of memorable wines from slighted vintages…

15.7.2014billn

I thought it was about time that I added my wines of the year – so far – so see the updated ‘A-List’ to the right of this page. I’ve noted that 93s are starting to become not just potentially brilliant, but downright brilliant, the 96s are becoming rather rewarding too. My enjoyment of 95s remains variable. Oh, and many of those critically slighted vintages (where was Pierre Antoine Rovani two weeks ago) offer supreme pleasure right now – in the right hands of-course! See exhibits 1993, 1998 and 2000…

Of-course there was no more space in the ‘widget-thing’ on right-hand side of this page, so the A-List of 2006 is gone to make space for 2014 – oh well – and what was once obviously the year ‘tab’ has shrunk to a hard-to-understand single digit. Oh well, again! Normally I don’t include ‘impossible to obtain’ wines in this list, but some are there to amplify the vintage point made above.

sdm
Three of the wines on this list are from the hailed-on, rained-on, dinner of the Elegance de Volnay, 2 weeks ago. I’d brought with me 93 Lafon Volnay Santenots de Milieu, only to later find that Dominique Lafon was sitting at my table – oops! – What happens if it’s not nice or corked, or, or… I briefly discussed with my invitee that I decided to serve it blind – just in-case it was rubbish! I found a (clean!) sock and poured! When I returned to the table (after touring the other tables with my quickly emptying bottle) Dominique shot me a wicked smile and said “I find it a bit simple!” Of-course my invitee had told him! I needn’t have worried, because we also ended up with 98 from bottle and magnum, the 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007 of this wine passing our table – of-course, amongst many others. The 98 ‘Milieu’ was brilliant but I still had a slight preference for my 93 – until the 98 in magnum arrived – this was the best – a wine that, on the night, was only bettered (maybe) by the 2000 Roumier Bonnes-Mores – a wine of sleek muscle and brilliant dynamism – bottled brilliance! I also cannot go without mentioning our starting wine – the 2009 Meursault Clos de la Barre (mag), poured by Dominique himself. My tour of 2009 whites from barrel had placed this domaine in #1 spot. This wine was everything that I can remember – perfection…

OOPS! Sorry, I forgot. We’re not supposed to like 2009 whites ether, are we(?)!!!

Despite the weather, the wines engendered so many smiles and so much cameraderie…

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

There are 2 responses to “of memorable wines from slighted vintages…”

  1. Tom Blach19th July 2014 at 11:39 amPermalinkReply

    Rovani was of course spectacularly wrong about 93 and 98, as many of us suspected at the time. To be fair to him, though, 97 has turned out unimaginably better than seemed possible ten years ago.

  2. Mark de Morey19th July 2014 at 8:44 pmPermalinkReply

    Some folk seem to have only come very lately to a positive opinion on 1998 (and 2008) when others amongst us have been happy with those vintages from the ‘get go’ – 2008 particularly. Odd that isn’t it ? Hardly a matter of needing ‘that much’ bottle age where 2008 is concerned.

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