Four recent -- 00 Sociando-Mallet, 14 Fevre Lys, 16 Gilles Cornas, 16 Bertheau C-M

hese are mostly from memory so lack some detail

2000 Sociando Mallet – a very recognizable greenness in the mid palate but has lost some of the fruit lushness that characterized it 5-7 years ago, which I had truly enjoyed. (Or possibly it is just bottle variation). A very “stout”, classic, and somewhat rustic wine with excellent substance and solidity to it and a nice tanginess that melded perfectly with the green pepper quality. Felt very classically Haut-Medoc, vigorous and leafy with some high-toned tobacco along with the pyrazines. But lacked some extra depth or fruity seductiveness to really feel like a top wine. Good but not great. Still available well under $100 which feels right for the quality. Will add complexity with age but based on my previous bottle feels like it is perhaps just a bit on the downslope. But as I said this could be bottle variation, it was a secondary market purchase so who knows about storage – my previous bottle was I think purchased on release and perfectly stored.

2014 Fevre Les Lys Chablis 1er – perfect greenish tint to this wine. Perfect tangy sweet and sour / lemon-lime Chablis flavors. Perfect mineral-y refreshment quality. Every sip leaves you wanting more as the finishing acidity both quenches and triggers your thirst. Perfect high end summer wine. Textbook Chablis here with an extra gear and depth over the generic village that makes it more satisfying. $40 price which is good for the quality. Unfortunately out of this.

2016 Guillaume Gilles Cornas – very full, deep, and solid, great Syrah typicity, nice faint metallic tang in the midpalate. Some overripe blackberry and salami. Very good for scratching the Syrah itch but lacked some intrigue to take it to the next level. Felt a tiny bit hot at the end despite just 13.5% alcohol. Very good and solid, even excellent, for what it was but didn’t feel very sophisticated. Maybe just needs to age. Current tariff of $65 felt very fair but not a bargain. I didn’t finish the first night and came back to it the next day after a night in the fridge and if anything it had improved, had added more of a nice subtle sweetness and that Syrah meatiness had come out even further. A very satisfying wine and clearly will age a long time. But not really inspired to get more – I’m curious what it will do with age but the plain fact is that although I like Syrah a lot it’s not my favorite grape

2016 Bertheau Chambolle Musigny – this represents the new normal of $79 Village Burgundies, so I really didn’t want to like it. I don’t want to live in a world where I’m chasing $79 village Burgundy. I bought one bottle out of curiosity and was primed to find faults. Unfortunately I loved it. The reason wines like this are getting so expensive is that they give you something almost impossible to find anywhere else. A light-bodied, red-fruited wine that somehow has this layered fruit intensity along with the lightness. It’s weird, like a magic trick, to taste a wine that is transparent in color, toward the cranberry-ish end of the red fruit flavor spectrum, dances crisply just above your tongue, but at the same time delivers vivid fruit to every corner of your mouth and gives the impression of additional buried layers of sweetness just beyond your perception. In my experience the closest you get to this is maybe some nebbiolo or certain exotic Italian reds but they always feature punch-in-the-face tannins and often cruder flavor elements. This was just so elegant. You could tell it was villages because it didn’t have that extracted midpalate density and “bigness” to it, there wasn’t ostentatious structure, but there was a subtle depth to it and it felt like it could age. What it comes down to is that other regions just do not deliver what Burgundy delivers and that is why we are all stuck with them.

By the way, this was my first Bertheau, and it reminded me somewhat of Hudelot-Noellat in the lifted acidic style but frankly this was perhaps even better, despite being less celebrated. Certainly than the Hudelot-Noellat village wines I’ve had.

I really love 2000 Sociando Mallet for its classic profile. The few bottles I have had were bought on release, benefited/needed a few hours of decant, and are definitely nowhere near the down slope, so very much would concur that bottle variation/storage was at play with this particular bottle.

Your note on flavors reads to me as dead-on, however. 2000 Sociando definitely is lacking in fruity seductiveness :slight_smile:. Probably not a ‘top class’ wine, but a true classic Bordeaux as we inch into a new century where the Classic is harder and harder to find…

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Thanks, Marcus, for the Sociando note, in particular - I’m shocked, frankly, that it seems to be on the down slope so early in its (expected) life! Losing the freshness and lushness is definitely a disappointment if not expected, and not an older wine. I’ve been enjoying most of my 2000’s lately (have no Sociando-Mallet, however) so this is a good data point.

Well, I bought this bottle of Sociando on the secondary market whereas the one I had a few years ago which had deeper fruit was purchased on release and stored perfectly at 55 degrees. That can make a big difference. It’s hard to tell when you’re dealing with a “wine” overall vs one specific bottle of a wine. This bottle was very good, don’t get me wrong, and had plenty of life and age left in it. It didn’t feel tired.

However, I would definitely say it was more advanced then some of the big super second 2000s I have opened that seem like they are just getting started.

My thoughts from April on this vintage of Sociando:

#8 Post by Robert.A.Jr. » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:06 pm

I’ve noted before this vintage of Sociando has variability. I’ve gone through about a case. If you do not like pyrazine notes in your wine, do not buy this vintage of Sociando. It can range from very pungent green bell pepper to just a subtle hint. I’ve even had a bottle that was too much green for my yak palate.

It’s a surprising vintage for Sociando given the overall growing conditions in Bordeaux 2000. The 2001 Sociando is exceptional, by comparison.

Marcus, beautiful note on the Bertheau. Yea 79 beans sucks, but I have been smitten by many a young village Burgundy in the last few years.

is it your impression that Burgundy has found another gear over the last decade? Maybe it’s that I can now afford better producers but I don’t remember village Burgundy performing like this way back when I was young and they were $25-35.

Yes, thanks, Marcus,
For the notes, especially on the Bertheau. You state so well what is compelling about these wines; I’ve been enjoying lots of village level burgundy and as long as they are in this range or for some at least south of $100 (Domaine Dujac Chambolle) I am a buyer. Others, however, like the sisters or Roumier now trade of considerably higher, which is simply too bad.

Interesting note on the Gilles, thanks; I find these wines generally need a fair amount of time, so have been drinking his Nouvelle R in the meantime. I have a lot of faith in the 16 to age well, but I wouldn’t necessarily disagree that Gilles can often be on the feral side of Cornas rather than the elegant side.

For the guys I follow and try to buy every year, I would say yes. Some very great wines every year since 2005. And yes, I believe they perform at higher levels and are quite approachable as well.

Had the 2000 Sociando twice last year. Once at a personal home dinner and another with 8 other Sociando-heads as we indulged on 19 bottles from the 70s to the first decade of the 2000s.

Both times, the bottles were from my cellar, purchased at and stored since release, and the bottles showed all the Sociando characteristics that’s been documented. One thing, though, is that we found both bottles to be still young and on the up-slope.

Fantastic note. I read this and 100% “got” what you were expressing. It encapsulates why there often just isn’t a substitute for great Burgundy.

It really is a fantastic note.