These were very will priced, about €20 or less, way back when. Let’s say in 2004/2005…

2002 Pascal Chevigny, Vosne-Romanée
Opened too cold – from the fridge – but it will warm in my glass. The nose starts very closed, but ever-so slowly it opens with a modest but charming vosne-style nose – all is in order. In the mouth there’s a slight lack of acid balance whilst cold, but as the wine warms it expands more over the palate and seems to have much finer poise. The flavour is lovely, a nice ingraining sucrosity to the fruit and lively but lovely balance. This is absolutely perfect right now, indeed excellent, so much so that I’m now tempted to attack my remaining single bottle!
Rebuy – Yes

1996 Thomas-Moillard, Corton Clos du Roi
Deeply coloured. Ooh – diving into the aromas from the high-board. A faint graphite and deep, dark half plum/damson fruit that’s partly sweet-baked. Direct line of fresh flavour – much as I remember – but today there’s more padding and more weight of buffering flavour than 5+ years ago. The nose is becoming more rounded and complex. If you wish to hold this wine in your mouth, and despite the silk texture, the acid-intensity will slowly begin to assail your tongue – but why would you? Sharp wine, but becoming less dangerous with time. I think this still has plenty of upside, but I really enjoyed this over two nights…
Rebuy – Yes

1998 François Lamarche, Echézeaux
A fresh, intense nose with a very good fruit flavour but it quickly becomes ever-more herbal – borderline unpleasant. Plenty of modest rasp from the tannin – but the grain is clearly fading. A bit of bitter herb in the finish too – eventually a noticeable TCA flavour in the finish – hmm, a shame, corked.
Rebuy – who knows…

2001 Bouchard Père et Fils, Echézeaux
A deep, seemingly silky nose, yet still rather tight – slowly a very nice fruit note seeps through. Large in the mouth, more mineral than the 98, there’s growing intensity too. Much, much finer tannin – very obviously younger too. Real depth of flavour here – lovely, just an edge of salinity in the finish too. The last drops in the glass have a discreet tobacco note…
Rebuy – Yes

What’s the old saying? – Buy in haste, repent at leisure – for a long time I had thoughts along those lines about this wine.

Of-course time is often a healer, and that seems to be the case even for Fixin in the most astringent (tannins) of vintages:

1998 Pierre Gelin, Fixin 1er Clos Napoleon
There’s one thing I still don’t like about this wine – the nose has a lactic note, one that I doubt will ever get better, but behind is a pretty strawberry fruit that implies ripeness, and for the first time I can ever remember, there’s a generosity about the aromas. In the mouth it’s still quite a big wine, but the sandpaper astringency is long gone, indeed it’s now a rather controlled and balanced structure. Good flavour and a pretty complexity. No shirking violet this, but from now-on, I think I can start harvesting some of the bottles from this case.
Rebuy – Maybe