WTN: Not Just Rhones

When we gather to celebrate either Dave or Isa Grudzinski's birthday, you can count on it being an evening of Rhones. I even had my Rhones selected for the dinner, until Dave said he was bringing a Burgundy in addition to his Centenaire. There are not many Burg drinkers in our group, so this was a prime opportunity to open at least a couple.

We started with a 2002 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet Les Caillerets - oak was well blended with a light creamy texture, with honey and nutty notes. I might risk holding my other bottle a little longer.

2004 Gros Frere et Soeur Clos Vougeot Musigni - this was the last of the three bottles I had. The other two tasted fresher and spicier and this one showed an olive element I did not get from the other bottles. So, a bit of a disappointment, but it may have won nose of the night with dried cherries and nutmeg. With so much uncertainty surrounding the 2004 vintage, I did not care to take up room in the cellar to see how it ages, and if some greenness or oliveness is starting to show, I may have made the right decision.

1999 Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin Estournelles-St.-Jacques - light raspberry aromas leading to soft and silky fruit. Clean with fresh acidity showing some elegance. I like the way this is drinking now.

2001 Les Cailloux Chateauneuf du Pape Centenaire - we had a faulty bottle of this last month at the Peter Pratt luncheon, and this one in no way resembled the other. This rivaled the Musigni for nose of the night with its depth of fruit. It's very concentrated, powerful, spicy, youthful and flat out delicious.

2001 La Nerthe Chateauneuf du Pape - easy to drink with minerals and jammy black fruits, making up with fruit what it lacks in spice.

1995 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Fay - I have a fondness for Stag's Leap Wine Cellars prior to the 2000 vintage when we had the chance to visit the property and taste the wines when our son's friend worked there. I have had many disappointments in more recent bottles, but this one was very good. Ample fruit, subtle tannins, alive and well.

1981 Martin Ray Cabernet Sauvignon Stelzner - the nose was offputting with a smoky and vegetal aroma. Lots of acidity, yet with underlying fruit. Still hanging in there.

1998 Luigi Einaudi Barolo Coste Grimaldi -I finished up my basic 1998 Einaudi's which were very good, and this one took it a notch higher. Still some oak present, restrained but ripe fruit, smoky and leathery and developing nicely.

2001 Jamesport Late Harvest Riesling - sweet, but not overdone and could probably rival a young Sauternes.

We had a good mix of wines and they matched well with the food at the new Kitchen A Bistro, Long Island's gem of a byo.

[David M. Bueker]

Nice evening.

The 2004 Burgs ebb and flow on the green issue. I don't think one evening's performance predicts the next evening's results. I didn't bet big on on the vintage (I rarely do in Burgundy - prefering to spread my $ across the range of vintages), but what I have tried shows a consistency of inconsistency.

Nice note on the Jadot Estournelles. I had the 2001 a few weeks ago, and it showed very well with some air.

Thanks for notes.
Of course, part of the 2004 green issues seem to be genetic, with different people reacting differently to same bottle.
As to PremOx, it is pretty random, can't learn a lot from a bottle. I had a great bottle of '99 Ramonet Vergers last year, but the wine has been showing 40-70% oxidized for others.

Three bottles of Gros Musigni was my total inventory of red Burugndy of 2004. It is now depleted. The vintage is too inconsistent to invest in it, so I will drink when someone else opens a bottle or I take a chance on a restaurant's bottle.
Talk about the green streak affecting some people and not others, I was at a dinner about a year and a half ago and drank a glass of 2004 Leroy Bourgogne. The majority was raving about the bottle, and I asked if I was the only one who found the taste of green olives over anything else. As it turned out, someone else did but couldn't identify it. I could not drink the wine.

Well, I should have decanted the 2004 Gros. Tonight, the remaining wine in the bottle found its way into my glass, and it lost the olive component and was spicy, fresh, and exuberant. Go figure.