Mostly Chambolle Musigny 1er crus

Tasting group held a Chambolle Musigny 1er cru bind tasting last night.

All reds were served blind. A couple of folks did not read the email very carefully so we ended up with a couple of Gevrey Chambertin wines in the mix. Very enjoyable tasting with a lot of very nice wines. All wines showed well and some big surprises when the wines were unmasked. most of the wines were opened about 30mins before tasting.

2010 Leflaive Macon-Verze:
A wonderful mouthful of rocks and stones with nice citrus fruits. Great finish and a real QPR. Showed best at room temperature. A very satisfying starter and easy to appreciate now. Loved it.

Wine 1:
Dark red color, earthy secondary nose, savoury mature flavours with a touch of forest floor. Slightyl lean palate with nice acidity. Good.
1996 Serafin CM Les Baudes. Not a great surpise

Wine 2:
Mid red, floral delicate nose, refined red fruits with fine grained tannins. A very pretty and attractive wine that I thought showcased the elegance and refinement of CM.
2007 Jadot Charmes Chambertin. Well shit, I got this totally wrong! A lovely wine none the less and drinking very well.

Wine 3:
Very dark red, dark plummy fruits on nose and palate, big mouthful of fruit, oak spice and tannins. Youthful intense, tannic and definitely a big style of burg. Needs time
2005 Serafin CM Les Baudes. Not my style reallly but impressive none the less

Wine 4:
Dark red, started off with an overripe nose of stwed fruits and a flat palate. After 1 hour in the glass it completely reshaped itself and became much tighter and more structured. The red fruits started to shine and it developed a really long finish. Very good.
1993 Groffier CM Les Amoureuses.

Wine 5:
Dark red, savoury nose with umami character. Smooth polished palate, round and supple, light on it feet, nice cherry fruits.
2003 LeMoine CM Les Amoureuses. Very different animal from the Groffier. Did not show any 03 over ripeness

Wine 6:
Mid red, strong nose of sweet red fruits and a bit of spice, refined delicate palate, fine tannins with good acidity a little bit short on the finish
2005 de Vogue CM 1er cru. A little surprised at this one, not shut down and quite forward

Wine 7:
Mid dark red, spicy anise nose, smooth and powerful palate with good depth of red fruits. Well made wine with good structure and balance.
2002 Patrick Lesec Bonnes Mare. Show well but perhaps not quite showing full grand cru intensity

Wine 8:
Mid red, hint of surmaturite on nose, mature palate of dried red cherries, with a long balanced finish. Very good
2004 Roumier CM Les Cras. Well well a 2004 and no one saw any hint of greenness.

Wine 9:
Dark dark red, with black fruits and spice on nose, big plummy fruits on palate . Powerful deep and dark with moderate to strong tannins.
2004 Dugat-Py GC Coeur du Roy. Another 2004 and again no green at all. In hind sight the Dugat-Py style can be seen in this wine

Wine 10:
Mid red, floral pretty nose with a delicate red fruited palate, lovely soft tannins hold it together. A delicious and balanced wine
1999 Hudelot-Noellat CM Les Charmes. At last a “typical” CM and drinking really well right now.

Wine 11:
Mid red, deep powerful nose lf dark red fruits and earth, full bodied with more cherry like fruits, balanced pure and very long. Everyone loved this wine and it was the run away winner for WOTN and it was…
2004 Groffier M Les Hauts Doix. Well no one saw this coming! WOTN a 2004.

Very interesting tasting, three 2004’s that all showed really well and absolutely no green meanies to be seen. The 2004’s are mature and ready to drink. The 2007 Jadot Charmes was gorgeous and a delight to drink but not a CM. so much for my being able to detect the differences!

Brodie

Nice Line-Up Brodie! Very interesting about the 2004’s … !

Encouraging. 2.5 years ago that was the greenest 2004 I’d ever tried. Do you generally find yourself slightly sensitive, middling sensitive, or highly sensative to the '04 pyrazines?

Hi Jay, I would characterize myself as slightly sensitive. I am not averse to a touch of leafiness or dried herb character in red wines. I have experienced ghastly 2004’s that smelt to me of canned asparagus. So I was surprised at the result.

The really interesting thing to me was that none of the 12 tasters picked any green meanies in any of the 2004’s. This is a very experienced and knowledgeable group and I would have expected someone to to have commented on the greenness if they had detected it. The great showing of the 2004’s was a topic of discussion after the wines were “decloaked” and everyone agreed that they all showed really well.

A mystery for sure but a good one for us last night

Cheers Brodie

I opened a Groffier 2004 Chambolle 1er Cru that unfortunately had to go to the drain. Undrinkable. My first 2004 that has been totally undrinkable from gm. Glad yours were great!

Love that 2010 Leflaive Macon Verze. Bought 6 and only have 2 left. Drinking one now acually. At $35 though, I’d probably buy more Bourgogne blanc at $15 more.

I had the same experience. I believe I had it at La Paulee NYC 2011 and agree it was very, very green. Interesting that the greenness seems to be disappearing.

During my visit to the domaine in November last year, I was told that the 04 Cras green character had gone away and that the wine was pretty much ready to drink. I started opening my bottles… none of them had a vegetal/green aspect. Though, it is true, when released, this was probably the “greenest” wine I’ve come across…
And yes, it’s a very good wine.

Michael, very interesting comment. Did the Domaine offer any speculation or hypothesis on why the green character had gone away?

Thnx Brodie

Hi Jay, I would characterize myself as slightly sensitive. I am not averse to a touch of leafiness or dried herb character in red wines. I have experienced ghastly 2004’s that smelt to me of canned asparagus. So I was surprised at the result.

The really interesting thing to me was that none of the 12 tasters picked any green meanies in any of the 2004’s. This is a very experienced and knowledgeable group and I would have expected someone to to have commented on the greenness if they had detected it. The great showing of the 2004’s was a topic of discussion after the wines were “decloaked” and everyone agreed that they all showed really well.

A mystery for sure but a good one for us last night

Cheers Brodie

Hmmm…2004 red. They are not yet 10 years old !!

Where is Stu… [truce.gif]

Brodie…beside Mr. Tom Blach, I was among the very few posters here in BerserkersB, who have been saying the greenliness of 2004 red will disappear with bottle-age.

Your above statement is hinding that there were some producers in Burgundy ( who made red wines in vintage 2004 ) admitting there were lady-bugs and that their wines tasted green [wink.gif]

I’m not actually that surprised by this one. Groffier is one of those producers this board loves to hate, but whatever they did in 04 they did well. I’m somewhat sensitive to GM, and, while I can’t say I have tasted all the various 1ers, the ones I did try, as well as the Bonnes Mares, never tasted green to me and also didn’t have the muddy character much of the vintage did. The Bonnes Mares is about the only 04 I own that I would seek more of if the opportunity was there and the price was reasonable.

For the next few years, most probably the most interesting [shock.gif] and exciting [dance-clap.gif] wines to drink will be 2004 red Burgundy.

Time to try and dig some of my few bottles out to see how they are doing. I have the feeling they may be hard to access.

There does appear to be a pattern emerging with 04s, very much sooner than I had imagined would happen.

2004 seems to be coming back around :smiley:

Nope. No comment or explanation, just an observation. Christophe Roumier admitted right away (in 2006) that his '04s had a green character, especially the Cras and - to a lesser extent - the Bonnes-Mares. He also said, immediately, that he did not know why this came out nor if it would stay or not but also pointed out that he believed bottle age may mild this down if not erase it completely. At least for his wines, this seems to have been a very good analysis.

Hi Peter, actually it was Michael who made the hint not me, I was just curious if there was any more to the comment.

To your first point about the greenness disappearing in the 2004’s; all I can say is the three 2004’s drank on Mon night all showed very well indeed and much better than any of my previous experiences with the 04’s. I am not making a prediction, but must confess to be slightly more optimistic about my remaining 04’s…

Chees Brodie

I opened a 2004 Bernard Morey Beaune Greves yesterday. It had just a hint of herbs, perhaps less than previous bottles, and drank very well. It was evolved for a 9 year old wine but by no means too far advanced for its age.

Brodie ( and Michael )…thanks for the clarifications. Thanks for taking time to write the TNs.

Most burgundy producers I had met…would not like to comment too much and their typical answer would be : it’s like that…it is 2004.

Burgundy is exciting because each vintage is different from one and other.

Let them be what they are and just enjoy them as they are.

From experience : 1993, 96 and 99 still need more bottle-age than the average; whereas most of 1998 and 2000 are singing now. For 2004…we will know better in 1 or 2 years from now.