1998

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 Jadot Louis Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze

By on April 30, 2009 #asides

Medium, medium-plus ruby-red – no obvious age. The nose on first pour is reticent; a little bramble fruit but not much else. Without ever becoming effusive, the nose builds a core of dark fruit, slowly releasing finer red-fruit notes and even gives a hint of gingerbread. In the mouth it has excellent freshness, tempered by concentration and width without apparent weight. Just a faint fatness covers tannin that still offers a slight astringency. The length is impressive though hardly ‘impactful’. I left the wine for another hour. On return the wine is more open, mineral and showing much more depth of dark fruit on the nose. In the mouth there seems to be more concentration and intensity – I actually left the bottle in the refrigerator as the room was very warm – I think it made all the difference. It’s more together, more intense and the dark flavours infuse the tongue. I was wavering at first, but keep this wine below 18°C and you well get the return for your outlay. Impressive, yet it will be better in 5-10!

1998 Coudray-Bizot Nuits St.Georges Aux Bas du Combe

By on March 31, 2009 #asides

Some depth, a nice impression of sweet fruit and extra mature notes. In the mouth it’s wide and interesting, has good dimension and maturity, but that apparently tart acid style still spoils it for me.

1998 Mortet Denis Gevrey-Chambertin

By on March 31, 2009 #asides

The colour is quite deep, but showing plenty of age with a little mahogany cast. The nose is complex with high and low tones; ash, coconut, deeper faintly reductive notes and some sweetness of fruit at its core. Excellent acidity though with a late metallic impression. Decent length, resolved tannin and some reasonable sweet fruit. Interesting and more balanced than the the last time out, less marked by the oak, though the base is still obvious.apparently thickens with concentration. If you’re immune to the 2004 cedar it’s a buy.

1998 Mugnier J-F Musigny

By on March 31, 2009 #asides

Opened 2 yours before the first pour. Medium colour – ruby but still with cherry-red accents. The nose is deeper and darker than that of the Bonnes-Mares, but less wide. Slowly in the glass the aromas gain width and dimension – I would say very fine. In the mouth my first impression is that it’s a little hard and tight; in tandem with the nose it slowly unwinds, softens and adds width. Another wine where the tannin hardly warrants a mention, though the quality of the wide and creamy finish was streets ahead of the Bonnes-Mares. In this context it was a fine wine, but one that didn’t ‘wow’.

1998 Fougeray de Beauclair Bonnes-Mares

By on November 30, 2008 #asides

Medium, medium-pale ruby red. A nice, rather aged but still fruity nose edged with a little funk. In the mouth the fruit is okay, but the remnants of the tannin still show an astringent edge – this must have been close to undrinkable in its youth! It’s quite long and it’s a tasty length, but the fruit is way ahead of the tannin in termes of the age curve. I wouldn’t touch another for 5 years and I still think it will be a long way from silky.

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 Chauvenet Jean Nuits St.Georges

By on March 31, 2008 #asides

A relatively narrow and slightly volatile nose – some, though marginal, improvement in the glass. Plenty of minerality and well-managed tannins in the mouth. After the last wines this was found significantly wanting, but even in isolation I think there is a lack of personality here

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.

Burgundy Report

Translate »

You are using an outdated browser. Please update your browser to view this website correctly: https://browsehappy.com/;