Don Cornwell :: All Things Andy Gavin

2007 White Burgundy part 2

2009 White Burgundy part 1

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2010 White Burgundy, BYOG, Don Cornwell, Gelato, Le Montrachet, Melisse, Montrachet

Valentino – 2010 White Burgundy part 1

Mar30

Restaurant: Valentino Santa Monica [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]

Location: 3115 Pico Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 829-4313

Date: February 7, 2018

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Fun and educational!

This dinner is the first part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. Tonight’s particular dinner covers 2010 Chablis, Meursault, and Corton Charlemagne. Other dinners in the series are listed at the bottom of the post.

As usual, the dinner was at Valentino, which has been a mainstay of the LA fine dining scene for decades. I first started coming here in about 1995 and it was a mind blowing change from the usual trattoria and red-sauce style Italians. Valentino is much closer to Michelin 2 star restaurant in Italy, although not as modernist as some of those are in recent years. If food in Italy turns you on, check out my Eating Italy segment.

And with regard to the wines and vintage: 2010 is a classic year for white Burgundy. The relatively cool growing season maintained crisp acidity, and the reduced crop delivered great intensity of flavor. Moreover, the wines have structure, and although the simpler wines are accessible now, most premiers and grands crus from top estates have a long life ahead of them.

Our private room. Notice the large table with a lot of space. This is important when you have 30+ glasses a person!

Notice the awesome array of glasses in the background. Only about half of them are visible. Few restaurants can handle this sort of thing, as they need over 400 stems of the same type and a dedicated Sommelier with sufficient experience and skill. Ours tonight handled the whole wine service with extreme professionalism and personality.

The whole thing in session.

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

2002 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses. VM 96. The flagship 2002 Brut Clos des Goisses is simply stunning in this vintage. Seamless, ripe and beguiling, the 2002 is pure harmony in the glass. Dried pears, apricots, flowers, red berries and spices are some of the many notes that inform this towering, aristocratic wine. At once vertical yet endowed with serious length, the 2002 stands out for its breathtaking balance and overall sense of harmony. Layers of fruit built to the huge, creamy finish. This is a great showing from Philipponnat. The 2002 was disgorged in June 2011.

Parmiggiano Schegge.

Eggplant Cotoletta.

Grilled pizza.

Calamaretti Fritti.

Branzino & Enoki Mushroom Rolls.

Bread sticks.

Flight 1: Chablis

2010 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 97. The 2010 Chablis Les Preuses combines the minerality of Valmur and the fruit of Bouguerots in a style that is immensely appealing. The wine’s balance is utterly impeccable throughout. This is one of those effortless, gracious wines that is easy to underestimate because the elements are so seamlessly woven together that nothing in particular stands out. I am blown away by the sheer balance, purity and harmony of what is in the glass. This is a great showing from Fevre and Didier Seguir.

2010 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Preuses. VM 96. The 2010 Chablis Preuses is a dense, structured wine bursting with fruit. The typical Preuses bouquet is very much present, but today the wine is young and needs time to settle down. This is a decidedly bold, ripe Preuses that captures the weight and richness of the year. Although insanely vivid and beautiful in the glass, it needs time to fully come together. Today, the minerality appears nearly buried by the sheer weight of the fruit.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. VM 96. The 2010 Chablis Valmur is intense, rich and heady, but also has more than enough acidity to back things up. It is at once rich yet weightless in its expression of fruit, which is rare for Valmur. Hints of slate, crushed rocks, peaches and apricots meld together on the dramatic, enveloping finish. The Valmur is every bit as fabulous as it was when I tasted it last year from barrel.

2010 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 95+. The 2010 Chablis Les Clos is all about understatement and balance. White floral notes meld into white stone fruit in this utterly gracious Chablis. Clos can at times be fleeting and elusive, and there is certainly some of that in the 2010. Still, it is impossible to miss the wine’s textural finesse and sheer overall balance. I will not be surprised if the 2010 continues to get better in bottle.

2010 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 96. Veins of saline minerality support expressive fruit in the 2010 Chablis Les Clos. White peaches, slate, smoke, crushed rocks and salt are all quite vivid in the glass. It is hard to resist the Clos today, as the fruit is so silky and delineated, yet at the same time it is quite clear the wine has the potential to evolve beautifully in bottle for many, many years. The 2010 is all about silkiness and precision. Today, it has a little less overt ripeness and weight next to the Preuses.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos. VM 97+. The very best elements of vintage and site is expressed by one of Chablis’s true visionaries come together in the 2010 Chablis Clos. The aromatics alone are breathtaking, but then endless layers of fruit flow across the palate, captivating all the senses; intellectual, hedonistic and everything else. The Clos has elements of all the preceding wines in the same way Romanée-Conti encapsulates all the wines at DRC. The 2010 Clos shows great balance and class from start to finish. It is a profound wine to savor over the next few decades, although it shouldn’t be touched before age ten. Readers who can find the 2010 should not hesitate. It is a magical bottle of wine.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. VM 95. An intriguing, rich, almost tropical expression of fruit emerges from the 2010 Chablis Blanchot, owing to the warmer microclimate in this site. The Blanchots is ripe, seductive and enveloping. Stylistically it is one of the flashier 2010s here. Layers of fruit build to the deeply resonant, radiant finish. The Blanchot should drink well relatively early.

2010 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. VM 95+. Readers will have to be patient with the 2010 Chablis Montée de Tonnerre. Some of the other 2010s are showing much more today, but the Montée de Tonnerre is all understatement and class. Still, it is impossible to miss the wine’s textural finesse and exceptional overall harmony. Everything is simply in the right place in this majestic, compelling Chablis. A gentle hint of spice frames the finish.

Warm King Crab Salad with Cannellini Beans and Citrus Essence.

Flight 2: Meursault

2010 Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93. Pale, bright yellow. Aromas and flavors of fresh peach and apricot, lemon-lime and crushed rock. Rich, dense, creamy and seamless, but with firm acidity and strong stony minerality leavening the wine’s sweetness. Very complex and intense Perrieres with superb energy and length. Made from a blend of three parcels.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 94+. Bright pale yellow. Exotic, slightly high-toned aromas of orange, hazelnut and spicy oak. Then much more soil-dominated on the palate, with savory, chewy flavors of liquid stone and salty minerality dominating the wine’s underlying fruit. Tensile, tightly wound Perrieres, in need of five to seven years of patience.

2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Bouchères. VM 94. Roulot’s 2010 Meursault Bouchères comes across as weightless, perfumed and very beautiful. Floral aromatics lead to expressive stone fruits in this gracious, feminine wine. In 2010, the Bouchères is all subtlety, finesse and understatement. A distinctly salty finish full of tension and energy leaves a lasting impression. This is going to be a fascinating wine to follow over the coming years. The 2010 is the last Bouchères made by Roulot. As part of the purchase of Domaine Manuel, Jean-Marc Roulot acquired the 1.3 hectare Clos des Bouchères, and he prefers to focus his efforts there, as that plot is quite a bit larger than his existing holding in the greater Bouchères.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. VM 94. Knockout perfume of soft citrus fruits, menthol, wet stone and white truffle. Densely packed, saline and seamless; deceptively approachable today owing to its sheer richness and depth of flavor and its very long, sweet aftertaste. But this utterly primary wine has the stuffing for aging. Boillot recommends drinking it in the next year or so or holding it for seven or eight years; he’s convinced the wine will be totally closed in two years.

2010 Domaine Latour-Giraud Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières Cuvée des Pierre. VM 95+. Bright pale yellow. Spicy oak, lemon oil, hazelnut and brown spices on the nose. Boasts superb saline density on entry, then remains tactile and salty in the middle, but with terrific energy to buffer the wine’s volume. There’s outstanding flavor intensity here but not the early tenderness of the basic Genevrieres bottling. Superb lemony minerality gives the finish terrific cut. Really mounts slowly and builds. Latour noted that both this wine and the cuvee classique went back into barrel for additional aging after the August racking; he moved the rest of his wines into tanks, where they remained in mass for another six months.

2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières. VM 96+. Usually we feature older wines in Cellar Favorites, but given the understandable trepidation consumers have around cellaring white Burgundy, I thought it would be interesting to see how a handful of highly touted white Burgundies are faring. To be honest, I had a selfish reason for wanting to taste these wines. I bought many of the Lafon 2010s (it is my daughter’s birth year), but I did so not really knowing when the wines would be ready to drink or how long they will last. I think I can at least offer a view on the first part of that question, but the second, happily, remains a question mark, in the best sense of the term.Vinous readers will recall that 2010 is unusual in the Côte de Beaune for its combination of both elevated ripeness and high acidity, two attributes one rarely finds in the same vintage. At Lafon, the 2010s were positively electric when I tasted them from barrel and then from bottle. Today, a few years later, the 2010 whites are every bit as impressive. Although projecting drinking windows for white Burgundy these days is fraught with peril, based on this showing all of the 2010s need at least a few more years in bottle with the possible exception of the Goutte d’Or.While the preceding Meursaults all offer a measure of exuberance – albeit in a classically austere style – the 2010 Meursault Genevrières is a much more introverted wine that draws the taster in with its myriad shades of dimension. Deceptively medium in body, the 2010 is all about intensity, cut and inward energy, with the classic reductive flavor profile that is typical of this great site, and breathtaking harmony. The 2010 refreshes the palate with every taste as it continues to grow in the glass. Over the last few years, the 2010 has blossomed into a spectacular Meursault. This is the best showing yet from the Genevrières.

2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. VM 95+. Orange and lemon zest and pure crushed stone on the reticent nose. A real live wire in the mouth, with great verve to the flavors of lemon peel, white pepper and saline minerality. For such a bracing wine, this one boasts a magically silky, seamless texture. The outstanding, slow-mounting finish boasts pristine grapefruit, lemon and crushed stone elements and outstanding aromatic persistence. This wine finished its malo in June of 2011 and is still an infant today.

From my cellar: 2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Charmes. VM 94. Deep aromas of fresh apricot, orange creamsicle, vanilla and spices. Big, concentrated and rich, displaying more power and weight today than the Genevrieres. Dense and silky-sweet but a bit shocked by the bottling and not currently showing the precision or length of the last sample. But this is still long on the aftertaste. Lafon notes that this wine will become more floral as it settles down in the bottle.

Linguine with Sea Scallops Ragu. Not a bad dish, but not the best White Burg pairing and oddly VERY similar to the next dish.

Flight 3: Meursault Perrieres

2010 Henri Germain et Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 90-93. Here the SO2 had just recently been adjusted and it was strong enough to render the nose impossible to fairly evaluate. The stony, precise and energetic middle weight flavors possess both excellent complexity and plenty of detail before concluding in a dry, clean, focused and impressively persistent finish.

2010 Henri Boillot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93-95. Bright, light medium yellow. Fully ripe peach complemented by flinty minerality. At once thick and bright, with intense stone fruit, oak char and nut oil flavors. Quite serene today after the early malo. This switches to a higher gear on the back half, with its mounting finish showing strong crushed stone minerality, some smoky, petrolly, riesling-like notes, and outstanding persistence.

2010 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 95+. Locked up tight on the nose. Then thick, large-scaled and powerful in the mouth, with an extraordinarily tactile palate feel to the pineapple and crushed stone flavors. Packed with dry extract. Boasts the concentration, fine-grained texture and sheer sappy density of a grand cru. This brilliant wine finishes with uncanny rising length. I’d love to revisit it in ten years.

2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 96. Bright pale yellow. Very ripe aromas of pineapple, yellow peach and wet stone, lifted by a floral topnote. Wonderfully fine-grained and sweet, but with pungent pineapple and mineral flavors conveying a powerful impression of energy. Finishes very long and lush, with a resounding whiplash of fruits and stone. These 2010s boast outstanding depth of fruit without any heaviness.

2010 Vincent Dancer Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. BH 92-94. This is perhaps the purest wine in the range with its gorgeously complex floral, spiced pear and wet stone suffused aromas. The racy, intense and chiseled flavors possess good mid-palate fat and concentration with plenty of dry extract that buffers the explosive, classy and gorgeously persistent finish where a discreet touch of wood surfaces. This is, in a word, terrific.

2010 Domaine Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 93. Much more exotic on the nose than the Charmes, offering aromas of pineapple, hazelnut and marzipan. Hugely ripe and concentrated, but almost tropical in the context of this set of 2010s. Offers grand cru weight and texture, strong acidity and palate-staining pineapple and grapefruit flavors but finishes with a slight youthful bitterness. I’d drink this very ripe wine over the next decade or so while waiting on the superlative Charmes.

2010 Domaine Jean-Michel Gaunoux Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières. VM 94. Bright pale yellow. With its aromas of pineapple, powdered stone and tea leaf, this smells a bit sweeter than the Genevrieres. Dense but light on its feet, with terrific inner-mouth perfume to the flavors of lavender, powdered stone and minerals. Taut, elegant, very dry wine with superb cut and rising length. A very clear expression of Perrieres terroir.

2010 Albert Grivault Meursault 1er Cru Clos des Perrières. VM 92. Cool nose of mint, green herbs, some lemon and lemon drops, a bit of sweet oak. A bit oaky for my tastes. The palate shows more energy with good acid, not as deep or wide as I would like from a Perrieres but quite pretty with lemon drops, oak, a touch of the herbal/mint. The finish is the best part showing great drive and brightness with lots of lemon drops and some sweetness from the oak.

Risotto with Lobster and Mixed Seafood. We always get this dish, but tonight it was nearly identical in flavor profile to the pasta and again a bit too tangy/acidic for the Burg. Really we should have had the white cheesy/creamy risotto that was a Valentino specialty back in the 90s, the one that is closer to Risotto gamberi con crema.

Flight 4: Corton Charlemagne

2010 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne. VM 96+. Bright pale yellow. Extremely closed nose hints at gunflint and menthol. Dense and pure on entry, then as powerful as a solid in the middle, with explosive lift to the flavors of white pepper, mint and dusty stone. Expands with air to fill the mouth without giving any impression of weight. Finishes with a convincing saline tang and outstanding persistence. This has the structure of a top red Burgundy: I’d forget about it for at least eight years.

2010 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Good bright, pale yellow. Very pure, reticent aromas of lemon, lime and white flowers. Dry and penetrating to the point of painful, with pristine flavors of crushed stone, lime, lemon and ripe but lightly bitter pomelo. Pure energy: this makes the Cabottes seem almost creamy by comparison. Finishes with intense crushed stone flavor and outstanding cut and lift. For the cellar.

2010 Faiveley Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Palish bright yellow. Tight, vibrant nose offers white peach, pineapple, nut oils and brown spices. Juicy and sweet but kept under wraps today by powerful acidity. Still, this remarkably intense wine does not come across as austere owing the full ripeness of the fruit. Wonderfully classy Corton-Charlemagne with a penetrating, dusty, extremely long finish. This held up brilliantly in the recorked bottle. I suspect this wine will shut down in the next couple years.

2010 Domaine Patrick Javillier Corton-Charlemagne. VM 92+. Bright pale-yellow. Very closed nose hints at minerals and spices. Rich, dense and sappy, with almost surprising sucrosite to the flavors of orange zest and stone. Very precise Corton-Charlemagne with a tangy, slightly tannic back end. Forget about this one for at least five or six years.

2010 Domaine de la Vougeraie Corton-Charlemagne Le Charlemagne. VM 94-96. The 2010 Corton-Charlemagne Le Charlemagne is stunningly beautiful. Layers of expressive, voluptuous fruit are supported by persistent underlying mineral notes. The wine blossoms on the palate in all directions, showing off its pedigree and pure class. A vivid, crystalline finish leaves a lasting impression.

2010 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne. VM 95+. Pale, bright yellow-green. Discreet, pristine aromas of white peach, lime, white pepper and powdered stone. Extremely tight and penetrating, with outstanding intensity to its steely, lemony flavors. Conveys a powerful citrus character that’s accentuated on the back end by a bracing crushed stone element. Impenetrable today but built for a long and eventful evolution in bottle.

2010 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne. VM 94+. Good pale yellow. Penetrating aromas of citrus peel, spices, metallic minerality and crushed rock. Tightly wound, gripping and deep, with outstanding concentration and clarity and a density of texture that reminded me of the 2005 here. A flavor of candied lime peel is already quite exhilarating but this wine’s youthfully imploded character calls for at least seven or eight years of cellaring. Today, this is rather like a tighter version of the 2011, and even more closed than a bottle I rated 94 in Issue 164.

2010 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne Quintessence. VM 92?. Bright, pale yellow. Reticent but very pure aromas of yellow peach, hazelnut and vanillin oak; comes across as riper than the utterly primary basic Corton-Charlemagne. Sweet and fine-grained, with a distinctly silky texture to the yellow fruit flavors. I find this less limey and minerally than the basic bottling, without quite that wine’s tension. In fact, the finish shows a slightly exotic apricot quality and a bit of youthful warmth.

Pan Roasted Napa Quail with Parmesan Polenta. Good quail dish.

Flight 5: Dessert

1989 Château Rieussec. VM 92. Lively, complex, fresh aromas of tropical fruit, honey and spicy oak. Sweet and viscous in the middle palate; kept fresh by apple and pear notes and harmonious acidity. Very concentrated and deep. Very long on the aftertaste; has the sheer material to buffer its alcohol. Rieussec switched to later bottling with this vintage: 30 rather than 24 months after the harvest.

Made and brought by me for the meal: Mint Oreo Fudge Triple Threat – Fresh mint gelato base with Valrhona chocolate ganache and mint oreo cookies!

Apple Torte & Apple Fritters with Cinnamon Creme Anglaise.

Looking over the sea of glasses!

There is a lot to say about this tasting. First of all, Valentino did a good job as usual. The wine service was impeccable, and this is a difficult task (pouring lots of big blind flights). Overall service is absolutely first rate. It’s a large quiet room, and the staff was highly attentive. The food was okay, although feeling a bit dated and the menu selection was odd with the two nearly identically sauced dishes. The decor and food are also a tad dated now, very very 90s — and not even as good as I remember back in the 90s. But memory is a funny thing.

There wasn’t quite enough food and the flights were WAY too large. Really this dinner could use 6 flights, no bigger than 5 wines each and about 6 savory dishes. This was more a planning/budget issue than anything under the restaurant’s control.

Thanks to Don C again as always for organizing a super fun and education event! It’s an enormous amount of organization and we all really appreciate it.

Speaking of Don, his compiled results and comments from this dinner are as follows. The top five ranked wines of the evening were:

On February we held the first night of the 2010 White Burgundy and Vintage Assessment Dinners at Valentino Restaurant in Santa Monica. The dinners were in our usual format with 14 attendees and sommelier Paul Sherman evaluating the wines at each dinner. All of the wines were served single blind and all of the voting takes place completely blind (with individual written ballots) with the attendees ranking their top five wines by bottle number. As we usually do, we attempted to include all of the top examples from each appellation.

We tasted 32 different wines from Chablis, Meursault and Corton Charlemagne (four flights of eight wines each). On February 20 we had 30 different hyphenated grand crus from Montrachet and two ringers – one from California and one from France. Again, we had four flights of eight wines each.

Here are the top ten wines based on the group rankings from each night:

Night One- Feb 7 (Chablis (8), Meursault (16), Corton Charlemagne (8)):

			Top 5	DC
	Group Ranking	Total Points	Votes	Rating
1	Vincent Dancer Meursault Perrieres	29	8	95
2	Lafon Meursault Genevrieres	23	6	95
3	Raveneau Chablis Clos	20	5	94
4	Roulot Meursault Perrieres	19	6	95
5 tie	Javillier Corton Charlemagne [DIAM]	17	7	94
5 tie	H. Boillot Meursault Perrieres	17	4	93\|90?
7	Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres Cuvee de Pierre	15	5	95
8	Vougeraie Corton Charlemagne	13	4	93
9	Roulot Meursault Charmes	11	4	94+
10	Fevre Clos [DiAM]	8	4	94+

The premox report for nights one and two were very good. Over two nights, we had the lowest total incidence of oxidized or advanced wines over the past 13 years. The group consensus was that 3 of the 64 wines were advanced or oxidized (6.25%). By my count it was 7 of 64 wines (or 10.94%) [ Andy interjects that at dinner 1 basically nothing was premoxed and that he feels Don sometimes see a highly ripe wine as advanced ]. To date, the vintage with the lowest incidence of oxidized and advanced wines was 2004 — (12.7%). But we still have 16 bottles of “Mostly Montrachet” to taste on March 7. Once again, none of the DIAM-closed bottles were corked, oxidized or advanced and no one reported any sort of unusual flavors or aromas. So far, that’s 13 perfect bottles over the last two years.

Some Impressions About the 2010 Vintage Based on this tasting:

I will provide details on each wine in the tasting notes, but I found the 2010 vintage more uneven and probably less impressive overall than I had expected – at least for the Cote de Beaune wines. The Cote de Beaune wines are much riper and more dense (with lots of tropical fruit notes on the aromas) than the early reviews suggested. And in several cases, particularly in Corton, Meursault and Batard, the acidity level wasn’t as high as expected and in some cases, seemingly not high enough to counterbalance the heavy ripe fruit flavors. [ Andy notes that he LOVED the 2010s – but it’s highly subjective ]

The 2010 Chablis as a group were marvelous. They have prototype Chablis aromas (lots of oyster shell and green fruit) with excellent Chablis minerality/liquid rocks in the finishes. The surprise was that this came with about 50% more depth of fruit than most of the classic Chablis years. This is a vintage in a style that everyone can love – similar to 2002 but with better acidity and abundant minerality. There were lots of smiles over these wines and no one had any doubts, as we sometimes do when tasting Chablis at 7.5 years.

The Meursault wines were very uneven, and in some cases the wines seemed totally atypical and excessively ripe for Meursault. Three or four of the wines had Corton Charlemagne weight and density with none of the normal Meursault aroma or flavor markers. These bottles gave the impression of being too sweet and way too fat for Meursault. Since I’m a classic Meursault lover, I wasn’t pleased. While there were a handful of really stellar Meursaults (e.g. Vincent Dancer MP, Roulot MP, Lafon Genevrieres, Latour-Giraud Genevrieres Cuvee Pierre, and Roulot Charmes) overall I preferred the flight of 2009 Meursault Perrieres we tasted a year ago, which were exceptional, to the flight of 2010 Meursault Perrieres. That’s certainly not what I would have expected going into the dinner.

The Corton Charlemagne flight was group’s least favorite flight on night one. Two of the wines were advanced, one was corked and the BDM seemed quite off to me with an excessively bitter phenols finish. Overall this flight of wines didn’t impress me. Some were notably sweet, even for Corton, and the acidity didn’t seem to match the ripeness and sweetness. Only the Javillier seemed to be a classic Corton.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

2008 White Burgundy part 1

2008 White Burgundy part 2

2008 White Burgundy part 3

2007 White Burgundy part 2

2007 White Burgundy part 3

2008 White Burgundy part 1

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2010 White Burgundy, BYOG, Chablis, Corton-Charlemagne, Don Cornwell, Gelato, Italian Cusine, Meursault, Valentino, Wine

Valentino – 2009 White Burgundy part 1

May19

Restaurant: Valentino Santa Monica [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Location: 3115 Pico Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 829-4313

Date: March 1, 2017

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Fun and educational!

This dinner is the first part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. Tonight’s particular dinner covers 2009 Chablis, Meursault, and Corton Charlemagne. Other dinners in the series are listed at the bottom of the post.

And with regard to the wines. The relatively low acidities in 2009, especially low malic-acid levels which accelerated the malolactic fermentations, mean that many white 2009s are relatively soft and rich. Ripe grapes meant no added sugar to boost alcohol levels but yields were relatively high. This suggests they will make satisfying early drinking but should probably be consumed long before the more structured and long-term 2008s. This applies particularly in Chablis to the north of the Côte d’Or.

Our private room. Notice the large table with a lot of space. This is important when you have 30+ glasses a person!

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

2004 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee. 94 points. Light gold color; citrus, biscuit and lemon zest aromas; bright citrusy flavors with a lightly toasty element which adds complexity; a very long citrus and minerals finish. Very nice champagne.

Parmiggiano Schegge.

Bruschetta with wild arugula.

Shrimp Milanese.

Oysters.

Grilled flat bed pizza.

A word about tonight’s format. Every bottle was served blind, except we were aware of what flight it was and what was in the flight, just not of which wine was which. The reveal was held until the end of the entire evening so that we could vote on favorite wines without bias.

Personally, I’d prefer a reveal halfway through each flight for a number of reasons. True, this would compromise the voting a bit, but that’s not super important to me. I’d prefer to be able to taste the wines both not knowing which was which and knowing, so that I can continue to build up my subjective memory for each house style. I also find it very difficult to remember back across multiple flights for “best” comparisons. I took notes and marked my favorites of each flight and compared those, but I’m not even really sure it’s fare to compare a Chablis to a Corton.

The tasting notes below are cribbed from Don C who organized the dinner.

Flight 1: Chablis

2009 Raveneau Chablis Montee de Tonnerre. 90 points. Light gold color; sweet lemon (Meyer lemon) aromas; very light lemon flavors, and a mid-palate which is mostly some glyceryl effect and some modest minerals; this is a fairly thin wine. Group Rank: Tied for 17th, 1 points (0/0/0/0/1)

2009 Dauvissat Chablis Preuses. 91 points. Color between light and medium gold; distinct honeysuckle aromas that remind me much more of BBM than Chablis; light green apple and citrus flavors; this has better acidity than #1, but less minerality; a light mineral finish. Four tasters thought this was advanced. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Fevre Chablis Preuses. 90 points. Light yellow gold color; very light green apple and lime aromas; on the palate this is thin with a little green apple but not much other discernable character on the palate My score in retrospect is probably generous. This got one vote for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Raveneau Chablis Valmur. 91 points. Medium gold color; light green apple and some very faint anise aromas; very light bodied wine with mostly minerals and glyceryl elements; the finish is very light but minerally and fairly long (best feature). This got five votes for best in flight and our Somm. Paul Sherman had it in his top 5 for the night. Group Rank: Tied for 17th, 1 points (0/0/0/0/1)

2009 Dauvissat Chablis Clos. 87 advanced. Medium gold color; Lychee fruit and faintly oaky aromas – but as this sat the aromas started to get more like apricot; this has some odd, sour apple juice flavors; there is notable acidity, but the acidity reminds me more of “end acidity” when the wine is oxidizing rather than natural malic or lactic acid. This is definitely advanced. That is also the group consensus. Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Faiveley Chablis Clos. 86 advanced. Medium gold color; light green apple aromas; modestly rich green apple flavors and seemed to be more like a Cote de Beaune wine than a Chablis to me; not all that much to be excited about in the finish though. After some air there were some pineapple notes in the aromas on the second pass. Hard to see this as Chablis and I’m almost suspicious of what’s in the bottle. Three votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Fevre Chablis Clos. 86 advanced. This between medium and full gold color – definitely the darkest of the first flight; forward apple cider aromas with slightly oaky/toasty note – definitely advanced; advanced red apple fruit flavors. This was definitely advanced and the group all agreed. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Raveneau Chablis Clos. 90 points. Medium gold color; aromas of oyster shell and light lime – finally a Chablis aroma set; on the palate, this had richer fruit than the other wines in the flight, but it was still in a lighter and softer style. Some fairly light minerality and a short finish. While the aromas were definitely Chablis, the palate wasn’t and this wine didn’t seem to have anywhere left to go. Five votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 17th, 1 points (0/0/0/0/1)

Crab cake with white wine caper sauce.

Flight 2: Meursault part 1

2009 Roulot Meursault Charmes. 91 points. Medium gold color; overly sweet lemon/lime aromas – I immediately said “7-Up” with agreement from several in the room; on the palate, it had similar, overly sweet, almost syrupy lemon-lime flavors, but it had very good acidity and a decent finish. This wine strongly reminded me of what I didn’t like when I first tasted the 2009 vintage on release. [NB Retasting this after the reveal, it was impossible to identify this wine as either Roulot or Meursault Charmes] Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Henri Boillot Meursault Charmes. 90 points. Medium gold color; white flowers and pear aromas; lightly sweet citrus fruit on the palate but with some grilled nut background character; this reminds me more of a Meursault than #9; but this one is a bit harsh and almost phenolic on the finish. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Colin-Morey Meursault Charmes. 93+ points. Medikum plus gold color; light white flowers and some lemon – lime fruit aromas; very bright, medium bodied and charming lemon citrus and light pain grille flavors; a very long subtle fruit finish with a minor degree of acidity in the finish. Real Meursault with just a hint of upside. Four votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

Andre Jobard Meursault Charmes. 89 advanced. Between medium gold and full gold color; aromas of cheerios with sweetness (an aroma Ron Movich has traditionally flagged as outright oxidiation); on the palate, the wine is very fat, buttery, and has a sweet caramel flavor. This is exceedingly advanced and the group unanimously concurs. In hindsight my score seems too generous. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres. 94 points. Very light gold color; aromas of green fruit (like Midiori liquer) and oysters; on the palate, intense, bright citrus flavors with excellent acidity and a good dollop of minerality; this also had a very long minerals and citrus finish that just kept improviing as the night went on. A genuinely impressive Meursault. One vote for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 15th, 3 points (0/0/0/1/1)

2009 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres Cuvee des Pierre. 94+ points. Light gold color; bright lemon citrus aromas with a hint of grilled nuts; very bright lemon-lime flavors with lots of minerality and noticeable acidity; some powerful citrus fruit and abundant minerality on the finish – excellent; this has a bit more fat on the finish than #13. Five votes for wine of the flight. My number four wine of the night. Group Rank: Fifth , 13 points (1/0/1/2/1)

2009 Roulot Meursault Porusots. 93 points. Light gold color; aromas of lemon citrus and hints of green midori liquer; very bright wine with good acidity, moderate intensity lemony fruit and intensely minerally mid-palate; nice components but there seem to be mismatches in intensity levels here; fairly long sweet finish. This got two votes for favorite of the flight, but five people thought it was advanced. On my second pass through it definitely seemed to have lost something. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

Risotto al frutti di mare. Some years we have had seconds of this — could have used it tonight.

Flight 3: Meursault part 2

2009 Lafon Meursault Charmes. 92 points. Between light and medium yellow gold color; light lemon citrus and minerals aromas; not much fruit here, but some intense minerality on the mid-palate and finsih; this is classic but dry; nice minerality on the finish. Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Roulot Meursault Perrieres. 94 points. Between light and medium gold color; fresh peach and hazelnut aromas; some lemon citrus, with stony, ground rock mid-palate and great acidity; a very long, mostly mineral and light lemon finish. I love this wine for the stoniness and mineral intensity, though some could find it too austere in the fruit department. Group Rank: Fourteenth , 6 points (1/0/0//1)

2009 H. Boillot Meursault Perrieres. 94 points. Between light and medium gold color; again peach and hazelnut aromas; unlike #17, this has some fat and richness on the mid-palate, the biggest wine of the flight; a nice minerally finish too. One vote for best in flight. Group Rank: Tied for 12th, 8 points (0/1/1/0/1)

2009 Bouchard Meursault Perrieres DIAM. 94+ points. Light yellow gold color; light green apple aromas; clean and bright citrusy flavors; very good acidity here; a very long minerals and fruit finish. There is some upside here. Four votes for best in flight. My No. 6 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tenth, 10 points (1/1/0/0/1)

2009 Coiin-Morey Meursault Perrieres. 94+ points. Light plus gold color; very subtle white flowers and lemon pastry aromas; on the palate this had some more dense lemon fruit character and minerality; decent acidity; very long minerals and citrus finish. Impressive with some upside. Three votes for best in flight. My No. 3 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tied for sixth, 12 points (0/1/2/1/0)

2009 Drouhin Meursault Perrieres. 94+ points. Between light and medium gold color; light green apple aromas that don’t really seem open or developed yet; on the palate this was backward, with very good acidity and had intense mineral-saline character over some light citrus fruit. This one needs time to open, but seems very impressive. Four votes for best in flight. My No. 2 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tied for sixth, 12 points (0/1/1/2/1)

2009 Lafon Meursault Perrieres. 94+ points. Between light and medium gold color; very light white flowers aromas; this wine has very bright acidity, light citrus and intense minerality; a long minerally finish too. Two votes for best in flight. This was my No. 5 ranked wine of the night. Group Rank: Tied for 8th, 11 points (0/0/2/2/1)

Pan roasted Napa quail stuffed with wild mushrooms on soft polenta. Not a bad quail.

Flight 4: Corton Charlemagne

2009 Faiveley Corton Charlemagne. 92 points. Light plus gold color; aromas of pears and white flowers; nice medium density pear flavors, nice depth; it didn’t seem to follow through on the finish though. Group Rank: Tied for 8th, 11 points (0/2/0/1/1)

2009 Javillier Corton Charlemagne DIAM. 93 points. Just short of medium gold color; this had pear and green apple aromas; also similar flavors; this has an elegant and long finish which distinguishes it from #23. Group Rank: Tied for 15th, 3 points (0/0/1/0/0)

2009 Montille Corton Charlemagne DIAM. 93 points. Between light and medium gold color; white flowers and pear aromas; this has some greater richness and depth on the mid-palate with good acidity; minerality isn’t obvious here; fruity finish with some acidity. Group Rank: Tied for 20th (last), 0 points (0/0/0/0/0)

2009 Vougeraie Corton Charlemagne. 94 points. Between light and medium gold color; sweet white flowers aromas; intense pear flavors; this has more power and depth and more minerality than the preceding wines in this flight; it also has brilliant acidity, and very nice minerality; a very long minerally finish.. Two votes for best in flight. Group Rank: 11th, 9 points (1/0/0/2/0)

2009 Henri Boillot Corton Charlemagne. 93+ points. Between light and medium gold color; light white flowers and sweet citrus aromas; less depth of fruit than the others, and more citrus here, good acidity, but I found this somewhat dry, almost phenolic on the back of the palate; nice minerals on the finish. May round out with more time. Two votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Third, 22 points (2/2/1/0/1)

2009 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne. 93+ points. Between light and medium gold color; aromas of white flowers and lemon blossoms; on the palate this had some sweet citrus and a long dry minerally finish. Needs more time. This got five votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Fourth, 15 points (/3/0/0/0/0)

2009 Bouchard Corton Charlemagne DIAM. 93 points. Light yellow gold color, the lightest of the flight; light white flowers and green apple aromas; this had relatively simple green apple flavors but an incredibly long structured minerally finish. At first I thought this wine had good development potential, but by the end of the night, I just wasn’t sure. Group Rank: Twelfth, 9 points (0/1/1/0/1)

Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne. 94 points. Just short of medium gold color; light white flowers and green apple aromas; the most complex mix of fruit flavors of the flight – lemon, lime and green apple, with very nice depth and length; a very pretty wine though not as much minerality as some of the others. I liked this even a little more on my second pass. Five votes for best in flight. Group Rank: Second, 30 points (3/2/2/0/1)

Colin-Morey Corton Charlemagne. 95 points. Light gold color; very light white flowers aromas with some green apple undertones; very bright green apple flavors which are intense and snappy; this wine is extremely long on the palate and has amazingly good minerality on the finish. A wow wine. Three votes for best in flight (including mine). My number one wine of the night. Group Rank: First, 34 points (2/3/2/3/0)

Sicilian boneless rabbit with prosciutto, caciocavallo, a hint of chocolate. Not sure we needed TWO meat in brown sauce dishes.

Flight 5: dessert

Fight the hangover!

1976 Schloss Eltz Auslese. Deep brown color; some burnt sugar and apricot aromas; from a personal perspective I had a real problem getting past the strong burned toast and earthy character on this wine that made the sweetness unreachable for me. Not my cup of tea, but I’ve never been a fan of the 1976 German vintage.

Cassatina di rocotta with pistachio gelato. My gelato is much better but the cassata tasted about 80% like a real Sicilian Cassata, which in my books makes it awesome as that dessert is almost impossible to find properly done outside of Sicily.

Conclusions

No glasses to be found anywhere (else).
Have a few white burgs!

There is a lot to say about this tasting. First of all, Valentino did a good job as usual. The wine service was impeccable, and this is a difficult task (pouring lots of big blind flights). Overall service is absolutely first rate. It’s a large quiet room, and the staff was highly attentive. The food was solid, although not as bright or modern as some places. The decor and food are a tad dated now, very very 90s — and not even as good as I remember back in the 90s. But memory is a funny thing.

Thanks to Don C again as always for organizing a super fun and education event! It’s an enormous amount of organization and we all really appreciate it.

Speaking of Don, his compiled results and comments from this dinner are as follows. The top five ranked wines of the evening were:

The group’s top five ranked wines of the evening were:

1. 2009 Colin-Morey Corton Charlemagne.
2. 2009 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne
3. 2009 Henri Boillot Corton Charlemagne
4. 2009 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne
5. 2009 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrieres Cuvee Pierre

The details are all in the attached spreadsheet along with my ratings on the wines.

Of 31 wines, we had 0 corked, 0 oxidized but 3 were advanced (9.7%). In the four months leading up to this dinner I opened 11 different 2009 whites and didn’t experience a single bottle that was either advanced or oxidized. We had four bottles with DIAM cork closures at the dinner and none of them were advanced or oxidized.

Some general comments –

This was the fourth consecutive dinner where a Colin-Morey wine finished either the number one or number two ranked wine by the group (and all of the voting has been totally blind.) BDM Corton made the top five for the first time ever. Vougeraie made a very impressive first time appearance.

Except for the Chablis, the wines from 2009 far exceeded my initial expectations. When the Cote de Beaune wines were released, I thought most of them were excessively sweet (I frequently used the descriptor of “7-Up”). As a result, I cellared very few 2009s. But the Cote de Beaune wines today, for the most part, far exceed my initial expectation. The level of improvement was even more profound than what we experienced with the 2006 vintage.

The bad news for 2009 is that, in my judgment, 2009 is the least impressive vintage of Chablis that I’ve ever tasted – far worse than the 2007s or the 2005s. The Chablis were extremely thin and mostly lacking in Chablis character. The three best wines of the flight, all from Raveneau, were very light bodied wines with some minerality but very little else to commend them. In my opinion, it’s a vintage of Chablis to avoid.

But in contrast to the disappointing Chablis, the flight of Meursault Perrieres was, when considered as a whole, the most consistent flight of Meursault Perrieres, from one wine to the next, that we’ve ever had. Excluding the Lafon Charmes, (which I usually include with the MPs because of those vines’ immediate proximity to Perrieres and the fact that the Lafon Charmes usually tastes more like MP than Charmes), the wines were uniformly very impressive. They were fairly light in color and had varying pleasant fruit esters (mostly citrus, but in two cases green apple and two with some peach) along with grilled hazelnut in a couple of them. They also all had surprisingly good acidity and strong minerality. After writing my notes and provisionally scoring the wines I was astonished to realize that I’d rated every MP at 94 points and it was very hard to pick a favorite in this flight. Four of the wines are likely to improve a little more with additional bottle age (which to me was unexpected for the 2009 vintage.)

The Corton flight, while it had a greater range of variation, was also quite good. The aromas were mostly white flowers and green apple or pear (though a couple had some light citrus elements). The wines were bigger bodied and richer than the MPs, as you would expect. They were surprisingly classic in style compared to how sweet and 7-Up like many of the wines tasted like at the time of release.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series:

2008 White Burgundy part 2

2008 White Burgundy part 3

2007 White Burgundy part 2

2007 White Burgundy part 3

Don’s reviews of each wine can be found here.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Food

Tagged as: 2009 White Burgundy, Chablis, Corton-Charlemagne, Don Cornwell, Italian cuisine, Meursault, Santa Monica, Valentino, Wine

Valentino – 2007 White Burgundy part 2

Mar06

Restaurant: Valentino Santa Monica [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 3115 Pico Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 829-4313

Date: March 4, 2015

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Fabulous!

This dinner is the second part of the annual White Burgundy Premox test series, hosted by Burg-meister Don Cornwell. This dinner covers 2007 Batard-Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet, and associated BBM and CBM. Part 1, covering Chablis, Meursault and Corton can be found here.

2007 was a vintage was cool and acidic.

This particular dinner is at Valentino, which has been a mainstay of the LA fine dining scene for decades. I first started coming here in about 1995 and it was a mind blowing change from the usual trattoria and red-sauce style Italians. Valentino is much closer to Michelin 2 star restaurant in Italy, although not as modernist as some of those are in recent years. If food in Italy turns you on, check out my Eating Italy segment.

Our private room. Notice the large table with a lot of space. This is important when you have 30ish glasses a person!

Notice the awesome array of glasses. Only about half of them are visible. Few restaurants can handle this sort of thing, as they need over 400 stems of the same type and a dedicated Sommelier with sufficient experience and skill. Ours tonight handled the whole wine service with extreme professionalism and personality.

Tonight’s special menu.

Flight 0: Champagne

2002 Claude Cazals Champagne Blanc de Blancs extra Brut Cuvée Vive Clos Cazals. 93 points. Very nice acidic champy.

Bruschetta with wild arugula, prosciutto, and grana padano “Schegge.” Really nice, and I don’t even like tomatoes. The ham and cheese were what made this, that was a very nice hunk of grano.

Ahi tuna tartare with micro celery greens. We’ve all had tuna tartar before and this was a fine example.

Burrata caprese. The first time I ever had burrata was at Valentino!

Kushi oysters.

Flight 1: BBM & CBM

agavin: Also, some general comments on this flight. Like the Chablis night, the BBM/CBM flight had a LOT of green apple and a lot of acid. The noses were much more expressive (as is typical of Puligny/Chassangne wines. These wines improved in the glass for the most part and only 2 of them (#2 and #8) were actually enjoyable to drink. Like all tasting at these dinners they suffered from the format in terms of hedonistic enjoyment. It’s a great format for revealing minute differences, but the excess of sameness in a single flight devalues the wines that aren’t drinking as well right now. In a different dinner where they were the only white burgundy and there was a higher food to wine ratio they might be quite enjoyable.

2007 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles. Burghound 94. A mild hint of exotic fruit combines with honeysuckle and a slight oak influence before giving way to rich, full and notably generous medium plus weight flavors that possess outstanding mid-palate fat and extract, which serve to buffer the firm acid spine on the wonderfully fine and lingering finish. A lacy, long and stylish wine of finesse rather than power and 2007 is undoubtedly one of the better vintages for the Leflaive Pucelles.

agavin: simultaneously rich and acidic, perhaps a touch advanced.

2007 Louis Carillon Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 39, July 2010: As would be reasonably expected, the Bienvenues possesses a distinctly more elegant if presently highly restrained nose of airy notes of honeysuckle, subtle spice, lemon peel and cool green fruit that is in keeping with the refined, pure, dry and strikingly precise medium-full flavors that coat, and stain, the palate with ample dry extract and outstanding length on the citrusy finish. This achieves its usual stunning quality but the Referts is closer than it usually is. This should peak at about 8 years of age. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Good pale color. Very closed nose hints at citrus peel, clove and stone. Tactile and chewy but still quite tight and classically dry, with a strong spine of acid and minerals keeping the rich flavors of citrus fruits, peach and stone under wraps. A distinctly cool style, and very 2007. Finishes with excellent verve. This is about 13.5% alcohol, with a bit of chaptalization. 92+

agavin: very nice. great, great nose. some reduction. Sour but nice with long acidic finish.

2007 Leflaive Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A reserved and quite discreet nose reflects notes of spice, honeysuckle and ripe white peach that complement well the rich, full and intense flavors that are delicious, textured and have a wonderful mouth feel on the beautifully balanced and powerful finish. This is a classic Bienvenues with impressive levels of dry extract yet this finishes quite dry. Lovely, understated and impeccably balanced. 91-93

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, green-tinged yellow. Pure aromas and flavors of lemon, lime and crushed stone. Wonderfully high-pitched in the mouth, with citrus peel and violet notes lifting the wine and giving it a magically light touch. Very precise Bienvenue with superb acidity and captivating leesy complexity. 93+

Don Cornwell, Wally’s Leflaive Dinner, Mar. 16, 2010: yellow-green color; prominent honeysuckle and sweet green melon (Midori liquer) aromas; fresh lime and green melon or almost lee chee fruit flavors; very good acidity and decent minerally finish; again surprisingly forward but great balance. I liked this. 94

agavin: green apple nose. Taut, with a jolly rancher like vibe.

2007 Pernot Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: An almost invisible trace of wood highlights a similar nose of honeysuckle, rose petal and orchard fruit aromas that slide gracefully into more obviously mineral-driven medium full-bodied flavors that are at once generous yet detailed with excellent volume on the round, naturally sweet and mouth coating finish. This is also quite forward and while it will benefit from a few years of cellar time, this is not a vintage of Pernot’s BBM built for the long haul. 93

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Subtly complex aromas of white peach, honeysuckle, minerals, hazelnut and vanillin oak. Sweet and silky yet penetrating on the palate; more expressive today than the Pucelles and relatively open for a 2007 grand cru. Finishes persistent, but without quite the authority of the Batard. 92

agavin: green apple nose. Very tart. After some time hints of tropical.

2007 Ramonet Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: It’s relatively rare when I find the Ramonet Bienvenues to be superior to their Bâtard (though there are any number of vintages where I have found them to be qualitative equals) but 2007 is one vintage where it is. The primary reason is not so much because there is a noticeable difference in the respective underlying materials but rather because the balance of the BBM is better and the acid support is better integrated as well than in the Bâtard. Moreover, after 2 hours of aeration, the BBM had softened considerably and rounded out into something genuinely sublime where as the Bâtard remained taciturn and angular after the same period. The open question of course is whether the Bâtard is simply much more primary and thus less evolved but ultimately will follow a similar evolutionary curve? For those who are risk averse, buy the Bienvenues. And for those who are fans of both wines, buy both but to the extent that you have the choice, I would favor buying more of the Bienvenues because it’s a really, really lovely wine and a surer bet. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, bright yellow. Citrus peel, iodine and lavender on the nose. Citric, tightly wound and light on its feet; seems a bit leaner and less filled in than the Ruchottes today but this is a baby. Will this put on weight with time in bottle? 92+?

agavin: closed at first, then a bit of honeysuckle on the nose. Too tart at first. I didn’t like it for a while, then it opened up a bit.

2007 Hubert Lamy Criots-Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet note of pain grillé frames a ripe and exuberantly fresh nose of concentrated citrus and floral aromas that precedes superbly intense mineral-laden flavors that possess a beguiling texture and positively huge length. The abundant sap coats the mouth and despite the density, this flavor profile is linear and crystalline on the explosive and almost painfully intense finish. Terrific juice and highly recommended if you can find a bottle. 94

Stephen Tanzer: not reviewed

agavin: funny detergent funk smell. Overly sour, never liked.

Ringer. 2007 J. Rochioli Chardonnay Sweetwater Vineyard. VM 94. Light green-gold color. Intense, mineral-accented citrus and orchard fruit aromas are complemented by smoky lees and iodine. Deep, spicy lemon and bitter orange flavors stain the palate and are given depth by a hint of sweet butter. The mineral qualities gain strength on the finish, which is strikingly pure and very long.

agavin: thinner at first, with lots of reduction. But turned out to be quite pleasant.

Grilled mediterranean branzino topped with fresh fennel, oranges and olives. At first I was like, boring fish. But this was not only a generous portion but very nicely done and a first rate pairing with the wine.

Flight 2: Batard

Stepping up to the next level.

agavin: This flight was so big I accidentally put two of them in the next flight’s group photo! An overwhelming 9 wines! There were more “drinkable” wines (0, 9, 12, 16), but the flight also contained a lot more deep yellows and seemingly advanced wines, plus a few funky ones. Several seemed nearly undrinkable. When I open 12-15 year old Batard/Chevalier (which I do weekly) I have about a 20-25% premox rate, but generally they are generally much more rounded and expressive than these wines. I’m not at all convinced that 8 years is a good age to actually be enjoying Batard. So it’s entirely possible that the heavily oxidized examples will end up as those premoxed bottles, but the others that are closed or funky will resolve themselves.

2007 Vincent Girardin Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A tighter and less expressive nose offers up apricot, floral and grapefruit aromas trimmed in a deft touch of wood that dissolve gracefully into rich, full and concentrated flavors that are actually quite fine even though there is ample dry extract, all wrapped in a powerful and mouth coating finish. This is a big wine yet it has grace and class. Note though that patience will be required. 93-95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Good bright yellow. Pure, complex aromas of orange peel, peach, apricot, hazelnut and iodine, along with a faintly exotic suggestion of lichee. Ripe, juicy and energetic, with a more obvious underlying structure and less easy sweetness showing today than the Bienvenue. Sappy, powerful and rich in extract: this really coats the mouth. Quite backward in style, with strong oak spice showing today. The tactile, almost dusty finish is accentuated by strong acidity. 94+

agavin: Slightly darker, with reduction. Very nice though, somewhat rounder although still apple tart.

2007 Colin-Morey Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: In contrast to the nose of the Corton-Charlemagne, there is reduction present here that does compromise somewhat the expressiveness of the otherwise pure and layered white flower, spice and brioche nose that merges into beautifully defined medium plus weight flavors that evidence a discreet minerality on the balanced, long, deep and driving finish. This is less evolved than the prior wine but with great potential. 92-95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale yellow. Very sexy aromas of orange blossom, oily peach, pineapple and smoky lees. At once thick and bracing, with outstanding concentration and layered texture. This huge wine shows strong vanillin oak and outstanding sucrosite that no doubt had a lot to do with the fact that it only finished fermenting its sugars in December of 2008. The parcel is in Chassagne-Montrachet, but at the border with Puligny. Incidentally, Colin sealed his 2007s with soft wax capsules in an attempt to give his bottles additional protection against oxidation. 96

Don Cornwell, Dinner at home, June 14, 2011: (opened because slight leakage detected) Wow. What an impressive Batard. This had the density of a Ramonet Montrachet from an incredible vintage and the minerality of Chevalier. A truly awesome wine. One of the best young white burgundies I’ve ever tasted. 96

agavin: also liked. Pale. Batard + apple nose. Rounder, with jolly rancher finish.

2007 JN Gagnard Batrd-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet touch of brioche highlights the restrained but ripe nose of green apple, honeysuckle, anise and apricot aromas that are elegant, pure and wonderfully refined before merging seamlessly into sweet, intense and unusually detailed big-bodied flavors that reflect slightly more minerality than I typically find in this wine before culminating in an energetic and palate staining finish. A stunner of a wine by any standard but it’s worth noting that while it’s bigger and more powerful than the Caillerets, it’s not finer or more elegant. 94

Steven Tanzer: not reviewed

agavin: deeper color. Cider smell, more advanced.

2007 Leflaive Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This is also on the ripe side for a 2007 with an ultra elegant nose that is pure, airy and cool, indeed this is unusually elegant for the appellation with its white flower, citrus, pear, menthol, white pepper and light spice hints that are in perfect keeping with the rich, full and broad- shouldered flavors that possess the usual volume and power of a classic Bâtard but do not lose any of the precision or detail on the expansive, mouth coating and hugely long and very dry finish. Like a number of examples in 2007, this is an elegant yet forceful Bâtard. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, green-tinged yellow. Knockout nose combines musky pineapple, lime and powdered stone; seems less exotic than the 2008. Wonderfully silky on entry, then explosively ripe and sweet in the middle, with powerful, palate-staining flavors of lime and flowers. Very rich and impeccably balanced, with its sweetness perfectly countered by firm buffering acidity. A great showing for this extremely long grand cru. 95

Don Cornwell, Wally’s Leflaive Dinner, Mar. 16, 2010: (tasted from two different bottles over four hours) Light yellow-green color; some light S02 here [Meadows noticed this too and quietly asked me about it as well. We both agreed this was slightly reductive]; citrus and sweet basil aromas; surprisingly forward and supple for a Batard, doesn’t have the power I expected; very good acidity and a long finish. My separate notes at dinner were almost verbatim identical. Meadows says he thinks the 2007’s will be open for business early but will live for a long time. 94(+?)

agavin: also deeper golden color with ripe cider smell. considerably advanced seeming.

Ringer. 2007 Ramey Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard. VM 94. Greenish yellow. Vibrant aromas of lime, lemongrass, powdered stone and anise. At once supple and energetic in the mouth, with impressive precision to the peach, citrus and smoky mineral flavors. Tightly wound and taut but not austere, showing a distinct spiciness on the back half. Lively citrus and mineral flavors carry through a rising, spicy finish. These grapes are sourced from four different blocks, all of them planted to the Wente clone, according to Ramey.

agavin: liked this. Medium color. Some reduction on the nose, and a LOT of vanilla oak. Thought it might be new world. But it was rich and balanced.

2007 Ramonet Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 36, Oct. 2009: Initially, the pure, elegant and refined nose of citrus and white flowers was extremely reticent and it required over an hour before it really blossomed. The focused, intense and precise flavors are compact and very tight before culminating in a distinctly angular and only moderately long finish where the acidity is notably prominent. This is unapologetically built for the long haul and while there are some wines in the range that could be enjoyed now, at least with sufficient aeration, it frankly is a complete waste to open this now. The ’07 version is also not especially fleshy or powerful but the balance appears to be good enough to allow it to be great in time but that time is at least 10 years out. In short, don’t buy this if you have any expectations of drinking it within 5 years and again, 10 years will likely be required before it’s ready. 93

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Bright, pale yellow. Rich aromas of stone fruits, yellow currant, lees and iodine, plus a complicating whiff of rye bread. Dense and powerful but not at all heavy. Quite youthfully closed but aeration brings up captivating inner-mouth floral character and penetrating talc-y minerality. Wonderfully precise, classy Batard with uncommon complexity. 94+

agavin: closed and flat, didn’t like.

2007 Chateau de la Maltroye Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: The first wine to display any appreciable wood influence that frames the elegant, pure, broad and classy white flower, spice and citrus hints that continue onto the focused but equally broad-scaled flavors that culminate in a rich, full and exceptionally powerful finish that stains the palate with seemingly limitless reserves of dry extract. This is backward but the impressive potential is not hard to see. In a word, stunning. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Very pale color. High-pitched citrus peel, powdered stone and violet on the nose. At once powerful and penetrating, offering uncanny lift and weightlessness for a wine from this grand cru vineyard. A bit closed in on itself initially on the middle palate, but showed much more white peach and citrus fruit flavor with aeration and finishes with almost painful intensity. This, too, needs several years of aging-or a lot of time in a carafe. 94+

agavin: deep colored and cider like, more advanced.

2007 Niellon Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A highly nuanced and layered nose frames elegant, expressive and densely fruited white flower and peach aromas plus strikingly rich and powerful full-bodied flavors that possess so much dry extract that like the Chevalier, this is almost painfully intense. The acid/fruit balance is especially impressive and despite the size and weight, like many examples in 2007, this is actually quite refined. In a word, marvelous. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale color. Lemon, lime, mint, clove and crushed stone on the nose. Rich and pliant but at the same time juicy and powerful; this really resounds in the mouth and grips the palate on the aftertaste. Already showing some personality but needs bottle aging to expand. 93

agavin: medium color. Different somehow, weird. Sour to the taste.

2007 Sauzet Batard-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet hint of post-bottling SO2 is just noticeable enough that I would suggest decanting this for 30 minutes first if you’re tempted to try one young. Otherwise, a restrained and pure nose features notes of white flower, fresh citrus peel and a mix of pear and white peach which lead to richer, fuller and more powerful if not necessarily more concentrated broad-shouldered flavors that possess relatively fine detail and balance on the explosive and gorgeously long finish. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Very pale bright yellow. Deeper-pitched on the nose than the Bienvenues, with peach and white flowers dominating. Large-scaled and rich but precise, saturating and filling the mouth with flavors of white peach, minerals and crushed stone. Offers outstanding intensity without any impression of weight, not to mention superb energy. Terrific juice: I’d wait five or six years on this beauty. 94+

agavin: One of the better ones in the flight. Reduction on the nose, tasted like sweet tarts.

Scallops in porchetta, pancetta wrapped, with pappa al pomodoro & parmesan. The bacon notched this up big time.

Flight 3: Chevalier part 1

And everyone’s favorite vineyard.

This was probably the worst flight (considered as it was drinking now) and a major disappointment. There was a lot of deep colored wines, advancement, and a general closed quality that didn’t favor current enjoyment. 20 was a notable exception.

Ringer. 2007 Ceritas Chardonnay Porter-Bass Vineyard. 93 points. Trademark Ceritas richness, though some of that has been tamed as the days go by, wonderful acidity and overall balance, lovely, complex flavors, nothing ripe or out of place, even some hints of minerality on the finish. Terrific wine. Maybe I’m dreaming, but this could be a top vintage Chablis Preuses, which tends to be a richer vineyard.

agavin: deep color. Rich with caramel tones and maybe a hint of sherry. less acid.

2007 Bouchard Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet touch of oak highlights the naturally spicy floral and high-toned orchard and green fruit aromas before giving way to textured, sappy and almost painfully intense full-bodied flavors brimming with both dry extract and ample minerality on the hugely long and impeccably balanced finish. This is a really lovely wine that possesses everything it needs to deliver a first-rate drinking experience with a decade of cellar time. As good as this is, and it is very impressive, it’s not necessarily superior to the magnificent Perrières though it may require a bit more bottle age to arrive at its peak. 94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale yellow. Citrus peel, wet stone, flowers and a saline nuance on the nose. Wonderfully ripe, broad and rich but classically dry, with the stony quality currently dominating the middle palate. Best today on the extremely long, grapefruity finish, which opens like a peacock’s tail. 94

agavin: medium color, tart.

2007 Michel Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This is a study in elegance as the positively stunning nose displays breathtaking purity of expression with incredibly complex and airy white flower and ripe green fruit aromas that precede beautifully balanced, harmonious and chiseled, indeed even crystalline middle weight flavors that possess outstanding length and knockout depth. This is class in a glass with terrific vibrancy and the palate staining finish is almost painfully intense and about the only nit is a trace of warmth though this is as much due to the superb transparency as the actual level of alcohol. If you can find it, buy it. 95

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Good medium yellow. Deeply pitched nose dominated by pear, clove and wet stone. The most vibrant and lightfooted of these 2007s, with penetrating, mouth-saturating flavors of pear, clove, crushed stone and saline minerality. Compared to the Batard, this shows less volume and sheer size but more finesse. Finishes intense and very long, in need of considerable aging. Niellon recommends giving it eight to ten years. 93+

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow color; aromas of SO2 and meyer lemon; great acidity and grip here; again lots of minerality, but this wine is slightly angular and yet viscous — ever so slightly disjointed at the moment; with considerable time in the glass, this improved a lot, and developed a nice citrus and minerally finish. Hence the split score. 94+|95+

agavin: closed and reduced, disjointed, with a sour tropical finish.

2007 Jean-Marc Pillot Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: An expressive nose blends stunningly pure fruit laced with citrus and lime notes that are highlighted by abundant pain grillé influence and leads to rich, full-bodied and sweet flavors of remarkable precision that deliver a strong wet stone character where the firm and bright acidity beautifully frames an impressively long finish that also really coats the palate. This is almost painfully intense and I very much like the underlying sense of energy and overall sense of balance that suggests that the ’07 Pillot Chevalier should age well. 92-94

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: (fermented in a new barrel, then racked into a used barrel for aging until April of 2009) Lemon ice, crushed rock and strong smoky oak on the nose. Wonderfully rich and lush, with a slightly aggressive character to the lemon and spicy oak flavors. Best on the back end, where the wine saturates the entire palate without any impression of weight and fills the retronasal passage. But less open now, and drier, than the Clos Saint-Marc, as the oak is currently blocking the wine’s fruit and mineral components. 93+

agavin: medium colored. I liked this. Rich with some reduction and a searing finish.

2007 Sauzet Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: As with the Bâtard, there is a discreet hint of post-bottling SO2 that is just noticeable – decant. A classic, and radiant, Chevalier nose offers perhaps the purest fruit in the range with a mix of upper and middle register acacia blossom and fresh lemon aromas that are seductively enveloping before sliding seamlessly into strikingly detailed, stony and almost Chablis-like flavors carrying a similar sense of salinity and this is like rolling tiny pebbles around in the mouth, all wrapped in a palate-etching finish of spectacular length. This is breath-taking stuff and the focus and linearity are superb. This should age well for years. Textbook Chevalier. 96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Very pale lemon-yellow color. Vibrant aromas of lemon, lime, crushed stone and vanilla. Penetrating and precise, with great elegance and definition to the lemon and crushed stone flavors. A distinctly more feminine style than the Batard, with the lowest acidity of these 2007s but plenty of supporting white-soil minerality. This will be the easiest of these grand crus to drink young but should nonetheless age well. 94

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Yellow-green color; white flowers and fresh pineapple aromas; the most fat of the entire group; an “easy” wine; very nice rounded fruit with good acidity and some minerality. Very nice. Later: acidity is now becoming more apparent in the finish. 94+

agavin: medium colored. Rich and tart.

2007 Louis Latour Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A more subtle touch of wood sets off the lightly spiced floral, green apple, white peach and pear aromas that lead to very pure, detailed and stony medium weight plus flavors that possess superb intensity and huge length on the mouth coating finish. This is presently quite understated and does an impressive job of blending power and finesse in a package of impact without heaviness. 94

Steven Tanzer: not reviewed

agavin: Deep colored. Quite advanced and sherry like. Not drinkable.

Sauteed santa barbara prawn with herbs & white wine and served on risotto. The prawns weren’t the largest, but they were sweet and tender with a lovely briny taste. The risotto was very delicate, but rich and delicious. Notice the good sized portion too, and we got seconds of the risotto too.

Flight 4: Chevalier part 2

This is the flight everyone was waiting for, as it has the real big guns.

This should be a flight of incredible wines, but there were major disappointments (along with a couple gems). 27 (the Girardin) was incredible, but I thought the Ramonet had an undrinkable potty/sulfur quality (and I love reductive wines). Maybe it will blow off. Again, hard to tell how much the awkwardness reflects their youth.

2007 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Database, April 15, 2012: A strikingly complex nose offers seriously impressive breadth with its aromas of ripe, pure and airy nose of white flower, spice and subtle pear aromas. There is excellent richness to the mouth coating flavors that are built on a base of fine minerality, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish that oozes dry extract. This is really a lovely effort that is at once refined yet powerful with an almost painfully intense backend. A very impressive effort that is positively Zen-like in its poise and quiet sense of harmony. A ‘wow’ wine though note that it will need plenty of time to fulfill all of its vast potential. Tasted twice with consistent notes. 96

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 39, June 2010: A strikingly complex nose that is even more complex than that of the Bâtard as there is a great breadth of aromas to the ripe, pure and airy nose of white flower, spice and subtle pear aromas that complement to perfection the rich and mouth coating flavors built on a base of fine minerality, all wrapped in a sappy and mouth coating finish that oozes dry extract. This is really a lovely effort that is almost as powerful as the Bâtard but as one would expect, finer and even a bit longer with an almost painfully intense backend. A very impressive effort that is positively Zen-like in its poise and quiet sense of harmony. A ‘wow’ wine though note that it will need plenty of time to fulfill all of its vast potential. 96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Ineffable, discreet aromas of powdered stone, lemon peel, tangerine and flowers are complicated by an almost metallic minerality. Wonderfully succulent and silky in the mouth, but with a firm stony edge that gives it a rather uncompromising quality. An ethereal essence of wet stone minerality, this powerful, concentrated, classically dry wine is also compellingly smooth on the reverberating aftertaste. 96

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow-green color, closer to gold than the others; the aromas are more floral than most and there’s some citrus as well; this wine seems bigger, fatter and softer than the others [N.B. for Leflaive, not what I expected] yet has good acidity; after about two hours this was showing some meyer lemon and good minerality and length in the finish. 95+(?)

agavin: Deep colored. Somewhat advanced but acidic.

2007 Henri Boillot Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: A discreet, indeed almost invisible, touch of wood frames extremely primary aromas of white flower, wet stone and a spice component that are very cool, pure, elegant and restrained with brilliantly detailed, classy and refined medium plus weight flavors delivering a borderline painfully intense and palate staining finish that goes on and on. This seems to be extracted directly from liquid rock and this has that ‘wow’ factor in spades. Don’t miss it. 97

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Knockout nose combines apple, white flowers, crushed stone and saline minerality. The palate delivers the mineral energy of this vintage in spades, with citrus and stone flavors offering outstanding precision and staining the palate on the back end. This was a knockout from barrel and has turned out splendidly. Boillot rates this as one of his best Chevalier vintages to date. He also told me that it was always his dream to make Chevalier-Montrachet. “I would sooner lose all the other crus,” he told me. “Chevalier-Montrachet is the greatest terroir for white wine, while Musigny is the greatest for red.” 96

Don Cornwell, Middle Eastern Dinner at Michael Zadikian’s, Aug. 8, 2009: (Wine now open two days) Light yellow color; aromas of white flowers and meyer lemon; this had a wonderful density to it – strong minerality, citrus and power yet with viscosity not unlike Batard in a great vintage; very long minerally/citrus finish. Really impressive for two-day open 2in3. 96

agavin: medium colored. Closed nose, with green apple taste and a lean finish.

2007 Colin-Morey Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: This too is mildly reduced which also knocks down the expressiveness of the reserved, cool and classy floral, citrus and subtle spice aromas that complement the textured and relatively concentrated flavors that exhibit really beautiful detail and an exuberant minerality that culminates in a long, explosive and tension-filled finish. A stunner of a wine that should also be capable of aging for the next 15 years. 93-96

Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2008: Crushed stone and a violety topnote on the highly aromatic nose, with a complicating saline nuance. Superconcentrated, dense and sweet, with superb inner-mouth lift to the mineral-driven flavors. This, too, boasts a chewiness rare for the vintage. The finish is penetrating and utterly palate-staining. This may still have a gram or so of sugar yet to ferment. 94-97

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow green color; Light to medium gold color; very light lemony a4romas; tight, lemony flavors which expanded a lot in the mid-palate and had good acidity and grip; very long citrus and minerals finish.. Impressive. 95+

agavin: paler yellow. A bit of spritz and tartaric acid crystals. Reduced on the nose. Acidic, but quiet nice.

2007 Ramonet Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows, Burghound Issue 35, July 2009: Given the almost extreme reticence of the Bâtard, I was moderately surprised to see how wonderfully expressive this positively brilliant wine is already. The nose is simply stunning with a supremely elegant and kaleidoscopic range of spice, floral, citrus, stone and pain grillé notes that is the perfect complement to the racy, detailed and equally complex middle weight flavors brimming with the underlying minerality advertised by the nose, all wrapped in a driving, delineated and explosive finish. As good as the Ramonet Chevalier is, in the 10 vintages that it has been made, I can’t think of one where it’s the equal of the Montrachet. However, 2007 just might be that vintage. 96

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Pale, bright yellow. Citrus pith, green apple, Anjou pear, licorice and dusty stone on the nose. Dense, tactile and sappy, with superb mineral lift and precision. This boasts a tight core of crushed stone and citrus flavors and terrific purity and energy but will also require extended aging. Expands impressively on the back half and finishes with superb mineral persistence. 93+

Don Cornwell, tasted April 9, 2010 at 2007 tasting: Light yellow-green color; white flowers and pears aromas with a very faint hint of mint; bright, indeed brilliant citrus with very strong minerality on the mid-palate and fabulous acidity; the finish is quite long and very minerally. Superb wine [Ramonet?] 95+

agavin: straw pale, but a terrible potty nose of sulfur. Tasted like toilet too. Yuck.

2007 Girardin Chevalier-Montrachet

Allen Meadows: not reviewed

Steven Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2009: Bright medium yellow. Very ripe, expressive nose offers yellow peach and white flowers. Opulent, shapely and very ripe, in a distinctly sweeter style than the Batard. Gives an impression of lower acidity too, but there’s plenty of acid here. I suspect this one will shut down in bottle. Girardin, who bottled most of his crus in April and May of this year, noted that the 2007s really only started to express themselves in February, and that many of his fellow producers bottled this vintage too early. 94+

agavin: best wine of the night. Straw pale, lots of reduction, and a massive massive palette and finish.

Veal tenderloin with wild mushroom sauce served with rosemary roasted potatoes, haricots verts, carrots. Also a lovely dish, and a good bit of it. The meat was nice and tender and the sauce was fabulous.

Flight 5: Dessert

2001 Château de Fargues. GV 93. COLOR-beautiful dark golden; NOSE-much more honey; honey meets chlorine; very intriguing; hints of apricots; TASTE-outrageous weight on the mid-palate; Honeycomb cereal; really, really heavy pear component; I’m loving the orange peel aspect; very youthful Sauterne, not ready yet – it’s gonna get better from here; solid acidity, but a little flabby in the mid-palate which concerns me a tad; nice long finish; very bright; star fruit on the finish; little hints of pineapple; I’m enjoying this wine; it’s got BIG potential; RP-94/96; GV-93

agavin: a nice young sauternes. Not super thick or unctuous, but good.

Pistachio creme brulee. I like creme brulee and this was a great one, not so unlike a green tea one I’ve had at Takao. Great stuff.

Above is the flight list after being revealed.

And the full array of revealed bottles.

That’s more or less two people’s glasses!

agavin on food: There is a lot to say about this tasting. First of all, Valentino did a great job as usual. The wine service was impeccable, and this is a difficult task (pouring lots of big blind flights). Overall service is absolutely first rate. It’s a large quiet room, and the staff was highly attentive. Last month when we were here for the Chablis tasting, the food was solid but not enough of it. Not only did they drastically increase the quantity but the mix of dishes was far superior. Valentino might not be the modern Italian in town but they still really know how to cook.

agavin: 2007 as a vintage has this super acidic green apple vibe across the board. Interesting, like with 2005 we had a much higher percentage of advanced wines with these bigger grand crus than with the Chablis and Meursault. Overall, there were a lot of disappointing wines for hugely scored big whites from great producers. It’s hard to totally assess. The really oxidized wines are probably dead, although bottles probably vary. But a lot of the wines might just be in a funny state. I’m not sure 8 years from vintage is a great time for huge grand crus. I don’t drink them at this age myself, usually waiting at least 5 more years. I can’t help but think a bunch of these will outgrow their ungainly youth. What remains to be seen is if all that acid integrates and rounds out.

Don: The top six wines of the night by group ranking/voting were:

1. 2007 Girardin Chevalier (with 8 of 13 first place votes)
2. 2007 Ramey “Hyde Vineyard” Chardonnay
3. 2007 Colin-Morey Chevalier
4. 2007 Carillon Bienvenues
5 (tie) 2007 Colin-Morey Batard Montrachet
5 (tie) 2007 Girardin Batard Montrachet

David Ramey’s wine was the first California ringer ever to finish in the Top 5 wines. The Rochioli Sweetwater made a very good showing in the Criots/Bienvenues flight as well, tying for seventh overall. Several people, myself included, thought the Rochioli was Bienvenues. I thought it was the Ramonet BBM and it was my second favorite wine of the flight after the Carillon BBM.

The oxidation results this time were closer to prior years. Six of the 27 wines, or 22%, were either oxidized or advanced.

But what was the biggest shocker of the night was that both the Leflaive Chevalier and Leflaive Batard were oxidized, the Leflaive Puligny Pucelles fully ready to drink (one participant felt it was advanced) and the Bienvenues, while not oxidized or advanced, didn’t impress anyone. This is definitely NOT a good development.

Other big tasting dinners from this dinner series: