RN74

A group of four decided to make a mid-week pilgrimage to RN74 in San Francisco, a destination that had been beckoning ever since I heard about the droves of Burg nuts who descended on the place before and after the La Paulée this year. The wine list is phenomenal, but also pretty much stratospheric in its pricing, although we did manage to find a few “Spring Market” wines that were selling for less than $100, including a 1985 Daniel Jarry Vouvray Sec (we got the last bottle). The food was top notch, better than what I expected for some reason (OK, I forgot that Michael Mina was involved)—heavenly foie gras, and a superb leek risotto. And what a layout for their wine bar—spacious, unpretentious, with different types of “space” for the wine geek and the wine neophyte. But on to the wines…

The 1985 Daniel Jarry Vouvray Sec was the only wine we ordered off the list and it seems we got the last bottle. I never did figure out whether this was classified as a "Demi-Sec" or a "Sec", but I would say that the only sweetness that was apparent was a note on the mid-palate that appears as the initial bracing, intensely flavored attack gives way to a lingering sweet note on the finish. Otherwise, this is a wine with a very healthy and vibrant acidity, but not really of the teeth-etching variety as I have seen some notes suggest. In fact, this was beautifully and harmoniously integrated with rich and yet firmly muscled fruit, with the transitions exploring an extraordinary range of flavors while remaining completely seamless. On the nose the characteristic nut and honey notes emerge with time in the glass, but they seem to take on a distinct floral character. This is a fabulously precise wine with all of its elements laid out with complete transparency and harmonious balance. This wine has aged beautifully—a textbook example of why you lay bottles down for the long sleep. Quite a treat...

Then two 1er Cru red burgundies, a 1998 Dujac Gevrey-Chambertin Combottes and a 2004 Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny Fuées. The Combottes started a bit slow despite being opened about 2 hours before dinner, but right about at 3 hours it took off, blossoming to reveal floral red raspberry aromas and broadening and densifying on the mid-palate. Still, this managed to show that signature Dujac weightlessness on the palate despite the ramp up in flavor and expressiveness. Alongside the Combottes was the much younger 2004 Musigny Fuées, which showed surprisingly well when first poured in the glass (the bottle was opened about 3 hours earlier). Briary aromas of wild raspberry, underbrush, and smoke on the nose, with deep mineral-driven flavors somewhere between red and black fruit, this had quite a bit more power and depth than I expected. No real vegetal green notes here at all (despite the 2004 vintage), although the slightly stemmy underbrush aromas and flavors are clear enough and might figure more prominently for some. Unlike the Dujac, however, this one did not really improve in the glass, and in fact seemed to shut down and become more sullen as time progressed. Well, probably all you can expect for such a young wine.

Recent White Burgundies

The visit of my father-in-law recently provided a reason/excuse to open up some wines, mostly ranging from Burgundies (whites, as it turned out) to Bordeaux. I thought it was interesting that the white Burgundies, that have certainly taken a beating recently with all of the premox discussion, showed best of all. In fact, they mostly blew the other wines out of the water (with the exception of a 2001 Cos d’Estournel), which had me remembering that scene in the movie Sink the Bismarck where the big ship ventured on to some hapless lesser vessels.

In keeping with 1) the general problem with premox with older white Burgundies, and 2) the fact that they aren’t available in any case unless from your average retailer (I was away from home for some of the tastings), I went with some younger white Burgundies, 2004 and 2005. I came away with the strong feeling that at least some of the 2005 white Burgundies are starting to show very well, being more forward some of the other recent vintages.

Recommended by a young wine retailer at the Wine Cask in Santa Barbara, the 2005 Bouchard Meursault Genevrières was a real crowd pleaser, impressing a few who don’t normally drink much in the way of white Burgundies. The Genevrières showed an almost Riesling-like juxtaposition of apparently opposing characteristics, something that might have led lead one to guess that it should be an unbalanced wine. In fact, the combination was remarkably successful, with the wine showing slightly bitter quinine notes that seem to ascend into the rich, almost fat mid-palate of sweet ripe fruit like fog rising off warm earth. The result is a remarkably complex wine for one so young, a great expression of Meursault typicity.

After the rich, almost decadent Bouchard Genevrières, I decided it would be appropriate to try something from a nearby appellation with a very different character. A few nights later we had the 2005 Amiot Guy et Fils Chassagne-Montrachet Les Caillerets. Lacking the sweet fat mid-palate of the Meursault, this was nonetheless another showy wine, with vibrant citrus notes that sweep across the palate. The mouth feel borders on creaminess without any suggestion of fat, and the stonier mineral flavors only show up to dominate the long finish. Another rich, almost flamboyant 2005, but expressing clearly the tautly muscled style of a Chassagne-Montrachet.

We revisited Meursault a few nights later with a 2004 Bouchard Meursault Perrières, a wine with a distinctly stonier and more austere profile than the 2005 Genevrières. Doubtless this reflects to some extent both the vintage (2004 versus 2005), but also the characteristics of the Perrières, which tends to be stonier and more backward. Nontheless, if was handing out points, I am not sure I would have ranked this wine any lower, since the tightly wound energy conveyed by the fusion of sharply defined citrus and mineral notes rendered the impression of a chiseled, crystalline wine that will only get better with time.

The last (or was it our first) of our white Burgundies was a 2001 William Fevre Chablis les Clos, which seemed to show very much like the wine recently described by Bill Nanson. This wine did not show premox, and therefore was drinking well, but it is well advanced now, probably drinking pretty close to its peak. Like many of the other 2001 and 2002 Fevre Chablis I have sampled recently, this has a rich mid-palate of softened citrus with notes of both quinine and tidal pool. I was a bit surprised to see that the 2001 showed petroleum aromas I have found in some of the 2002 Fevre Chablis. The mid-palate lacks just a little bit of energy and definition to make this a really great wine, but it is drinking enjoyably now.