WTN: Birthday Burgundies

Notes from Zelie's birthday party.

Sumac Ridge Pinnacle Methode Classique 2001 - 100% Pinot Noir. Slight pink/gold cast. Dry and light with a fine bead. Easy, friendly, and fresh. Good.

Mission Hill Family Estate Select Lot Collection Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2006 - Smoky, soft and a little soapy. Good ripe fruit with some spice on the finish. Good.

Bouchard Pere et Fils Savigny les Beaune Les Lavieres 1er Cru 2005 - Smoky, meaty nose. Subdued cherry. Generally soft but firms up on the finish which is also a little spicy. Good length. Surprisingly approachable. Very good.

Jerome Chezeaux Nuits St. Georges Les Vaucrains 1er Cru 2005 - Sweet nose but otherwise very tight and closed. Difficult to assess.

Louis Jadot Gevrey Chambertin Clos St. Jacques 1er Cru 2004 - Beautiful nose showing off lots of sweet fruit. There is a bit of wildness to this which adds complexity. Long finish. Very complex. Excellent now but has potential to get even better.

Bouchard Pere et Fils Beaune Greve Vigne de l'Enfant Jesus Grand Cru 2004 - Deep, exotic, haunting perfume on the nose with just the slightest hint of sweatiness. Very complex with lots of subtle little diversions of flavor. Leather, meat and fried fat. Tobacco leaf. Very sophisticated. Outstanding wine.

Domaine des Lambrays Clos de Lambrays Grand Cru 2004 - Strange, very peppery nose. Rich and sweet. Very friendly. Not a lot of subtlety. Ripe and rather in your face. Very good, though atypical.

Dry River Pinot Noir Martinborough New Zealand 2006 - Very dark. Very sweet with lots of ripe berry fruit balanced by good acidity. Very good in it's style but heavy-handed after all the French wines.

Inniskillin Riesling Icewine Dark Horse Vineyard 2006 - Sweet, creamy nose. Honey, apricot and a bit of orange. Well-balanced. Burnt sugar. Very good.

Champagne Marguet Brut Grand Cru 2002 - From Ambonnay. Very dry with a light coffee finish. Elegant wine with impressive depth. Good length and seems to have aging potential. Very good.

Jerome Chezeaux Nuits St. Georges Les Vaucrains 1er Cru 2005 - Sweet nose but otherwise very tight and closed. Difficult to assess.

Jerome Chezeaux is possibly the only Neal Rosenthal burg that I haven't enjoyed. (2 bad bottles, but one of them was a Clos Vougeot that the Rosenthal rep claimed to be from a well-placed plot...perhaps it was well-placed for the backstroke or the butterfly).

[David M. Bueker]

Aren't all plots in Clos Vougeot well placed? As Allen Meadows once said (in a Grape Radio podcast): "There's vines at the bottom of the Clos Vougeot, but nobody seems to own them."

As Allen Meadows once said (in a Grape Radio podcast): "There's vines at the bottom of the Clos Vougeot, but nobody seems to own them."

Brilliant!

Louis Jadot Gevrey Chambertin Clos St. Jacques 1er Cru 2004 - Beautiful nose showing off lots of sweet fruit. There is a bit of wildness to this which adds complexity. Long finish. Very complex. Excellent now but has potential to get even better.

Yum! I had this and your TN is dead on. Too bad for me, as it was my last and only bottle and I didn’t follow through on buying more then when it was then priced reasonably (for me).