Saturday night wines - Prum, Ramonet, Moreau-Naudet, Mugnier, Mugneret-Gibourg, Jadot and Rossignol-Trapet

[Howard_Cooper]

That makes me feel a little better; but still what a snag!

It was a great price even at the time, but you have to remember how much different prices were at that time. Economic times were not good until about 1994 or so.

1990 Bordeaux first growths were about $60 a bottle on futures (1990 Leoville las Cases was under $30 on futures; 1990 Leoville Barton was $20 on futures). There certainly were no Loire wines selling for hundreds of dollars. Good German Kabinetts were around $10 or so. Everyone was grabbing 1990 Burgundies and so 1988s were getting discounted. There was no Burghound (or A View From the Cellar, etc.) and so most of the wine press about Burgundy was from the Wine Advocate and the Wine Spectator and they were promoting the wrong wines.

There were lots of deals of the century around back then. In the late 80s, I bought a bottle of 1952 Haut Brion for $100 and 1955 Margaux for $80. Truchot’s 1990 grand crus were in the $50s or so. In the mid 1980s or so, I bought 1984 Ridge Monte Bello for $20. And, this does not even count what we all paid for 1982 Bordeaux futures, which made all the rest of this seem really expensive.

It was a different world.

[Mark_Golodetz]

Howard,
Thanks. Very interesting. I have only had the 2010 and 2014 side by side, so I also have too small a sample to be definitive. Do agree the Chambertin is a class higher, and the price differential is relatively small. Usually find I have to choose between the Chapelle and latriciere to get my allocation, and was curious as your take.

Any premier Crus you like?

I will start by saying that I have drunk more of their grand crus and village Gevrey than their premier crus. However, I have visited Rossignol-Trapet several times and so have tasted through their barrel samples several times and have some thoughts. I own a bunch of premier crus but had to buy all of these young so most are not mature yet. By contrast, I have had several opportunities one way or the other to buy some well-priced grand crus with some age on them so I drink them more often (compound this with the fact that a number of friends have taken advantage of the same opportunities so that not all the GCs I drink are from my cellar!).

With respect to premier crus, I have a good bit more Corbeaux than anything else. A good bit of this is opportunity. You might like their Petite Chapelle, which has some stylistic similarity to the Chapelle Chambertin. I also am a big fan of Combottes generally (very well located vineyard between Clos de la Roche and Latricieres) and theirs is quite good.

Don’t simply skip the villages Gevrey. Quite good for its class and ages well - the 2005, which is quite good, is just starting to get mature.

I like their Beaune Teurons and every time I taste it I think I should buy some - then I taste the gevreys and forget all about the Beaune.

I am afraid I have never had anything but Grand crus. The pricing is just so easy on the GCs, and the cost of bringing it over is relatively high, that I saw no reason to buy anything else. That is changing as they are keeping the price low, but allocations include a choice of Premier. For 2018, I got a six pack of the Petit Chapelle. Curious what I bought.

[Mark_Golodetz]

That makes me feel a little better; but still what a snag!

It was a great price even at the time, but you have to remember how much different prices were at that time. Economic times were not good until about 1994 or so.

1990 Bordeaux first growths were about $60 a bottle on futures (1990 Leoville las Cases was under $30 on futures; 1990 Leoville Barton was $20 on futures). There certainly were no Loire wines selling for hundreds of dollars. Good German Kabinetts were around $10 or so. Everyone was grabbing 1990 Burgundies and so 1988s were getting discounted. There was no Burghound (or A View From the Cellar, etc.) and so most of the wine press about Burgundy was from the Wine Advocate and the Wine Spectator and they were promoting the wrong wines.

There were lots of deals of the century around back then. In the late 80s, I bought a bottle of 1952 Haut Brion for $100 and 1955 Margaux for $80. Truchot’s 1990 grand crus were in the $50s or so. In the mid 1980s or so, I bought 1984 Ridge Monte Bello for $20. And, this does not even count what we all paid for 1982 Bordeaux futures, which made all the rest of this seem really expensive.

It was a different world.

I try not to think about this too much. Pichon Lalande 1982 at $110 a case.