Champagne Starter:
2008 Cristal Brut
1.5 hours of air. Still a bit tight and continued to open over the course of 2-3 hours open. Lemon curd and brioche on the nose, more stone fruits and crisp acidity on the palate. Very long finish. Lovely wine!
White blind 1:
Benoit Ente Puligny Montrachet 1er Clos de la Truffiere
Fascinating nose with many people calling it Sauvignon Blanc: this was grassy abd floral with some white lilies and some lemon zest. The palate was light bodied and quite young with beautiful fruit and acidity balance and nice texture: The finish was long. I’m not sure anyone was all that close with this one, very pretty wine, though. I’m very impressed with the Benoit Ente wines after this wine and the Richard from last month.
White Flight 1:
2022 Michel Niellon Chevalier Montrachet
Absolutely stunning nose with white peach, white flowers, and a hint of papaya. The palate demonstrated some dry extract and surprising power, holding its own with the two Leflaive to follow. Beautiful finish that wasn’t quite as long as the two subsequent wines but extremely impressive performance overall. @dcornutt was very gracious to bring this.
2020 Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet
Initially quite tight as this had only been open about an hour or two before the dinner. Eventually this emerged with beautiful Meyer lemon curd on the nose with some reduction which blew off over a couple hours in the glass. The palate had the quintessential Leflaive dry extract and immense power without weight, and beautiful elegant texture and mouthfeel. The finish was extremely long and pleasurable. In general this is my favorite white wine and I’m glad @Steve_McL brought it.
2020 Leflaive Batard Montrachet
This was double decanted and given 3-4 hours of air by @Andrew_K so was much more ready to go. It was much more rounded than the laser focused Chevalier, but has beautiful white peach on the nose and very pretty fruit and acidity on the palate. Finish was long and beautiful.
White Flight 2 (blind)
1992 Lafon Meursault Clos de la Barre
Oxidized
1994 Lafon Meursault 1er Charmes
Incredibly fresh and light colored; I got the sense this was older. We knew it was Lafon, but not vineyard or vintage. I immediately identified that the wine had at least 1er depth, but wasn’t a Montrachet. It was rounder so I guessed Charmes which turned out to be right. I didn’t have a good sense of the vintage and guessed 90 or 93; @dcornutt correctly identified it as 1994. This bad lovely stone fruits on the nose and a beautiful midpalate softness and was very pleasant to drink.
White Blinds 2-3:
2014 Leflaive Puligny Montrachet 1er Pucelles
After an inadvertent exposure of the capsule we knew it was Leflaive, although @Nick_Christie didn’t see it and called it as Leflaive blind. I was pretty in between the pucelles and clavollion but I was pretty sure it was a 2014 given the immediate accessibility and was correct. This was popped and poured and just raring to go. Some beautiful floral notes and citrus on the nose with clearly less power than the grand crus, but beautiful elegant palate and mouthfeel and crisp finish. I could drink this all day.
2002 Jean Marc Pillot Chassagne Montrachet 1er Caillerets
Oxidized.
White Flight 3:
2005 Raveneau Blanchots
Corked
2005 Raveneau Valmur
Stunning nose of lemon/lime and hay. Surprising power and length, belying the light body. This was drinking wonderfully and had a very long finish.
Red Blind 1;
2019 Domaine de Croix Corton Le Vigne au Saint
My blind. I got immediate guesses of Vosne Romanee given the whole cluster spice notes, subsequently every single village in Burgundy was called before by the process of elimination someone finally guessed Corton. I can understand this because this was the least Corton wine I’ve ever seen from Corton. Producers tossed out included Guyon, William Kelley, Guilbert Gillet. After some time @dcornutt finally got the wine. To say this wine was showing tremendously would be an understatement. It had absolutely amazing bonkers aromatics of Chinese 5 spice, violets, and ripe red cherry fruit. The palate was super fresh with immense power and depth, more pretty fruits, and crisp acidity. The wine was quite young but drinking very well and the finish was super long. Very glad to have a lot of this wine.
Red Flight 1:
2007 Mugneret Gibourg Nuits Saint Georges 1er Chaignots
This flight of 07s all had wild aromatics, with the Chaignots having the most floral of them, including cherry fruit and violet aromas. The palate had more beautiful fruit and a bit more rough-hewn texture than the Ruchottes. The finish wasn’t quite as long. That being said the Chaignots was likely drinking the best of this trio although the two Ruchottes did gain in strength over the course of the night.
2007 Mugneret Gibourg Ruchottes Chambertin
This was also beautiful aromatically with red and dark currant fruit and some forest floor. The palate was initially a touch tight and there was a bit less structure and power than the Rousseau. There was beautiful texture but I didn’t get the Gevrey iron or lifted high-toned fruit that we got in the beautiful 2009 in January. A good showing but I’ve never really been blown away by 07 MG like I have by Rousseau. I had this wine about two years ago and it was also smashed by 2007 Rousseau.
2007 Rousseau Clos de Ruchottes
This definitely needed the most time of the three wines; it was opened probably 4 hours before pouring but was the tightest with noticeable structure; it opened up over the course of about half an hour or so in the glass and was positively singing by the end of the night. Darker currants on the nose with some rich loam, with a beautiful palate with a core of acidity and iron backbone, much more noticeable than on the MG. The wine had much more power and depth, and likely would be better in a few years. The finish was the longest of this flight by far. While not as good as the monumental 2007 Clos Saint Jacques this was quite a fantastic wine:
Red Flight 2:
1999 Truchot-Martin Morey Saint Denis 1er Clos Sorbe
Unfortunately lightly corked.
Well done, ATL.
. We were thinking of Fred Schwartz, who we miss very much. And also of Michael Lustig who has been taking these last two weeks to mourn the passing of his beloved wife.
. We ended up with a true Don Cornutt/Brad England special, though, with a 75/25 split. We accepted the losing of our spotlight Red flight with aplomb 
. And as noted above, this Croix Corton Le Vigne au Saint was excellent. My very first experience with this producer.
. We were finishing up our evening with these, and really enjoying each other’s company, so we didn’t go full study-mode on these wines. But there’s a lot to ponder.
