Maison Ilan 2011 Tasting Results

We held our long-awaited 2011 Maison Ilan tasting tonight. I will post more notes later but I want to get the thread up so others can comment. I will post the full statistics after I get them from Scott.

Thanks very much to Andrew and Chiara for hosting and for the great fondue! Thanks to all for sharing your wines.

We had all eight MI 2011s and split them into two flights. First flight had all the non-Gevrey wines plus two ringers. Second flight had all the Gevreys plus two ringers. All ringers were 2011s. Wines were quickly double-decanted and served single blind. The first set was served roughly 30 minutes after the decant and the second flight about 90 minutes after. The ringers were identified by village only, though some people knew their exact identities. We tasted, ranked and guessed identities prior to revealing the wines in each flight.

Flight 1 results:

1st place, 20 points: 2011 Maison Ilan MSD Chaffots
2nd place, 25 points: 2011 Le Grappin Savigny Les Beaune
3rd place, 26 points: 2011 Maison Ilan MSD Mont Luisants
4th place, 28 points: 2011 Maison Ilan Volnay Robardelles
5th place, 30 points: 2011 Odoul Coquard MSD Clos La Riotte
6th place, 39 points: 2011 Maison Ilan Chambolle Feusselottes

In this flight, I think most people felt there were five pretty good but not really exciting wines, fairly consistent with other 2011s we’ve had. Some of us felt the Chambolle was flawed as it was cloudy and had some strange aspects to its nose, though all agreed it was drinkable. Some wines changed quite a bit throughout the tasting. Several of us felt that the Mont Luisants was coming on very strong though we didn’t have it ranked first. It is light in color and body but has a very nice nose and elegance. Obviously the Le Grappin was well received and the clear value in the tasting.

Flight 2 results:

1st place, 21 points: 2011 Pacalet Lavaux St. Jacques
2nd place, 28 points: 2011 Maison Ilan Mazoyeres Chambertin
3rd place, 29 points: 2011 Maison Ilan Le Chambertin
4th place, 30 points: 2011 Maison Ilan Gevrey Chambertin Les Corbeaux
5th place, 32 points: 2011 Chevillon Pruliers
6th place, 32 points: 2011 Maison Ilan Charmes Chambertin

This flight was pretty uniform. I believe everyone thought all the wines were quite good and most felt the quality was higher in this flight than the first. The Pacalet was strikingly different than the others in its nose and structure, and several people ranked it first. Almost all had it ranked near the top (I ranked it last because its different characteristics didn’t appeal to me as much, but I still liked it). There is a lot of family resemblance between the Maison Ilan Gevrey-based wines. The Charmes was somewhat reduced at the beginning and that may have led some to downgrade it. I actually thought it was pretty good and quite similar to the Mazoyeres, and the Chambertin for that matter. My favorite was the Chevillon which isn’t that surprising to me (though I didn’t identify any of these wines correctly after calling almost all in the first flight).

Of all these wines I think the most distinctive is the Mont Luisants. I wouldn’t claim it’s the best, but for people who like their Burgundy light, airy and aromatic, it is worth a try. The 2010 was that way when I had it from barrel as well.

FWIW, I tasted the 2011s from Odoul Coquard and I’m not surprised it was ranked 5th. I just didn’t find any wine really interesting, and most were a bit unripe for my taste. I bought 2010 and 2012, but didn’t buy any 2011.

I’m curious, how is the price in the US compared to MI ?

Alain

I forgot to mention, the laugh of the night went to Rob for his “Sommelier Pirate” joke. Maybe you had to be there.

Craig thanks for the thoughts I look forward to the actual notes. It initial thoughts I think can dispel the notion that we have been sold a pig in the poke. Tasting different bottles of the same wine will ultimately dispel that though.

Interesting note on the Le Grappin. I wonder if that says more about the approachable nature of SLB rather than the wine itself. I feel that Andrew makes far better whites than reds. This basic SLB being the weakest of his wines.

Thanks for posting, interested to see the full findings.

I, like many others, are looking forward to the notes. Fortunately it appears this group at least liked the wines - if not loved them, but certainly didn’t hate them - or WB would AGAIN be painted with a broad brush that the collective apparently only shares one brain and that brain says you must hate Maison Ilan wines. I’ve seen a mix of notes here - some love, some like, some hate the wines - and this is by far the most complete tasting.

So Craig - do the points represent totals? In other words, how many people ranked the wine number one, two . . .six, etc?

Just curious. Twenty points on the Parker scale is pretty bad but I gather that’s not the case here.

Interesting tasting to do.

Greg,

I am assuming due to the ranking, that there was no point scoring going on, rather than a ranking of the wines, so the one the taster liked the best ranked first therefore 1 point, liked second best got 2 points and so on. Therefore between the I would again assume 8 tasters, counting all the tasters points for each wine, gave us the ratings as they stand.

Correct, Sean

168 points/(1+2+3+4+5+6)=8 tasters

I actually find it interesting how little consensus there was.

Chris is correct, scores are the sum of the 8 individual rankings. A “perfect” score would be 8 points, meaning everyone ranked it first.

I have quite a bit of experience with this type of peer group ranking and this type of result is quite common. There tend to be relatively few “consensus” results when rankings are done blind and without discussion. The only wines that had any real consensus were the Chambolle and the Lavaux, and even then there were outliers.

wow. I’m surprised the Volnay Robardelles did that well. I really found it lacking.

I enjoyed the Chaffots when I opened mine.

The Volnay was really lacking for me as well. I didn’t recognize it as Volnay either. I think I ranked it #5. Have to check my notes tonight when I type up my tasting notes.

For me the Volnay started pretty rough, but by the time I was doing my ranking I was pretty happy with it. I ranked it #4 above the SLB and the Chambolle. I found it leaner and a bit more tannic than the MSDs.

It’s interesting and disappointing at the same time.

It’s a shame that different bottles of the same MI wine received by different routes were not tasted together because I think that would have removed a lot of doubts regarding the later delivery of wines that were supposedly sold-out or unavailable.

Interesting because the only one of those wines I’ve tasted is Le Grappin Savigny-les-Baunes 2011, which I found attractive on the nose, with beetroot characters, but very austere, thin, rhubarb and astringent on the palate. It had a nice light mid palate but overall I was distinctly unimpressed by that wine, rating it 11/20. One of the lowest scores I’ve given any wine that year. OK, all opinions are subjective but I loved Le Grappin blanc and rated it 17.5/20.

So I’m a bit confused. I love great Burgundy like every other wine aficionado but I’m also aware that poor vintages, lesser appellations and mediocre producers deliver some very disappointing wines at high prices. Thus it always was in Burgundy and always will be. The key is figuring out what to buy. And the answer is certainly not “My full allocation every year”.

My notes from the tasting. I’ll convert them to match the group ranking order, with my own rank included.

First flight: I found most of these to be very pleasant wines, a bit on the lighter/elegant side for the most part. Frankly quite typical of a lot of 2011s I’ve had, up and down the price scale.

2011 Maison Ilan MSD Chaffots - some crushed fruit and earth on the nose, starts with nice medium depth cherry fruit, good acidity, shows some greenness on the finish (my 3rd place)
2011 Le Grappin Savigny Les Beaune - nose not giving much, a very slight VA note, palate is quite nice medium cherry, with medium acidity and a pretty decent finish. (my 1st place)
2011 Maison Ilan MSD Mont Luisants - clean, light nose, quite nice medium cherry, hint of creosote, good acidity, quite nice (my 2nd place)
2011 Maison Ilan Volnay Robardelles - light nose, nice medium cherry, some nice earth notes but finishes a tad short (my 5th place)
2011 Odoul Coquard MSD Clos La Riotte - very slight green on the nose, sweet slightly candied medium cherry, good acidity; nice, though the hard candy note stands out for me (my 6th place)
2011 Maison Ilan Chambolle Feusselottes - light nose, touch softer, mellow medium cherry, decent though straightforward. This wine was a bit cloudy, compared to the crystal clearness of all the other wines of the night (my 4th)

Second flight: These were all very good, and tough to rank. They did change in the glass over time, and I suspect the very close cluster of rankings reflects that. We all remarked that this was quite a quality flight, and all the wines showed very well.

2011 Pacalet Lavaux St. Jacques - light cinnamon/clove nose, quite beautiful medium dark fruit, with very nice structure, some earth and tea kicking in. Stands out differently in this group, and almost certainly is a ringer (has to be Pacalet by elimination), but I really like this wine. Interesting, because I tasted this in a Pacalet lineup a year ago here in SF, and found this nice, but on the lighter side (my 1st place)
2011 Maison Ilan Mazoyeres Chambertin - nice medium depth, medium cherry, fine tannins, very balanced acidity, slightly soft for its youth, quite tasty but a touch too easy and forward (my 4th)
2011 Maison Ilan Le Chambertin - some obvious reduction on the nose, leaving this to clean up, which it does with air to show nice med cherry, some nice depth, but right now not showing much complexity (my 6th). Once a little more time had passed during discussion and reveal, this had gained a little weight, depth, and energy. And coming back to it an hour or so later pretty clearly showed it as the deepest and most intense wine of the evening. So I think the sulfur levels were hiding some aspects of the wine early on. No complaints about this, relative to other 2011 Grand Crus I’ve sampled.
2011 Maison Ilan Gevrey Chambertin Les Corbeaux - good medium depth darker cherry, nice balance, shows some elegance and a pleasant finish (my 2nd)
2011 Chevillon Pruliers - hint of stems on the nose, straight cherry up front, then turns more spicy and a bit woody on finish. Chevillon? (my 5th). Guessed Chevillon, which I knew to be in this flight, due to the stems, and the woody character which I find on a lot of young Chevillon.
2011 Maison Ilan Charmes Chambertin - nicely rich medium depth, medium cherry, good balance, with some nice earth and structure, though the acidity comes across as slightly harsh for my tastes (my 3rd)

Concluding remarks: I don’t own a lot of the MI wines, but I’m happy to have the couple of 11s I’ve got. Aside from the Chambolle (which I wouldn’t call flawed, but this bottle was a little different from the other wines), I felt that all the MI wines were of good quality, and quite typical and representative of the vintage. 2011 has been a tough test of terroir for me, because the lighter, more elegant style of so many wines tends to push them closer together, masking the terroir profiles a bit more than in some stronger vintages.

My notes are very brief. I don’t own any MI wines. I brought the Pacalet. So, I was here for curiosity and because I really enjoy this tasting group.

Wine flight 1


2011 Odoul Coquard Morey St. Denis Clos La Riotte - Not much going on here, but a bit of a meaty note lends interest. My 5th place, group’s 5th place

2011 MI MSD Les Monts Luissant - Beautiful nose, very subtle, well-judged oak here. Plenty of intensity, but lightest body, most ethereal and beguiling of the flight. Enjoyable and drinkable right now, but not a lot of structure, doesn’t feel like an ager. My 3rd place, group’s 3rd place

2011 Le Grappin Savigny Les Beaune - Tasty and nice structure, which I like, but fairly simple right now. My 4th place, group’s 2nd Place

2011 MI MSD Chaffoes - Nice iron minerality. Very subtle complexity and some crunchy acidity so I like this quite a bit. A tiny bit of wood here, but very subtle. As it sits in the glass, the wood seems to be receding and integrating nicely, lengthy finish. My 1st place, group’s 1st place

2011 MI Volnay Robardelles - some herbal notes, I think I’m tasting stems here. Some interesting gamey funk upfront which I like, but seems to be receding, integrating, and knitting together. Nice, expanding finish. This is really evolving in the glass. My 2nd place, group’s 4th place

2011 MI Chambolle Feuselottes - The most “new world” to my palate. This is obviously a well-made wine, and though it doesn’t have the palate weight of a central coast Pinot, I can’t get past the “new world” flavor profile and glycerine texture. My last place, group’s last place.

Wine flight 2


2011 MI Charmes Chambertin - I sense potential, but this is closed for biz, my 5th place, group’s 6th place

2011 MI Mazoyeres Chambertin - wonderful nose, tight on palate, my 4th place, group’s 2nd place

2011 Chevillon Nuits St. George Pruliers - A bit of baby poop funk on the nose - in a good way, evolving by the minute, a lot of good things going on here, I like this. my 3rd place, group’s 5th place

2011 MI Gevrey Chambertin Les Corbeaux - Sturdy, but this isn’t doing much for me and isn’t moving, a menthol note on the nose lends some interest. My 6th place, group’s 4th Place

2011 Pacalet Lavaux St Jacques - Beautiful, subtle complexity, beguiling, tasty, nice dimension, expanding finish. My 2nd place, group’s 1st place

2011 MI Chambertin Grand Cru - A bit deeper, a little more complex, longer expanding finish, has the best balance between all of the elements and seems a little more sophisticated, my 1st place, group’s 3rd place

Thanks all for the notes. They have first and foremost made me think I better not touch my Charmes. Luckily I have swopped one with someone else for an 09 Charmes which will be opened at a lunch in June.

One thing that hasn’t been talked about thus far in this tasting is the value for money. Considering how highly the Le Grappin scored in the first flight, I would assume that these wines are not worth the price paid for them. What do other’s think?

For me, in flight one, the MI Chaffoes was the clear stand-out followed by the Robardelles and the very pretty Luissant. After that, I felt there was a pretty clear step down to the other three, which included the Grappin SLB. I had it fourth only because, though it was simple, I liked the flavor it did have and it had nice acid/tannin structure. I wouldn’t be a buyer of the Grappin SLB based on this tasting, but that’s just me. Others liked it better than I. If I owned the Chaffoes, Robardelles, Luissant, I think I’d be happy to have them, although I was surprised to find out the Robardelles was a Volnay.

This note threw me off…gamey? I’m hardly a Burg expert, but when I think Volnay, gamey is not a descriptor that comes to mind.

In your opinion, an accurate reflection of terroir?