1990 Nuits St. Georges Shootout

After being shut down at Quince in our bid to bring in three Burgs, we made our way to the relatively new restaurant Nua in North Beach for a red Burgundy and whatever dinner with the usual suspects.

First up was a 2006 Vacheron Sancerre, extremely young and primary, but literally bursting with intense mineral and citrus flavors, a great way to get those taste receptors firing on full power. I am not sure this will ever develop in to a particularly complex wine, but I imagine it should drink very well for quite some years.

Next up was supposed to be a 2004 Saint Romain from Domaine Germain Pere et Fils on the recommendation of Sharon Bowman, but they had just sold out the day before. So we opted for a 2005 Weingut Bründlmayer Riesling Zöbinger Heiligenstein, which I thought was drinking beautifully already, with nicely balanced soft fruit and acidity on the palate and a delicately nuanced floral nose. As a follow-on to the brisk acidity of the Sancerre, this provided a nice transition to the more complex aged red Burgundies that came up next.

Next up was the 1990 Nuits St Georges shootout. Paired against the 1990 Faiveley Nuits St. Georges les Chaignots was an Ambroise Nuits St. Georges les Vaucrains. The Faiveley was showing very well, better in my opinion than a Hospice de Nuits NSG les St Georges Cuvee G. Faiveley from a couple of nights before. On the nose, notes of soy and mushroom, with delicate red berry aromas and a touch of saddle leather. A touch of oxidation seemed to lurk there, but never intensified, and the bottle showed as well with the last drop as it did at the beginning. Deeper, more powerful on the palate, with a higher level of tannin and minerality as well, was the 1990 Ambroise Nuits St Georges les Vaucrains. Very fresh and pure red berry aromas on the nose, just slightly blacker in character than the Chaignots, this just kept getting stronger and stronger with time in the glass. This should continue to improve with bottle age.

We also included a 1985 L. Latour Mazis-Chambertin, but it was oxidized, the red fruit on the palate seriously faded. A second bottle with the same provenance showed exactly the same oxidation, leading us to the following alert:
--------------------> CONSUMER ALERT <---------------------

Better pass on these...

As a substitute, we ordered a 2001 Fornacina Brunello di Montalcino off the list. Maybe not much of a match for the older Burgundies we were drinking, still this was showing quite well, with impressive depth and structure on the palate and surprisingly expressive nose of violets.