1998

1998 Potel Nicolas Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Serpentières

By billn on May 10, 2011

The last bottle from a six-pack – and what a great buy they were. Musky red strawberry and a hint of raspberry – aromatically involving – just lovely. The palate has none of the astringency of some from the vintage, more a melted whole of soft texture and sweet-acid balance. Plenty of very fine silt in the bottom of this bottle, but the cloudiness of the last glass did nothing to spoil the flavours and aromas. A winner.

1998 Laurent Dominique Gevrey-Chambertin Clos St.Jacques

By billn on October 09, 2010

Medium colour – a hint of salmon pink at the rim. There is a little tilled earth and a wealth of warm and eventually sharp red berries. Initially I though a suggestion of cigarette ash too, but it was transient and replaced with violets, more time brings a little dried leaf. The palate is silky-smooth, softly balanced and still betrays a suggestion of the vintage tannin – but only a suggestion. The flavours build in the mid-palate rather in the manner of a decent Lambrays vintage -subtle yet still impressive – behind remains a depth of dark, oak derived flavour but at this stage of maturity I can deal with it, even if I find it slightly distracting. Overall this is a really great Clos St.Jacques – really great! The next bottle in 3-5 years.

1998 Serveau Bernard Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses

By billn on March 24, 2010

All I know is that a burgundy shape half-bottle has been decanted. This is very pale, almost salmon pink. The nose is dominated by volatile acidity and esters, much more-so than my recent 72. In the mouth those aromas can still be tasted, but only as a pale backdrop to a sweet core of ripe strawberry fruit, nice enough acidity and almost no tannin to speak of. I don’t mess around – I think it’s a decent 78 Beaune 1er that’s heading for the downslope (assuming it’s not a rhone!). Well I got the ‘8′ and the 1er cru correct, but I’m amazed to see it’s a 1998. It’s tasty and doesn’t smell too bad as the VA moves into the background (~30mins), but clearly this is a wine to ‘drink-up’.

1998 Mortet Denis Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.Jacques

By on April 30, 2009 #asides

Medium-plus colour. Whilst the majority of what the nose offers up, neatly fits the vernacular established by the other wines, there is just an extra edge of oak toast – unique to this vintage – but the wine has eaten it up sufficiently that there is no impression of asyness. I find a lot of carbon dioxide on the palate – initially it’s very hard to judge. Plenty of swirling slowly releases the wine within; on entry the fruit has a nice red edge and a good, dark and spicy length. As the gas fades, so the dimension on the mid-palate becomes ever-more expressive and impressive – really lovely, and I would say better than the 1999!

1998 Leroy (Maison) Volnay Clos des Chênes

By on November 30, 2008 #asides

Deep ruby-red colour. The nose is herbal and meaty with background sweetness and quite some sense of maturity. In the mouth there is the rasp of ‘98 tannins, but they are rather a background element. More to the fore is the sweet but freshly packaged fruit – quite some secondary flavour development again with some of that herbal element and lots of sweet and wide mid-palate flavour. Complex and very well balanced with plenty of time on it’s side it’s a world away from 2005/2006’s but that’s no negative. This is actually not bad value for a Leroy and I may indeed buy a couple more for 5-10 years down the line.

1998 Thomas-Moillard Nuits St.Georges Clos du Thorey

By on March 31, 2008 #asides

A wide nose of nicely maturing aromas mixed with earth. The palate is lithe, linear and of moderate length. It’s clean and quite interesting.

1998 Remoriquet Henri & Gilles Nuits St.Georges Les St.Georges

By on October 31, 2007 #asides

Medium-plus ruby/mahogany colour. The nose is heavily scented; deep, dense and dank, with wet wood and aged vanilla-cream cherry. Concentrated and rather well textured for a top Nuits from a vintage that enjoys more than a hint of tannin – there’s very little astringency. The acidity remains fresh and mouthwatering though with just a little bitterness at the end. The length is very-good rather than great. Overall, this is impressively open for what is a relative youngster though it’s certainly brawny rather than elegant – but isn’t that the epitomy of a good Nuits? Oh and at ~£20 in the sale – a schnäpchien! For drinking now and over the next 10+ years.

1998 Drouhin Joseph Beaune Clos des Mouches

By on October 31, 2007 #asides

Medium ruby-red colour. The nose is soft, wide and red – perhaps with a hint of mint to go with many layers of fruit. In the mouth there is plenty of ripe, red-shaded fruit which shows an excellent length – I do, however, find the acidity sticking out just a little. There’s still some well-grained tannin that has plenty of balancing extract. Only the less than perfect acidity means that I don’t unreservedly recommend this. Still a more than interesting wine.

1998 Thomas-Moillard Vosne-Romanée Les Malconsorts

By on July 31, 2007 #asides

A rather unnattractively muddy, if deep mahogany red colour. The nose is high-toned but the fruit seems a little cooked in profile, wide but unappealing in a stewed tea kind of way. The tannin rather sticks out and I suppose that this was one of those hideously astringent 98’s in it’s first couple of years, but the tannins have moderated – if only a little. The acidity is quite clean and good and eventually you find the one redeeming feature of the wine; nice fruit in the finish with a creamy edge and an understated length. Only two more lie in the cellar, fortunately, and I expect that in the normal Thomas-Moillard style they won’t be close to mature for at least another 10 years. I think they will always be rather uncouth and lacking style. Shame, as the starting material hints of much more potential. It’s very rare that I ‘waste’ wine, but this bottle was poured down the sink on day 2…

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