Do you ever find yourself trying to find an excuse to drink a corked wine? Initial cost of purchase may have had something to do with it, I have to say that for about 3 or 4 minutes I’d convinced myself that if I swirled the glass I could hardly smell it, and the taste wasn’t so bad, indeed it was very long for a corked bottle. I passed the glass to my wife who muttered something about me trying to poison her and she needed a beer to take the taste away – I was back, grounded. Very corked and very yuk.
Comte Georges de Vogüé
1997 Comte Georges de Vogüé Bonnes-Mares
1997 Comte Georges de Vogüé Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru
I’ve had two bottles of this wine from one source before, and on both occasions there’s been a rather muddy, indeed soupy aspect to the wine – disappointing would be a fair descriptor – particularly when factoring in the price. This wine, direct from the domain, is completely different. For a start it’s much fresher and does without the cooked plummy-fruit aspects of the previous wines. There’s not the purity and focus of the ’93 village Chambolle but neither is this an archetypal 1997 as it still offers good freshness. It’s nice, complex and shows some density. It’s an interesting and good wine, but possibly the weakest of all these wines, at least in terms how they all perform within their respective categories.
1997 Comte Georges de Vogüé Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru
Medium ruby with just a little amber. The nose is relatively young showing with slightly baked fruit – not much complexity, though given time you do find a pure red cherry note pushing through. The palate is rich and dense with primary fruit, plenty of velvetty tannin and almost good acidity. No fireworks on the finish but there’s a subtle length. Good, but at this stage quite primary and not showing good value – we’ll see!