WTN: Come and Get Your 96 Maumes

1996 Domaine Maume Gevrey Chambertin
Not much doin’. At times it flirts with prettiness but for the most part it is a fight between the sweet characteristics and the drying thin characteristics.

1996 Domaine Maume Gevrey Chambertin Champeaux
This has an early moment of glory when it is fuller and finer than the village wine, showing dark, mineral fruit that is slightly meaty and sweaty yet still fresh enough to eat. During these moments of glory it goes swimmingly with some garlicky olive mushroom pizza. But, then its cantankerous side takes over and the fruit becomes muddled underneath the slices and dices of acid and tannin structure. Ouch.

Moan, maimed by Maume. Hope you haven't been lovingly storing these...

[David M. Bueker]

I had a lovely '96 Maume Gefrey Chambertin 1er Cru a few years ago (2005 I think), but this is a producer that has fallen off the radar.

Hope you haven't been lovingly storing these...

No, I bought them recently and they are still available for reasonable prices in DC. So even though I suspected that they would be too young and slightly awkward I thought I would open them to see if they inspired me to buy more. Because even if they are still in an awkward phase one has to assume they are closer to maturity than the 2005s!

But, even though one shouldn't necessarily make judgements based on these awkward-stage wines, I wasn't motivated to buy more.

But, even though one shouldn't necessarily make judgements based on these awkward-stage wines, I wasn't motivated to buy more.

Erm, judgments, dear boy, judgments.

Linguistocurmudgeonly yours,
Mark Lipton

[David M. Bueker]

You see this is why I like Firefox: for its built-in spell check.

I actually prefer the English spelling, and Rahsaan may have some vestiginal subcontinental Commonwealth in him?

To be consistent, then, in the US one would have to say "Here come the judg!"

[David M. Bueker]

To be consistent, then, in the US one would have to say "Here come the judg!"

That's true. But the rules are not consistent.

Maume is another Burgundy producer (along with Grivot, Montille, Armand, Faiveley, Gouges--actually this list could be a lot longer) whose wines seem to develope at their own slow pace; although the '91 Gevrey 1er was showing very nicely last year. GC is my favorite commune and I do like the Maumes with enough age to smooth out some of the rough edges. Too bad the '05 Mazis got so expensive.

I've seen notes saying that the '96s are beginning to come around, but the Bouchard Baby Jesus that I tried recently definitely needed many more years.

To the best of my knowledge I don't have traces of anything British, Commonwealth or otherwise, in my body or my brain. Aside from spending too much time in London during these recent years that is..

Mark, thanks for bringing the pedantry to WLDG. I stand corrected.

the '91 Gevrey 1er was showing very nicely last year...

Nice.

They sound cranky to me me, but my guess is that it's a combination of Maume's style and the vintage. My impression is that many 1996s have been rather hard, one-dimensional and charmless for a long time now. I've almost given up, although Claude Kolm (who is often right about these things) says hang in there.

I agree that the 91 Maumes were delicious. Sadly, I have no more.

Any experience of Maume's 93s, anyone? I have some buried at the bottom of a stack.

But, even though one shouldn't necessarily make judgements based on these awkward-stage wines, I wasn't motivated to buy more.

Erm, judgments, dear boy, judgments.

Linguistocurmudgeonly yours,
Mark Lipton

One of the minor irritations of my life is that, in Word, the American English spell-check constantly overrides the UK English one to the extent that on some words I begin to have doubts about which is which. And a further irritation is that the French spell-check kicks in after I have typed in a French estate name, for example, in an otherwise English text. I have yet to find a way of sticking with UK English or French, as the case warrants.

I have solved the problem in Firefox by disabling the US English dictionary.

Any experience of Maume's 93s, anyone? I have some buried at the bottom of a stack.

Tim, I have very few '93s and, unfortunately, no Maumes. I look forward to your notes (in a few years?)