Drunk on the 10th of the 10th 2010 – as luck would have it, certainly it was a 10 out of 10 too!

An interesting bottle this. The label has the minimalism of the last Engel bottles, in fact slightly more-so, but the bottle is clearly not standard.

The large Château-Neuf-du-Pape-style embossing on the neck, is for Cave BB – a business still running as a wine merchant in Switzerland – and around the base of the bottle is embossed: Selection Baggli – Zolikon – Zurich. Engel did sell a lot of wine in barrel in those days, I’m just not positive if that’s what happened here, or whether Cave Baggli supplied the bottles. I’ve sent a mail to Baggli – perhaps somebody will remember…

I wish I could say that I got some info from the cork, but having decided to use an ‘ah-so’ cork remover, I really should have secured the cork with the worm of a screwpull too – too late I thought as the cork plopped into the bottle – bugger! Quickly everything went into the decanter – and very clean was the wine too – not just visually.

1982 René Engel, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Brulées
Medium, medium pale colour. Right from the start, there’s not a hint of leaf, soil or mustiness on the nose, just a frankly gorgeous blend of precise red berries, brown sugar and the finest ginger cake – wow! One hour on and the snose has lost some of those precise berries to a marzipan-type layer. To me this is a negative as I’m no fan of marzipan – to others, quite the reverse. The flavours deliver width, a plush texture, very fine acidity and an impressive density of sweet, slightly raisin-fruited flavour in the mid-palate. Approaching 30 years-old one might expect this to be described as an old grandmother of a wine – how very wrong that would be. It remains fresh, sensuous and complex. It is blisteringly good – thank-you Caves Baggli…
Rebuy – No Chance -but I would and without hesitation…

My next oldest bottles of this are some 1995 and a magnum of 1998 – it seems I have a long wait to harvest them!

1998 Dominique Laurent, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
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.
Rebuy – Yes

One quote from Jasper’s new book:

There is little as satisfying as a really fine bottle of Meursault in its second decade.

So I though – ‘why not?’

1993 Joseph Voillot, Meursault 1er Les Cras
Medium, medium-plus golden. There are few black bits floating in the bottle, but they sink without problem. The nose is a blast of matchstick – I guess a bit more sulfur in those days! – underpinned with a soft spice-bread note. The palate is very 1993, taught, wiry, intense and with very good acidity – add that to the usual minerality of Cras and you have quite a combination. The flavours also seem to have plenty of the matchstick aromas and there is a super extra creamy dimension as you head into a decent, more savoury finish. Not a Meursault to wallow in, this one ‘instructs’.
Rebuy – Yes