March 3, 2024 - March 2024 Gouges/Chevillon Dinner (YH Beijing - SF): It’s fascinating to taste a wine that is 11 years older than the '10 Prulier next to it, yet exhibiting much firmer tannins with a more imposing structure. There is impressive stuffing here with a beautiful nose, but I mainly got a wall of tannin throughout most of the night. Others who revisited later on said it was opening up a bit, but this needs a lot more time.
March 3, 2024 - Lovely nose with lots of fruit, cherries, spices, and maybe a hint of leather. Medium acidity followed by a wall of tannins on the palate. There are some nice cherry and strawberry notes with a bit of sous bois, but mostly in the background. Good finish. The nose is fantastic but I'm not sure if the tannins will ever soften before the fruit fades. 95 nose, 91 palate.
March 3, 2024 - The Gouges of yesteryear. Well, the nose is super lovely, with a dark masculine profile of tea, black fruit, leather and a bit of forest floor. The palate entry is compelling, very old school, black fruit and dried flowers, beef bouillon and mineral. Excellent tension. Burly tannins speak to time and place, but there is also a woody note on the finish that I find distracting (although this attenuates after 2+ hours, suggesting there is hope for eventual integration in 10? 15? years, if the fruit will last). 94 nose, 90 palate.
July 18, 2023 - Very impressive brambly fruit. Tannins now softened. Quite a masculine wine. Delicious !
April 23, 2023 - Jason's birthday: Wow I was saying 1999 Gouges was undrinkable earlier on at dinner but still didn’t nail this. Incredibly youthful on the palate but with unintegrated oak and a distinct alcohol note that led others to think 2003. I went for a 99 or 02 Faiveley Corton instead since the fruit was so vibrant and fine-boned that it could only have been from a strong vintage. Very backward and needs another 20 years, but the ingredients are all there.
April 23, 2023 - J's Birthday Dinner (Taste Paradise Ion): Blind. Surprisingly youthful looking, pale purple, Vanilla, mushroom, forest floor, violet, high acid, grippy coarse tannins. Oak still not fully integrated. Surprise the wine is still youthful after 24 years. Could go on for another 10 more.
April 23, 2023 - Full of vanilla on the nose, still yet to be integrated. Very very young on the palate, wouldn’t guess ‘99 at all. No idea if there are enough fruits to counter those vanilla oaks.
April 12, 2023 - Tight, not lots of pleasure.
August 28, 2022 - Tannins have softened considerably but are still present. The tannins and fruit are ripe and the acidity well balanced. I did enjoy this wine but it should probably be kept for another couple of years to get ideal drinking conditions. Slightly rustic but not in an unpleasant way. Certainly has plenty of stuffing.
April 27, 2022 - Fabulous brambly fruit, just beginning to hit the drinking plateau. Should last 10-15 years from here. The fruit is prominent but in a very NSG way. Ripe black fruit flavours and the tannins still have bite but in a pleasant way that is receding gradually. No hurry to drink but in a very good place now.