TN: Drove My Chevy to the Levee....

IMG_0507.jpg
You will all have to excuse me, as I haven’t written an online tasting note in over a decade (maybe 12-13 years), so I’m a little rusty. Luckily, the 2001 Robert Chevillon, Nuits-Saint-George, Les Chaignots, has no such problems. The recent thread on Chevillon made me seriously crave one with some bottle age. Most of my bottles are from '05-'10, but I still had a couple of bottles of this and thought it might be a good time to open one. Well, even a blind pig finds a truffle every once in a while, right? I popped the bottle about 3:00, and just let it sit for a couple of hours with the cork pulled. Then, about 5:45, I decanted it, and my first thought was “Oh, my, this is beautiful.” Gave it another 45 minutes in the decanter before dinner was ready. Gorgeous, bottle-sweet strawberry and cherry fruit on the nose. You’d swear it was going to be a juicy wine, maybe even contain a little sugar…but that’s just what happens with bottle age in beautiful wines. Along with that sweet, pure fruit, you get a hint of cinnamon/clove, a gravelly/earthy streak, and maybe a hint of mint. In another post I talked about why you decant wines, and this is a perfect example. There was a decent amount of sludge for a Burg, but standing up for a couple days and a careful decant leads to a clear wine you could read a book through. A bit bricky on the edges, but clearly stored well and just showing beautifully right now, with a supple, juicy texture and flavors that cascade over the palate, with sweet, bright, cherry fruit, a bit darker than the nose, along with gravel/earth, clove, maybe a hint of anise, light pepper and spice. It might not have quite the depth of one of the more favored crus, but one thing I’ve learned about Chevillon is that all of the wines are excellent. It’s just what level of “excellent” we’re talking about. I’ve always thought '01 was a bit of an underrated vintage, and this may not have the staying power of '99 or '05, but it’s gorgeous right now. I enjoyed this so much I almost want to open the 2nd bottle. But I won’t…for now. If you have any '01s from Chevillon, give them a whirl. Approx…93-94.

Nice!

Fabulous.

The ‘01 and ‘02 Chevillons have been singing. Even Vaucrains.

Great note, thanks for the update. I have just a couple '01s left, may need to pull one soon.

Pretty good note for being “rusty”!

Was the levee dry??

Not at all…very mouth-watering!

You have to excuse me…“American Pie” was the first single I bought when I was 7 years old.

Exactly so! [cheers.gif]

Huh. Hadn’t thought to break into either Vaucrains or LSG yet. But then I’ve still got a couple of Roncieres to finish off. They’ve been very nice.

Late last year, I was out with some Twin Cities friends, and we did a flight of three 01 NSG: Roncieres, Mugneret Chaignots, and Gouges Porrets. The Gouges wasn’t quite ready yet, the other two were at peak. The Chaignots was my favorite, but the Roncieres was a close close second. None of the wines were slouches.

Great note and those Chevillons are indeed singing. The 2005 is also showing very nicely right now. Still a lot of fruit without too much tertiary notes.

I was blown away just a few months ago with how well ‘02 Vaucrains was showing given a number of 90s vintages are still not open for business.

Mid season form here Marshall