Uncorked DK tasting: 1993 Burgundies and some other wines that were actually great!
Peter Solberg
Tasted August 30, 2007 by gorm with 974 views
Introduction
Last Thursday our tasting group - Uncorked DK - got together to taste through a selection of 1993 burgundies from some of the best appellations and producers available. We were quite anxious as we did not now what to expect. This is a controversial vintage hailed by some as perhaps the second greatest vintage in the nineties (after 1999) and deemed as very problematic by others. Well, this was going to tell us what to think!
All bottles were in pristine condition from four seperate good cellars. All wines were tasted semi-blind except for some jokers.
Flight 1 - Bubbly (1 note)
As always we started with a little bubbly. A great way to start.
White - Sparkling
1998 Taittinger Champagne Artist Collection Zou Wou-Ki
France, Champagne
Very fresh and floral on the nose with some sourdough. Green apples and lemon and a bit of caramel dominates the taste, but the aftertaste reveals some pleasing dark breadcrumbs before it turns a bit dry and acidic. A nice champagne, but still backs 1998 as a somewhat weak vintage.
Flight 2 - White (1 note)
And then a bit of white which were truly great.
White
1999 Coche-Dury Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseignères
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet
A relatively dark color, yellow with an amber glow. On the nose there is sulphur, flint, dried flowers, caramel and tons of gunpowder. In the mouth it is most impressive, both round and intense. Aftertaste is very long with some edgy minerality. Good acid, great balance! That's a big 94 leaning towards 95.
Flight 3 - 1993 Burgundy 1 (3 notes)
We started with some village level wines. All of them problematic and acidic, but somehow that was to be expected.
Red
1993 Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanée
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée
At first it smells a bit like wet socks, but once that blows off some bitter cherries, green tea and vegetables comes to the front. In the mouth there's lots of acid, but also hints of sweetness and fruit. Aftertaste is dry and short. All in all it seems a bit rustique.
Red
1993 Claude Dugat Gevrey-Chambertin
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin
Acidic nose, but with some hints of sweetness together with some oaky notes and brown sugar. The nose is rather spicy and intense. The mouth is dominated by strange prickling acid and a taste of burned rubber. This is dead.
Red
1993 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Nuits St. Georges
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges
The nose is pretty intense with a good amount of cherries. In the mouth there's a very straight and poised acid, but not much else, perhaps some dust? If only noses alone were enough...
Flight 4 - 1993 Burgundy 2 (3 notes)
As we moved into 1er Cru level we started to get a bit worried.
Red
1993 Claude Dugat Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
When this got into the glass I asked out host whether he were repeating the previous flight again as it had an identical nose with the brown sugar, but also the strange prickling acid in the mouth. It weren't the same flight, but the wines were very related as this was the 1er Cru version of the village wine from the heat before. This also had some chinese soy on the nose. In the mouth it seemed like a fragile skeleton.
Flight 5 - Burgundy jokers - 1988 and 1995 (2 notes)
Hmmm... the disaster seems to be spreading.
Red
1988 Maison Leroy Nuits St. Georges
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges
The nose is a bit spacy with spicy fruit, cheese and some acidic lemon. Although not undrinkable you do somehow get the funny feeling that you are drinking some stuff with lemon that you are meant to use for washing the floor...
Red
1995 Dominique Laurent Romanée St. Vivant
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Romanée St. Vivant Grand Cru
The nose is a bit green, but also sweet with cinnamon, cherries and caramel. The wine hints at something more, but the acid once again seems to way too be dominating and the fruit too fragile to keep up.
Flight 6 - 1993 Burgundy 3 (2 notes)
Flight 7 - 1993 Burgundy 4 and another 1995 joker (2 notes)
The flight presented the first pleasurable wine of the 1993's, but also the evenings greatest disappointment so far...
Red
1993 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Corton-Clos Rognet
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton Grand Cru
Color is somewhat light and unclear. The nose is sweet, dense and intense with cherries, coffee and brown sugar. The taste follows through and the overall impression is that of an seducing, floral and feminine pinot. It doesn't last long though before it starts to disintegrate.
Red
1995 Dominique Laurent Chambertin-Clos de Bèze
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru
Also a bit light and muddy colorwise. The nose is very nice with herbal notes, tea, soft chocolatety nougat and some freshness. In the mouth there's the usual dose of acid which makes the wine seem like a skeleton washed with lemon. Somehow you would expect something better with only 299 bottles produced!
Flight 8 - 1993 Burgundy 5 (2 notes)
Red
1993 Domaine Denis Mortet Clos Vougeot
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru
A dark roasted and intense nose with hints of sweetness and crushed cherrystones. In the mouth it seems very structured, but maintains just a bit of fruit and some freshness. Also notes of vegetables.
Flight 9 - 1993 Burgundy 6 (2 notes)
Last flight of the 1993 burgundies held another somewhat pleasurable wine.
Red
1993 Domaine Marquis d'Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Champans
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru
Very dark colored. On the nose there's yeast and some dark and spicy elements together with oak. In the mouth it seems acidic and a bit too hard even though it maintains a bit of sweetness in the aftertaste.
Red
1993 Claude Dugat Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
Intense and somewhat sweet nose with pine needles and some brown sugar. In the mouth it seems to possess some broadness and fruit together with the acid that makes it pleasurable to drink. The best of the 1993's together with the Meo-Camuzet Corton Rognet.
Flight 10 - Extra wine (1 note)
At this point I was becoming really disillusioned, not only about 1993, but about Burgundy in general. Why am I buying all those 2005's? Maybe I shouldn't... One of the participants brought this, which helped raise the mood a bit.
Red
1999 Domaine Bruno Clair Chambertin-Clos de Bèze
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru
Nce dark red. Nose is sweet and spicy with cherries and toasty oak. It's a bit closed/muted, but hints at greatness. In the mouth it is a warm and sweet, but also fresh wine with an acidic afterplay (not of the problematic kind).
Flight 11 - Extra wine (1 note)
Then our host served this one blind. WOW!!! It took just one wine to undo all the damage done by the preceding 15 wines. I am back on the Burgundy track!
Red
1959 Ropiteau Chambolle-Musigny
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny
Light red and brown. The nose is sweet with lots of interesting notes: smoke, dried fruit, prunes, brown sugar, herbal notes and tea. In the mouth it is spicy, sweet and intense, fills the entire mouth with delicate taste. Light on its feet, yet very impressive! We all agreed that this had to be pinot, but had no idea about what or from where as we had never tasted pinot like this. I finally guessed Chambolle which turned out to be correct. A 48 year old village wine... this great!? Wow, that must have been one hell of a summer back in 1959.
Flight 12 - Dessert wine (1 note)
No need to say anything. This was mindblowing and also an example of extra-ordinary generosity from our host.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1967 Château d'Yquem
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
(served blind) Dark orange, actually more red than orange. On the noses there's marzipan, sweet caramel, christmas spices, glue, orange peel and lots of other immensely pleasing and mature notes! In the mouth it is incredibly sweet and fat, yet light on its feet, borderline ethereal and with acid enough to suggest that it will last another 30 years at least. This is as good as mature sauternes gets!
Closing
The overall conclusion has to be disappointment! Even with a problematic or controversial year you would expect at least some of these great producers and terroirs to cope better. We fear that 1993 is yet another year to avoid in Burgundy together with the 1995's and 1996's which has also turned out to be unbalanced wines. Perhaps also adding to the disaster is that this was a time when the winemakers simply didn't focus enough on quality and getting satisfactory levels of stuffing into the wines.
Luckily afterall the 1967 Yquem and 1959 Chambolle-Musigny all had os leaving Peter's house smiling!
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