Hmm wide a hint of sous bois bit more flowers. Lovely depth. Hmm a direct wine, a sleek wine, fine textured, long, layered finishing – hyper elegant corton, delicious too, and not lacking any depth. A super 88 vs those of my memory…
1988
1988 Billard Gabriel Pommard
1988 Gros Anne Richebourg
1988 Taupenot-Merme Charmes-Chambertin
1988 Dubois R et Fils Nuits St.Georges Les Porrets St.Georges
1988 Giroud Camille Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes
Medium colour. The nose starts in that Italian (many years in barrel) botti vernacular, it really needs at least an hour for that to fade, below it builds a core of dried fruits, above is some faintly volatile floral notes. In the mouth there’s a cushioned, slightly padded level of tannin and a very interesting intensity of mature fruit flavours in the mid-plate. The finish is understated but long. Interesting rather than ‘great’, but very much enjoyed.
1988 Bouchard Père et Fils Le Corton
Hmm I had this two years ago – but at Bouchard. This also starts with quite leafy aromas of undergrowth. Much narrower, this ripples its muscles right from the outset, never really softening up – I only had it in my glass for 30 minutes. The core is of sweet, dark red fruit. Overall mineral and long, but probably drunk 20 years too soon
1988 Bouchard Père et Fils Le Corton
Deeply coloured at the core. Wide and savoury aromatics that give the impression that you are about to meet a tannic beast. Actually the tannin only comes through quite late as you get to the finish – before that it’s silky-smooth. Eventually red berries start to appear on the nose. Black-edged fruit is the main palate component. Long but faintly so. Certainly more youthful than you would expect at 20 years, I would say that it needs about 5 more years in a standard cellar to start to enter its maturity phase.
1988 Maume Mazis-Chambertin
On opening, the cork and head-space was a 10 out of 10 textbook example of ‘corked’, so much so that it wasn’t poured until later, when surprise, surprise: Medium ruby. The nose is a mineral but with a savoury depth. More mineral than any of the other wines with an interesting width and still plenty of tannin. The creamy finish lingers well, though stylistically very different to the other bottles. Vintage or cork makes the difference? – I detected no cork…