The last of my small cache – 3 excellent bottles and a less good bottle – the previous one.
In this 2001 vintage Camille Giroud bought a couple of half-finished wines, post-malo, but still in barrel – both from the same source. The other wine was a single barrel of Romanée St.Vivant – of which I also have some left, but with the original seller’s label – Nicolas Potel. This was a time of cash-flow issues for the quickly growing Potel business, which in the first instance caused Nicolas to look for sources of finance, hence, some barrel sales. We know only too well what happened to his business in later years.
But back to this wine:
2001 Camille Giroud, Vosne-Romanée 1er Aux Malconsorts
Directly this is clearly head and shoulders above the performance of my last ‘problematic’ bottle. The nose has both freshness and aromatic clarity, plus there’s a fine complexity – more impressive still is the faintly spiced depth of bloody, cherry-fruit – it’s a beautiful invitation. Wide, good freshness and a growing intensity of flavour – peaking in the mid-palate before a nicely tongue-staining, steely, mineral finishing impression. Simply an excellent wine from an excellent vineyard. That’s double-excellent! The last half-pour from the bottle is unavoidably cloudy – normally I’ve no problem with this, but on this occasion the taste simply isn’t as good as the rest – it’s the most minor of complaints…
Rebuy – Yes – if only you could!
There are 2 responses to “a mid-week malconsorts…”
Bill — It’s unclear about the RSV. Was that also 2001?
Thanks,
Claude
I can’t see what’s unclear Claude – “In this 2001 vintage Camille Giroud bought a couple of half-finished wines, post malo, but still in barrel”
Thanks and sorry — I was skimming and so missed the connection.
Do you have any experience with the Potel bottlings of these wines? (I see that I only have a single bottle of Potel in 2001, and it’s not either of these two. I guess his wines weren’t widely available in the Bay Area for that vintage.)
Hi Claude
I bought bottles to drink from the 97 vintage onwards but saved none for the cellar – that really started when I went longer on his 02s, 05s and 06s. The only 01s I have saved are the aforementioned RSVs. Only 1 bottle from the 6-pack has been opened – and not by me – I gifted one to the vigneron who is ‘looking after’ two pallets of wine for me in his Beaune cuverie (I have no space for them!) – he told me he thought it tired nearly 2 years ago. So I suppose I should ‘check-in’ – I’m (possibly) foolishly assuming bottle variation – but given that the case is towards the bottom of an over-stacked, shrink-wrapped, pallet, I’ve always found easier options…