Jay Miller organized a "It Takes A Village To Raise a Chambolle" offline Tuesday night. Some last minute cancellations/noshows left us with a smaller crowd than planned, but that worked out quite well- plenty of opportunities to revisit wines through the evening. Inside on Jones Street was quite gracious to our small group at a large table. I thought the crab cake was excellent, and the king salmon was good (and went well with the Burgundies!).
Jay started with a blinded white Burgundy. There's some oxidative notes, obviously some age here. That adds some nuttiness to the pear fruit. A little on the fat side, but some underlying earthiness keeps it a bit interesting. But not something I'd look for. B- It turns out it's the 1992 Jean Chartron "Clos des Chevaliers" Chevalier-Montrachet. Jeff notices the fine print on the label - it says: appelation Chevalier-Montrachet 1er Cru (!?!?!?) Grand Cru Monopole." All of Chevalier is GC, right? Can someone explain this? We set it aside to see if anything happened, but as one might imagine with the oxidative/nutty character already present, it didn't add anything.
Next, the 2003 Josef Leitz Rüdesheimer Magdalenenkreuz Riesling Spätlese. Lovely spät, light on its feet yet packing a punch. Peaches, citrus, and a little apricot, flowers, good finish. A-
Then the main event, a single-blind horizontal of 2001 village Burgundies. Bottles were covered identically, and the waitress took them to bar to number, so even Jay the Man With Tape and Paper was clueless as to identities. Wines were not revealed until after dinner, by which time all voting was done.
First Flight Wine 1: nose of flowers and cherries, not especially acidic -actually fairly round, forward framboise fruit (say that fast 3 times). More floral later in the evening. B/B+ (2001 Hudelot-Noellat Chambolle-Musigny)
Wine 2: Earthy nose, rather deep bitter cherry fruit. A bit tannic, zippy acidity. Needs time B+ (2001 Anne Gros "La Combe d'Orveau" Chambolle-Musigny)
After flight I felt I'd like to drink #1 now but own #2.
Flight 2 Wine 3: Light on the nose, good acidity, not a lot of depth of fruit. Jeff points out that the finish does have some depth and lenght to it. B/B+ (2001 Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny)
Wine 4: Whoa, this is lovely. Big black cherry and violets nose. Rich dark fruit, good length. A- (2001 Drouhin Chambolle-Musigny)
Number 4 is clear favorite at this point.
Flight 3 Wine 5: Ripe rich fruit, another lovely wine, though more oriented towards red fruit than previous wine. Lots of earth and minerals, nice finish. A- (2001 Roumier Chambolle-Musigny)
Wine 6: Medium bodied, bright, easy, pretty. B/B+ (2001 Potel Chambolle-Musigny)
Wine 7: Nice cherry fruit, an herbal underlay. Others thought it weedy, to me more herbal, not unpleasant. B/B+ (2001 Barthod Chambolle-Musigny)
After voting, Roumier was clear group favorite, with Drouhin a solid second. Gros, Potel, and Barthod all got votes (we voted 3 points for favorite, 2 for second, one point for third), Mugnier and Hudelot-Noellat made no one's top 3. That's good and bad news to me, as the Mugnier and Roumier are the 2 I own. But actually what I thought was that it was a pretty solid showing down the line- I wouldn't go searching for the Potel or Barthod (or more Hudelot-Noellat or Mugnier), but would be happy to see any of these wines on a restaurant wine list. Overall a very good showing for the 2001 Chambolles.
Justin then passed around the 2001 Drouhin "Amoureuses" Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru. My notes say "Whoa, baby." Delicious - mineral undertones, floral nose, deep fruit, long finish. Needs time, but truly lovely now. A compelling argument for Amoureuses to be a Grand Cru. Solid A.
We finished with a 1998 Strub Niersteiner Oelberg Auslese. Good sweetness, nice acidic balance. Peaches and melon, with a twist of lemon peel. Maybe just a hint of botrytis? Nice wine, thanks Elyse. B+
Thanks to everyone for a lovely night. 2001 Chambolles seem to be a good bet. Sorry I couldn't work "neon mint" or "Parisian mist" into a tasting note.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. Dale
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