1994 Troplong Mondot & 2005 Potel Volnay VV

• 1994 Château Troplong Mondot - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (1/25/2017)
  I had a long trip that ended with having dinner in Kentucky at my friends house. Prior to leaving, I wrapped a few bottles in foil so that they could taste the wines blind. I was not going to decant this but I had forgot my Ah So and the cork broke and I had to push it. When I decanted the wine, the aromatics were jumping out. So good. When I looked at the wine in the light, it looked like a wine that was less than 10 years old. I thought oops. I did not bring the 1994. Well it was the 94 and it was tremendous. Earth, olives and tobacco, along with dark berries. The tannins come on really strong on the finish. The tannins are very pleasant. This wine exceeded my expectations and might be at its peak. (93 pts.)
  
  
  
• 2005 Nicolas Potel Volnay Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay (1/25/2017)
  A nice value. IMO this should have been consumed a few years ago. The aromatics to me were reminiscent of a Barbaresco but I knew what the wine was. My friends kept mentioning Southern Rhone. After about 2 hours the aromatics evolved into showing red berries and other elements which tipped the scale towards pinot. Early on the wine held together very well although a bit simple. There was some heat. Not sure where the alcohol finished on this. Tannins probably will out last the fruit. Medium acid. The front and mid palate were pretty strong but the finish did tail off quickly. (89 pts.)
  

Cheers,
Jason


Posted from CellarTracker

[Jenise]

Congrats on that TM. Love reading about "off-vintage" Bordeauxs that exceed expectations.

Congrats on that TM. Love reading about "off-vintage" Bordeauxs that exceed expectations.

For sure. It was a wine I was a bit worried about at this stage even though I generally enjoy "old" tasting wines but this was still fresh.

Jason

Congrats on that TM. Love reading about "off-vintage" Bordeauxs that exceed expectations.

For sure. It was a wine I was a bit worried about at this stage even though I generally enjoy "old" tasting wines but this was still fresh.

Jason

Well done, Jason, your TN delivers the perfect surprise: Bdx from subprime vintage '94 outperforms Burg from hyped vintage '05. Cheers, Rainer