1999 Domaine Daniel Rion et Fils Vosne-Romanée

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 89.8 points

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  1/2/2019 - Fractalage Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Hands down the best Pinot noir I've ever had. Now, this phrase broadcasts my Burgundy ignorance, because I'm sure there must be better. I just haven't tasted it yet. Which is incredibly encouraging and exciting to know what lies ahead. This also, in my mind TRASHES the 100pt scale. How can other wines rated similarly even compare? This is crazy, to me, because in comparison all those others should be in the 80-70 range, by comparison. If we are to have a 100 point scale, then let's be fair. Maybe that sort of rating system doesn't work. Maybe let's have degrees of 1)Godly 2)excellent 3)good 4)average, all of which, by today's reviewer's standards fall into the 90s. At least, that's my experience in tasting what the Parkers of the industry say. Most of their ratings confuse the poop outta me because I don't agree. At least Burghound and Galloni are consistent.
  
  All this and over a Village wine.
  My Pinot noir experience is mostly Californian, specifically Russian River and Santa Lucia Highlands, so that's probably the explanation for my worship over this bottle.
  
  This is NOT a good food wine, though it could be enjoyed very much with food. Anything else on the palate will greatly distract from its fantastic subtle complexities. (I found this out the hard way.) This is a solo bottle to be degusted with 5 best friends debating why this juice's subtleties rock.
  - Used Durand to discover a well stored bottle. Not a hint of TCA and the cork butt had tartaric crystals indicating no filtration.
  - Initial nose had dense earthy mushroom and cherry.
  - Initial palate was an OMG moment. I could not believe how long the complexity went. A billion points of light illuminated my mouth and seriously put on a show. This was an immensely detailed performance with no intermissions. There were highs and lows, earth and stars. Delicious mushroom, cherry and waves of very soft spices that silkily undulated minute changes over and over. That one sip show was far too short, but lasted about 45 seconds. Good thing I had a 750.
  
  I was sick over New Years and now had prepared a meal of organic wagyu ribeye with sautéed mushrooms and onions.
  The meal was incredible, but did distract from the greatness of this bottle.
  
  I think that my palate had been primed to detect all that I did on the first few sips due to empty belly and not having had wine for a week. I was able to pick out what was normally hidden due to such a fresh palate. As my meal ensued the wine lost quite a bit on my palate. I'm sure it was there, I just couldn't taste it anymore.
  Wine reviewers taste over 10,000 wines a year. How can such an inundated palate really be objective? Why should we trust any of them?
  
  2 hours after opening:
  - this wine is AMAZING. The meal zapped out some subtleties but it's still a wow of a wine with great mushroom cherry, notes of spice that turned into a touch of cherry pie.
  
  Bottle age is important. The last glass held some of the white smoke whiffs that crept in. The "sediment" was not poured, but those white whiffs made it to the last glass. That glass did not at all taste the same texturally. This tells me that the bottle age fallout over time was desperately needed to create the excellence of this bottle. There was more funk of barn and a more astringent texture in this glass than the first.
  
  Worth the $70? Oh yeah.
  
  If you hit this producer's site you'll find it's pretty much biodynamically produced.
  I will, assuredly, seek after more of his bottles.
  
  I'll save a glass for tomorrow and come back with notes.

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  7/18/2015 - KenK wrote: flawed

  seemed oxidized burnt bitter and lacking fruit

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  4/16/2015 - MAOC wrote:

  PnP. Closed and a little musty at first but quickly opened to reveal a pretty nose oscillating between red and black fruit with a touch of spice and earth elements (still a bit more primary than you might expect). The palate showed the fruit as quite ripe and was well balanced with decent length for a villages. ***

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  6/7/2013 - La Cave d'Argent wrote: 81 Points

  Deep red/garnet at this point and showing nice aromas of dried cherries, allspice and tobacco, this wine fails to deliver a comparable experience on the palate. It is medium-bodied and very tart, with significant residual dry tannins which overpower any remaining fruit. The wine concludes with a medium-length, astringent finish. There is no doubt that this village-level Burgundy, a "forgotten child" in the cellar, should have been consumed at an earlier date. Drink up!

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