'99 Red Burgundies comin' round the mountain??

WINE TALK
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FWIW, when I opened the 1999’s, above…at least 2 of them (the Roumier and Mugneret) were “pop, filter and pour”. I always run my reds through the non-bleach white coffee filters. I then put them back into the bottles. Were I home to monitor them, I would have done that. Absent that, I’d rather do this (which is a “double decant”) and serve without much more “aeration”. The concern is that they close up in that 2-3 hours…rather than open up, as it is a short time period. With these '99s, they were good that way; and those two became better and better over the next two days. (I know…it sounds silly.)

I don’t extrapolate, but think that '99 is sufficiently dense, fruity and tannin-resolved to “pop, filter , pour”, after putting back into the bottle for whatever time you have…can only help mellow it.

Have to think outside the box sometimes.

Pandora

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As I said, you’ll get opinions all over the map. Pop and pour (whether filtered or not) might be ok if you have loads of time to follow the wine, but if you are serving others, as you will be, I worry that the wine won’t open up until 2 hours after everyone leaves. I haven’t really seen many wines of this age closing down with air, but perhaps others have.

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I was looking around for posts on Rion and found this thread. On Friday we celebrated my wife’s birthday at a restaurant in Santa Cruz and brought a 1999 Daniel Rion NSG Clos des Argillieres. These came up for sale recently at K&L for $70 which seemed like a good deal, but I had not had any Rion wine for years. It turned out to be excellent and drinking beautifully. It was just grippy enough, meaty, minerally with a great depth of fruit. Classic Burgundy that appealed to everyone at the table. I don’t think there’s any hurry to drink but well worth diving into now.

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Craig, nice report. Patrice Rion (who was still at Domaine Daniel Rion then) made astonishing 1999s. I’ve only opened a few of mine…but…it’s all there.

Ron Slye, how about a followup report on your tasting, etc.? (I am always disappointed when there is no followup after such a question.)

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Beautiful discussion… champagne.gif [cheers.gif]

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Its funny that you said that Stuart – I saw this thread pop up and thought, hmmm, not sure I ever did follow up. My bad. And then I thought – damn, not sure I took notes! But I do have some.

I always wanted to thank everyone again for your advice on these wines. I am constantly amazed at the knowledge and generosity of people on this and similar boards.

So I double decanted the wines about two hours before we started tasting. The 1999s were:
1999 Domaine Daniel Rion et Fils Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts
1999 Domaine Michel Gros Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Clos des Réas

Based on my tasting notes, the M Gros was my favorite. Here are the tasting notes I posted. I normally try to write more, but I think with having a bunch of students over and lots of people tasting, and lots of different wines, I did not get to sit with these as much as I would have liked. Luckily I have more of both!

For the Rion: This had lovely red fruit, notes of cherry, when first opened. Double decanted about 2 hours before drinking. Not quite as complex as the M Gros that accompanied it. This also with time had some notes of mint. It was quite good, but not quite complex enough to get up to the wow factor. (I rated this 90)

For the M Gros:
This was my favorite of the wines opened for the PILF auction tasting. Lovely cherry fruit with savory notes of sous bois and mushroom. Very smooth and easy to drink. I think this will continue to improve with some age.

By way of comparison, I also opened a:

2012 Toil Pinot Noir (Oregon – Figgins)
2013 Ceritas Pinot Noir Hacienda Secoya Vineyard

Their respective notes:

Toil:Very similar to my last note – a bit more raisiny with prune notes. This seemed like a more typical CA pinot. Perhaps it will integrate nicely with time, but at the moment it seems bit less complex. Some preferred it to the two 1999 Vosne Romanee’s that we had with it, so it definitely has its fans. (I rated this an 88)

Ceritas: This is still drinking quite nicely, but it was tasted alongside two 1999 Vosne Romanees. An enlightening comparison, though perhaps a bit unfair given the age difference. The Ceritas was quite nice – but did not have the complexity of the VRs. I focused more on the latter, so did not get a good deal of a chance to taste the Ceritas this time. I think i will wait a few years for my next, and last bottle. (I gave this a 91)

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+1. Had a '00 Clos Vougeot over thanksgiving. It was delicious. The '99s could use little more time IMHO.

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John…I enjoy your comments …vey much; and agree with all of them flirtysmile

The more I drunk burgundy and the more I know less… [swoon.gif]