogue CM village done side by side. A wonderful opportunity to gain some insight into what age does to similar source material, with some insights into the character of the 2019 and 1999 vintages. Managed to guess Vogue in my tasting notes, but as with all of these things should have been more vocal.
The 2019 was the best smelling expression of Chambolle-Musigny at the village level that I have ever had, period. The colour was a deep, rich purple - the sign of a wine which was definitely being drunk too young. Nose was raspberry, raspberry and a side serving of tea, which is the just the way that I want it. There is a time and a place for nuance, drinking village Chambolle is not one of them.
The problem is that, on the palate, you could sense that this was really not ready. A lot of tannin and a lot of acid made it difficult to pick out the fruity goodness that was promised on the nose. Someone else suggested that it had a slightly cooked quality to it, but this might be the new normal for these hot Burgundy vintages. Did not diminish from the enjoyment, but definitely could sense something more on the horizon.
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1999 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Chambolle-Musigny 90 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny
This was part of a pair of bottles drunk blind, which would turn out to be the 2019 and the 1999 Vogue CM village done side by side. A wonderful opportunity to gain some insight into what age does to similar source material, with some insights into the character of the 2019 and 1999 vintages. Managed to guess Vogue in my tasting notes, but as with all of these things should have been more vocal.
My honest view is that the low score is more a product of age (and how closed the 1999 wines have always been) than it is anything to do with bottle variation or storage conditions (good provenance). The nose was marked by a strong acetone smell that was really stubborn, and even on the last sip could be found. Even if the bottle was not corked, there was a hint of wet cardboard that lets you know that a good time is not, in fact, in your immediate future.
The palate was somewhat better, but either the fruit is gone or it is currently hibernating behind a wall of quite grippy tannins. I favour the former hypothesis, especially given this is still village wine (even if Vogue is atypical). Glad to have drunk it, but certainly one to drink up in case there is a second cliff that makes it totally unenjoyable.
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2018 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanée Les Hautes-Maizières 94 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée
This was my other serious contender for WOTN. One of the more interesting noses of a wine that I have drunk recently, there was a lot going on. How they manage to pack dill into a red wine I will never know, but that was definitely the kind of herbal that I was getting. Some tea leaf, but really the sweet cherry aspect of the aroma profile. On the palate the cherry comes through again, with some earthiness and quite pronounced oak. Acidity which slightly runs away from the tannins, but here this does not detract from the experience in the slightest.
I am more than willing to accept that this is the bias of having drunk Arnoux-Lachaux of the new style for the first time, but from my score I really want to impress on people that this is a seriously impressive wine, firing on all cylinders. I understand totally that people have reservations about the obscenity of the pricing of anything after 2018 and with Lachaux in the name.
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2009 Gantenbein Pinot Noir 92 Points
Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Graubünden, Fläsch
Though this is by no means the highest scoring bottles of the evening, it was definitely one of the most interesting. Swiss producer who has taken Bugundy clone vines which were planted in the middle of the 1980s, now putting out a Pinot Noir that you would never be able to guess was made outside of France blind (as this bottle was).
Nose is sweet and smokey in equal measures, though it is the kind of hickory smoked. Sweet smokey would be best, but using that descriptor would be lazy, of course... The palate was defined by even more wood, and you can really tell that this is 100% new oak that they use in the production process. Not a style that I like, but it does give real structure to the wine and there is a mid-long finish. Middling acid and tannins make for a solid, if not spectacular, pour.
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