LAST OFFLINE BEFORE THE CATACLYSM - (10/7/2008)
We thought this might be the last offline before the financial cataclysm has all of the wine geeks roaming the streets like so many dispossessed waifs in a novel by Cormac McCarthy. So we (myself, DrWine2001, Darvid, and Lou Rittenhouse) were hoping for the best with a first flight of 2000 white Burgundies followed by a couple of 1990 Corton. While the white Burgundies showed well, and mostly in keeping with expectations and previous experiences, the Corton were a big disappointment, with a Jadot Corton Pougets apparently flawed and an Ambroise Corton Rognet showing the unflattering effects of big-time overextraction. Well, the Ambroise helped to answer my post of several years ago about how highly extracted wines evolve, although I have certainly had other data points upon which to base my rapidly firming conclusions.
- 2000 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre - France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru
Very pale straw yellow, this wine showed very similarly to a previous bottle, with perhaps a bit less punch in the mid-palate than I recalled from that one. On the nose, a fading lemon note inflected by soil, with a bitter note (that showed up on the palate as well) that suggested quinine at least to me. In the mouth, a distinctly saline, briney note appears that had me thinking about the typical Chablis cliches--it really wasn't hard to think of this wine as being influenced by its oyster shell soil. As with previous 2000 Raveneau MdT, and the slightly more powerful (but also more aged) 1990 MdT from Raveneau, this wine is delicate, detailed, and all about finesse. - 2000 Domaine Latour-Giraud Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru
Bright medium yellow, this wine offered an interesting contrast with the less powerful Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre of the same vintage. The nose was dominated initially by a distinct sulfur note, which we treated (unsuccessfully, in my opinion) with a copper penny, but time in the glass seemed to reduce these aromas. Peeking through the sulfur haze were aromas that seem to have transitioned from citrus to red apple and pear, with a yeasty pain grille note suggested in the background. In the mouth this is impressively full bodied and balanced, with a powerful core of citrus and orchard fruit melded with the underlying minerality of the wine. I think we caught this one a little early, but this should evolve into a complete wine with a couple of more years in the bottle.
- 1990 Louis Jadot Corton-Pougets - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton Grand Cru
Volatile vegetal nose with a note of harsh lemon thyme. On the palate, really not much better--a sweet attack, that might be due to chapitalization as DrWine2001 suggested, since the finish on the wine was astringent. Certainly a disjointed wine, this seemed to be going in five different directions at once, and none of them pleasurable. In fact, this sweet note on the palate seemed to fade with time in the glass and we were left with a medium-bodied hard edged wine that gives no pleasure. My guess is that this was stored at a bit too high a temperature for some years (75F) and disparate elements diverged rather than integrated with time, but this is speculation. One is tempted perhaps to blame it all on poor storage, but I am not even convinced that the individual elements in this wine are all that attractive, since even the fruit core of the wine comes across in an unflattering way. NR (flawed) - 1990 Maison Bertrand Ambroise Corton-Rognet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton Grand Cru
Dark ruby red to almost purple, the nose on this wine only reluctantly shows anything beyond a hint of the massive dark fruit that underlies it. On the palate, this is concentrated, but also very tannic, with a hard and drying edge to the tannins on the finish. The fruit, while concentrated, is impenetrable--I don't believe I would have guessed this as Pinot Noir at all. Presumably we are drinking this too soon, but I can't believe this has the potential to do anything but soften up a bit with time, although the tannins as they are will never disappear. This seems to me to be Exhibit A of what happens when you over-extract a wine. You make a big monolithic wine that has no potential to evolve into anything better. - 1995 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Champans - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru
Medium-bodied, with a cool Pinot nose that offers a refreshing contrast to the forgoing 1990 Corton monsters. This wine is not quite ready yet, with a reserved dark fruited palate that probably needs another 5 years to really blossom, but the raw materials are there in what seems to be the proper balance and good detail. Should be interesting to resample with some more bottle age.
Posted from CellarTracker
