Came across this recent comment on CellarTracker from Burgundy Al regarding the 2010 H-N Clos Vougeot:
“ Another 2010 Hudelot-Noellat with its cork fully soaked through, so also a wine to enjoy on the younger side for Grand Cru from a great vintage.”
(BTW, the wine was doing well…at least so far.)
I remember some discussion on the boards some years ago about this issue with the 2010 H-N’s, earlier after release when people were receiving their wines.
I was just wondering if anyone had any more experience or concerns with these wines, any more information as to what happened either with bottling or shipping, and whether I need to be diving into my small stash on the early side.
I recommend put bottles upright for a certain time - so that the cork can get kind of dry again - and only lay it horizontally again later.
That can happen when the bottles have been shipped and/or manipulated too early after bottling … I don´t think it´s specifical only for H-N …
Not opened 2010 H-N- for 6-7 years, so no present experience with these …
2001/2002/2003/2006/2007s are ok.
They were all overfilled that year. He obviously bottled cold too. Mine were all soaked. The wines have all been sound. I still have some RSV and am waiting on it. FWIW
Doesn’t Leroy typically overfill, or at least fill to the point where some seepage can occur? And I have never heard that the aging of her wines have been an issue. On the other hand, if a wine cork is soaked up to top, does this increase the risk of a poor seal and oxidation over long term aging? Not perhaps short term, as in bottles that over the first several years have been sound, but for grand crus that you might plan to age up to or past 20 years? I really don’t know…just wondering.
About 1/3 of mine had actual leakage. Though every bottle I’ve opened has been fine. I’ve now inspected any remaining 2010 H-Ns, and stood up what I have remaining. I’ve wondered what might have gone wrong during bottling of these wines. Hadn’t considered “too cold”, but I kind of doubt that’s it, since my wines are all stored at 55 degrees, and some of them have started leaking since I put them away. I’ve heard of bottling line failures where the vacuum system failed. Some screwcap bottling lines use liquid nitrogen to expel air before sealing, which can fail, but that’s obviously not the problem with these cork sealed bottles.
Same problem with the 2008’s that I have. Haven’t started drinking these yet.
Gerhard–not sure i understand why standing up the bottle and drying the cork out would help. wouldn’t it shrink the cork more and allow higher chance of cork failure or excess oxygen ingress?
If I were worried about cork integrity the last thing I would be doing would be trying to “dry out” a cork.
As previously stated Leroy have similar non issues.
Had about 1.5 cases of the '10 Murgers opened in Feb for my wedding for one of the “red dinner wines”. Across the board, the bottles all had indications of some seepage. Wine itself was fine though of the bottles I tried before/during/after wedding.
The fact that the cork is firm and sound enough to force a slow seepage is a good thing. Whatever’s going on in the bottle that’s creating the pressure that’s causing the seepage is what seems bad to me…yet the wine doesn’t, or hasn’t when I’ve been around open bottles…including ML in the bottle, which I would notice. The whole thing is a puzzle.
I don’t see seepage as a big issue on its own unless you have some reason to believe the seepage was caused by heat. Likewise for soaking: I’ve never understood why people are concerned about soaked corks at all. If the fill is good, why worry about it?
I’d agree that if there are seeping corks, you should be careful to monitor ullage, for instance some 1989 Beaucastels had seepage issues that became ullage issues (I had one bottle that ended up about 3” down from the cork). I haven’t seen low fills on my 2010 HNs, though.
I bought a few bottles of the 2010 Clos de Vougeot shortly after release, despite my being aware of their soaked-through corks and possible seepage (there was a long thread about the subject at that time.) A friend opened one of his bottles last year, and it was quite tasty though seemingly advanced beyond its actual age. So when I saw one of my bottles now having a lower fill than the others, I pulled it from my locker and opened it about six months ago.
The wine was very good that day, when I served it to two burgundy drinkers who are experienced blind tasters. However, it did taste years beyond its true age; in fact, their quite reasonable guesses ranged between 1990 and 2002 (if I had been served that wine, blind, I would have guessed it to be a 2002.)
I don’t know what the wine’s future aging-curve will be, but I’m inclined to drink them sooner rather than later, other than just being curious to see how long they’ll go.
When they bottle cold there is often a small amount of CO2 dissolved. That along with the overfilling can lead to some seepage when the temperatures are slightly higher. Leroy is your prime example here that everything is AOK.
This thread prompted me to check into my only H-N: a Chambolle villages 2010. That; and a sort of a special occasion.
Cork was soaked. I’ll edit this to include some pictures later. Thankfully the wine was alive and hanging on. I didn’t decant. After about an hour it began to really fill out. Has some spicy / acetic notes but it doesn’t dominate. Looks a bit more mature and sort of like some of the 20-30yo burgundy’s I’ve tried (haven’t had a lot of this caliber though), although the primary fruit is a bit more prominent and the non-fruit secondary stuff is more damp earth / anise / shoe polish rather than dried out fruit / mushroomy. Really enjoyable but glad I saw this thread and decided to open it now rather than wait any longer.
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