There was a time when such bottles were easy to come by, not so today, but that’s no reason to forget:

2000 Hudelot-Noellat, Romanée St.Vivant
It’s a long cork, and just as well, a red line follows a crease almost to the very end – not much time to spare I think! Medium-plus colour. The nose offers plenty of turned, dry leaves – this seems a H-N speciality! – below is a dark plummy core and some green vegetation. In the mouth this is the antithesis of most 2000s, less obviously ripe – both fruit and tannin – but with a certain grand cru volume and intensity. It’s a velvet tannin but still edged with astringency, the finishing flavours are quite long with a little raisin fruit – there’s plenty of depth to the flavour too. Overall, this is a savoury wine, with a hint of astringency and a twist of bitterness to the finishing flavours. It is certainly a wine of interest and character, but it definitely needs food, it’s also not what I might expect from 2000, maybe some 1998…
Day 2 and this has softened up a little – so (not surprisingly) there’s no rush to drink. Yet charm remains in short supply.
Rebuy – Maybe