5/20/24, 11:36 AM - Well, I paid just under 60 EUR/75cl on release (in2020), by which time the better 5/4/3rd growths were at, or above that level… unless you were lucky and prescient enough to secure amazing bargains en primeur for the 2019 vintage.
5/16/24, 4:44 AM - Enjoying reading your TNs to while away a train journey, and glad we agreed about this product!
5/16/24, 4:29 AM - Thank you so much for answering one of the questions remaining from my early wine experiences (in Belfast, early 1980s) - could that „Bulgarian“ Cabernet Sauvignon possibly have tasted as good as I remember? Yes, it seems it probably did…
5/2/24, 4:47 AM - Wow! 20 million bottles? Are you sure? That would explain why this tastes the way it does, I guess…
5/2/24, 5:00 AM - Isn‘t 20 million bottles the total annual production of ALL Meiomi wines added together? (Still an enormous quantity, but…)
5/2/24, 6:01 AM - Either way, that really is a scary volume for anything other than Coca Cola!
4/21/24, 3:59 AM - Burgundy is a minefield as you already know, and taste preferences are very personal! I tend to like my Pinots a bit more meaty than the Fourrier style—and living in Germany means that I buy more Künstler, Knipser and Ziereisen "Spätburgunder" (all strong recommendations, especially their more expensive products) than Burgundy "Pinot Noir". If you look through my CT TNs for the last couple of years, filtered for Pinot, you'll find some of my personal likes and dislikes, but from memory: I tend to find CdNuits more satisfying than CdBeaune, especially Morey St Denis, Vosne and Gevrey. Some negociants sell delicious wine, recently Faiveley seem to be on a roll. 1er Cru is often worth the extra money, Grand Cru not always. I'm very lucky to have a source for occasional bottles of grower Burg at cellar door price (never enough of it, but I can't complain...) which puts me in the fortunate position of being able to name a few favourite producers (whose products I often couldn't afford to by at retail or auction). Here goes: Ghislaine Barthod, Denis Mortet, Castagnier, Camille Giroud (but please be careful, my 2009s started delicious, but haven't kept well at all), Denis Bachelet, and if you win the lottery... Roumier. I have only had bad experiences, verging on "natural wine" levels of disgustingness, with Domaine Dujac. One thing I learned quickly visiting Burgundy is that the French don't generally value maturity as much as we foreigners tend to, so although of course the greatest producers still aim to make long-lived Burgs, their French customers drink 'em young. So some of the most arresting wines I have actually drunk in restaurants in the region of production have been very young Burgs at a surprisingly modest price level, with joyous primary fruit. Oftentimes it was so obvious that the wine wasn't made to keep that I didn't write TNs, just ordered more to the table and enjoyed it there and then. One example which I did get sent a case of from France and have enjoyed over a couple of years as a great inexpensive uncomplicated quaffing wine was Vincent Bachelet's Maranges 1er Cru Fussieres (2020, shortly to open my first 2022).
1/11/24, 12:15 PM - Morgon? Moulin-à-Vent?
12/29/23, 3:51 AM - Thanks for your comment! I just read some of your TNs and other comments and enjoyed them very much, particularly on the evolution of Bordeaux. For what it's worth, I find Chablis almost as interesting (and sometimes infuriating). Commercial products often disintegrate far too young, really good bottles can improve for decades. Although I doubt this falls into the latter category, I did see one review which claimed it would continue to improve until 2030, so let's see.
12/22/23, 2:10 AM - Many thanks for the tip! I look forward to trying it.
12/17/23, 3:55 AM - That would be great! Hope you are safe, optimistic, and keeping on making great wine...
11/7/23, 8:04 AM - My experience is that Vouvray, like other Loire Chenin Blanc, is attractive young, but closes down about 3-4 years after the vintage, only reopening another 3-4 years later. In its adolescence it can show a range of unattractive features, including those you describe, but most commonly an odd „wet wool“ character. I plan on broaching my 2019s starting 2026.
10/16/23, 1:10 AM - Thanks! The Ziereisen PNs I regularly buy are the entry-level Tschuppen, an amazing value here in Germany at 12 EUR, and of course the excellent Zispin, which I see you have tasted. Herr Ziereisen is, I think, the Jim Clarenden of Southern Germany, at least as far as his Pinots are concerned!
7/11/23, 11:57 AM - Might the screw cap be a sign that the producer just isn't in a position to use the natural cork closures which continue to be such a nightmare for people buying premium white Burgundy/Chablis? Perhaps it's one thing to charge 60 EUR/75cl if you are shipping from Beaune, and your customers people simply price the high premox/TCA failure rate in (such a privilege to have secured an allocation!) but quite another if you're based in Tasmania...
7/5/23, 12:08 AM - Thanks Michael! I did the same thing for a while, but found it confusing that some wines with fewer ratings had higher or lower aggregate ratings than the visible reviews (i.e. those with some kind of TN) suggested. So I switched back to seeing all ratings. But you're right, it's not worth getting annoyed by this, so I'll probably give it another try.
4/6/23, 2:12 PM - 79P??? Shurely shome mischtake!
3/30/23, 11:24 AM - 97P? Is that on a scale out of 150P?
3/28/23, 11:55 AM - Is this a tasting note or a repost of the producer’s internet puff?
2/24/23, 1:28 PM - Did you enjoy tasting this? And do you think it’ll improve in bottle?
12/12/22, 5:58 AM - Many thanks for that bit of insider information! How is the consumer supposed to know from the label that Superior stands for "feinherbe Auslese"? Generally in both the German and English languages this word means "superior", "better", or perhaps "improved" - and not "residually sweet". This would be less annoying if the nomleclature on Grünhäuser labels hadn't changed so frequently in recent years. Doubtless there are plausible aesthetic and even legal reasons for this, but it does makes finding the correct wine hit and miss, and also leads to too many lucrative opportunities for "innocent mistakes" in restaurant wine lists. For example, I have seen Abtsberg "Erste Lage" (at least, I think that was what was on the back label) incorrectly listed as Abtsberg "Grosses Gewächs" (and at a GG price) several times over the last couple of years. And that was in Germany, where at least the words themselves ought to be familar, if not their inconsistent (see also Rheingau) and ever changing usage...
12/1/22, 12:10 PM - And how did the bottle you opened taste?
11/25/22, 2:22 AM - Apologies if I got the wrong end of the stick, and thanks again for your clear answer elsewhere about the ups and downs of Dujac.
11/24/22, 12:54 PM - Greetings from Germany! We crossed swords a few years ago over Dujac Gebrey Combottes 2001, since when I had a lousy bottle of Dujac Combottes 2006, and you seem to have had mixed experiences (a few 1999 highlights, but also quite a few disappointments). Given that other Burgundy producers are available, who seem able to turn out reliable or even inspired wines with a fair degree of consistency, I wonder how you feel about Dujac's record, from your experience?
11/25/22, 2:18 AM - Thank you! That is very helpful on the subject of Dujac, which had been occupying me for a while, and prompts me to search out Rayas actively (I have a bottle of their Fonsalette CdR Syrah 2000 in fond memory...)
11/29/21, 2:33 AM - Thanks for your comment. Yes, I do always take pains to describe what I taste accurately, and mark accordingly. If there's one thing I have learned over the last ten years of exposure to "natural", "organic" and "biodynamic" wines, not to mention the ups and downs of hyped red Burgundy it is this: one person's "obviously faulty" is another person's "earthy complexity and natural verve". I'm not judging anyone else's palate, but I certainly reserve the right to give an accurate description and a personal rating to any wine in the condition in which it reaches my table, of course taking provenence and storage into account (in this case, both were impeccable). I do (alas, too frequently for my own comfort) record when bottles are obviously flawed, but this one wasn't. Perhaps people like me shouldn't be allowed to drink 300 EUR red Burgundy in the first place, but as I love it so much when it's good, I intend to continue doing so as often as I can afford to, and annoying true believers with my TNs when a much praised bottle turns out to have been a mistake!
11/24/22, 1:10 PM - Many thanks! I'm relieved and glad to hear a positive report that at least some other vintages of this are giving some pleasure! Alas, I had an obviously faulty bottle of 2006 earlier this year, and then set my mind to reading every CT TN I could about Dujac. My impression is that many of this producer's wines are - even by the low standards of red Burgundy - extraordinarily unreliable, and even experienced tasters seem relieved when they encounter a good one. Having had the privilege to revisit Burgundy recently, I shuddered at how tiny the famous plots are, and how little juice there is each year to be turned into... nectar or swill, depending on the producer. I can see why people pay the premium for Fourrier, for example, or Roumier, or Bachelet, but these seem to be reasonably consistent producers, whereas Dujac seems to be anything but...
11/24/22, 12:38 PM - Seriously? 70P?
11/19/22, 11:07 AM - Thank you! I have read great things about it, and look forward very much to eating there in the future...
11/14/22, 11:32 PM - Hope your remaining bottles turn out well!
11/15/22, 2:18 AM - Ah, such happy memories of visits to Ireland—real Guinness! It just doesn't taste the same in Germany.
10/4/22, 3:02 PM - Well, it’s great to learn that somebody actually likes „natural“ wines, and all things funky. Just as long as I don’t have to drink them too…
9/21/22, 1:27 PM - Surely 82P is a typo?
9/1/22, 2:59 PM - Seriously? GCC Bdx are generally made to taste good at 10 years+, many would say 15 or 20 years is optimal. My 2009s are gradually coming in to focus 13 years after the vintage, and I pity anyone other than a professional taster who met many of them in a dark alley at age 3(!!!) So if you have further bottles, put them somewhere cool and revisit in 2032.
8/25/22, 3:25 AM - Thanks johnrm for your comment. I'm glad to hear that your bottle was in good shape! My two bottles (October 2020 and November 2021) were bought separately, the day before consumption, at a Waitrose near Oxford, so it's indeed possible that the second one had suffered from poor storage in a warehouse or in-store, or been exposed to temperature extremes during shipping from Chile. Or perhaps the cheap synthetic closure has variable success at keeping out oxygen?
8/17/22, 3:17 AM - Thanks Michael! To accentuate the positive: I do love Chianti, and have had more luck with Felsina, Isole e Olena and indeed Brolio over the years.
7/16/22, 3:30 AM - Thanks for your comment! I think it depends on the flaw. If the bottle has been transported half way around the globe, and is obviously heat damaged, then that is very annoying, but not the maker's fault. But closure-induced spoilage (premox, TCA, inferior corks causing leakage or other contamination) is inexcusable now screwcaps, glass stoppers, DIAM etc. have proven their long-term quality, and been so widely adopted. If the maker wants that "bottle variation" to be part of the experience they are selling to the customer, than it only seems fair to take it seriously and incorporate it into a rating...
6/16/22, 12:02 PM - Please tell us which Nebs you recommend in this price range!
6/3/22, 9:55 AM - I'd also like to know what the fault was! Were both bottles corked? Then I absolutely understand, and sympathise with, your sarcasm ("great success"). And indeed, I have had a couple of corked bottles from Felsina in the past. Why do Italian producers (or perhaps consumers?) seem so resistant to screwcaps, or DIAM, for high quality wines? Or were both bottles perhaps just way too young, or in need of decanting, perhaps for several hours?
6/1/22, 2:42 PM - Thanks JohnTelford, I believe I know how you feel! The consolation is: unlike so many other misguided consumer purchases, this isn't a total write-off, as it's at least a pleasant alcoholic beverage. I found dressing down (my expectations, the food pairing) and just knocking it back with my husband after work helped ease the pain. By the way: bacon and eggs, or even a decent hamburger and fries would have been as fitting an accompaniment as spaghetti carbonara. Just don't go to too much trouble...
5/15/22, 11:09 AM - I think Haut-Lieu is intended for early drinking; Mont and Bourg for long ageing, so hold on and try again in 2030?
2/14/22, 1:49 AM - That's a really interesting point about SB(-based) whites made by Bordeaux blend producers. I think there are close comparisons in the Médoc. My fairly limited experience suggests that Pavillon Blanc (Ch. Margaux) is a big thick wine for people who like big thick wines, and although Blanc de Lynch Bages is more supple, it's still a highly concentrated, powerful product for the sort of people who like LB itself. Haut Brion blanc is above my pay grade, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was similarly huge. Just reading the words "Screaming" and "Eagle" in that order makes me break out into a sardonic grin, but next time you plan on opening some of your extensive library collection, white or red, I'm happy to wipe that smirk off my face (and get on the next plane).
12/26/21, 3:07 PM - I wonder whether this bottle had a screwcap or a cork closure?
12/27/21, 1:56 AM - Thanks! (My 75cl bottles have screwcap closures.)
11/29/21, 2:04 AM - Thanks for your comment, and sorry to read your TNs on 2 bad bottles of Dauvissat Clos 2008. I've been holding off opening my half-case of Clos on the reasoning that if they're good, they still have lots of time, and if they're poxed, there's also no hurry to pour them down the drain. (Meanwhile, I've gradually started buying Chablis again, not Dauvissat, but Fevre, who seems to have proved that DIAM is an effective closure.)
10/18/21, 12:36 PM - Are you quite sure you were drinking Pauillac? I thought Cos was in St. Estèphe...
10/23/21, 12:28 AM - The TN originally had a typo: „Pauillac“ instead of „Médoc“ which I found very human and charming given that Cos is practically in Pauillac - give or take a dry stream - and its wines seem IMHO stylistically quite unique for St. Estèphe. So to answer your question, I found the - now corrected - typo somehow true. And of course I am also wondering when to drink my 2001 Médocs, including a bottle of Cos, so did indeed find the tasting note itself interesting.
6/21/21, 2:40 AM - Hi forceberry, thanks for your comment. I think we may be writing about different things. No, I definitely don't mean the kind of new oak treatment (usually in French barriques) which has put me off "new-wave" Rioja (e.g. Remírez de Ganuza, Remelluri, Dalmau...) I'm describing the intense, high-toned (volatile?) acidity which comes from vinification and very long subsequent ageing in old American oak, i.e. exactly what LdH do with Tondonia. (Have you visited the bodega? It's quite an experience!) As a long-term fan and collector of both LdH and Castillo Ygay (i.e. long before they became popular and expensive again) I'm fully aware of the electric thrill of that high-toned, high-acid, sharp, old-oak magic... when it works and is in balance with sufficient body, fruit and a decent "structure" of other textural elements. The antithesis of such success is, in my personal opinion, Paternina's Banda Azul, which gives me instant acid reflux.Returning to your question, roughly half the roughly two-dozen 2001 Tondonia Reservas I have opened myself or been offered by friends struck me as having suffered from too-extensive oak treatment. The same applies, if I remember correctly, to the single bottle of 2005 Bosconia I opened when I bought that vintage (in 2018) and several bottles of 2005 Cubillo over the years. The biggest disappointment so far have been several expensive bottles of 1994 Tondonia Gran Reserva and 1991 Tondonia GR Blanco, all with more or less deficient corks under the wax capsule. I'm very sensitive to both TCA and mouldy smells, so that is what I generally record; my husband is unusually TCA-tolerant (what luck for us!) so what he usually notes the lack of fruit and biting old-oak-acidity unless the TCA is really screaming. Barring spoiled bottles, it may above all be a question of time: Successive bottles of 1970 Tondonia GR have been among my most wonderful wine experiences.
6/11/21, 6:59 AM - Many thanks win_fried for this very helpful information!
5/21/21, 3:10 PM - Isn't Schoenberg a Grand Cru in Alsace, France, as opposed to Ziereisen's Schulen (just over the railway line from the village, but definitely still in Baden, Germany)? Could it possibly be that you tasted another wine from another place? I get your criticism of Alsace PN, which in my experience is highly problematic and regularly disappointing, but German SB (increasingly designated as PN) is now so diverse and, in some regions, fine, that "hot dog water" doesn't seem accurate any more. Ziereisen? Künstler? A dozen others from Molitor in Mosel to Grünhaus in Ruwer, via Ahr and Assmanshausen?
5/13/21, 11:50 AM - 61P? Is this a joke, or did you drink the washing up liquid by mistake?
4/7/21, 1:39 PM - Many thanks for this information RCTS! Let's hope that their humble Chianti Classico is soon available under screwcap!
4/9/21, 1:47 AM - Thank you Echinosum, restaurant "theatre" is indeed a plausible explanation which I hadn't thought of. Although: the theatre I have most often witnessed in Italian restaurants (more often as a spectator, perhaps twice as an active participant) is a heated debate between a customer and a macho waiter who initially refused to take back a corked wine. Escalating the complaint to include the restaurant manager can easily ruin the evening for an entire dining room, indeed on one occasion I can remember, it led to a Monty Python-like temper tantrum...
3/29/21, 2:24 AM - Herzlichen Dank Bandreas, auch für Ihre Verkostungsnotizen für andere LdH Weine! I do envy you the experience of the 2001 Parreno (17.10.2020), which I didn't even know existed until reading your TN. Alarming to see that your bottle of the 1994 Tondonia GR (09.09.2017) also had a saturated cork only a few years after release. That makes 4 bad corks between us so far, not a great record for a wine of this reputation and price...
3/9/21, 1:31 PM - Indeed... and sorry to have drifted off down memory lane. I was more analytical in my TN of 23.11.2019, which holds good for the bottle this evening.
3/8/21, 1:47 AM - In my experience, and for my personal taste, there is simply no point in opening ANY 1855-classified red Bordeaux less than 10 years after the vintage (unless you are a professional wine taster or merchant, of course). They simply aren't made that way. In poorer vintages (like 2002 and 2004) 15 years is usually enough to make them pleasurably drinkable, but the better wines (meaning most of those costing more than 30 EUR en primeur) need 20 years. Really fine wines from fine vintages like 1995 and 1996, let alone the likes of 2000, only start to show their true quality at 20 years and over. And first growths? Well, not being an oligarch, and only having started buying wine seriously around 2000, I have followed my experience of lesser wines, read reviews by CT members I trust and generally find reliable, and decided to leave my few bottles of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, even 2002 first growths another few years yet, perhaps starting to try them when they are 25. Considering starting with 1999, or 2002...So I'm not surprised that you enjoyed a properly mature Cantermerle more than a Lafite 2015 still in its infancy. 24 years sounds about right to me! If you really want to follow the development of the 2015 vintage from the Lafite stable, then you could perhaps try Carruades (but even then I'd suggest waiting another 5 to 10 years) or maybe Duhart-Milon (ditto). Or go for a fine Pauillac deliberately made to be drunk relatively young, like Pauillac de Latour, which will cost a fraction of the Grand Vin, and give much more pleasure. I have had good experiences with very light Pauillacs, d'Armailhac for example, from lesser vintages (notably 1998 and 2002) at about 10-15 years, while they are still taut and youthful. And of course many French wine-lovers prefer their Bordeaux (relatively) youthful, so I don't expect everyone to agree with me. But in any truly Grand Vin, let alone a First Growth, in its first 5-10 years after the vintage the kind of oaky baby fat you describe is only to be expected.
2/22/21, 2:02 AM - Hi Benj, no, don't worry, it didn't taste remotely like Chablis, Riesling etc! There are three points here which occupy me (and, it seems, at least one of them occupies you too). 1) The first is my frustration about crappy closures/unhygienic bottling lines/insufficient SO2. What's the point of making great vins de garde if nearly every second bottle is deficient after 10 years? It feels like taking part in a lottery with +-50 EUR tickets, and no jackpot (other than, perhaps, getting what you paid for in the form of a drinkable wine). I'm prepared to believe a recent CT TN which states that a bottle of 1991 Tondonia blanco GR was superior to that taster's experience with the 1994, only: I bought 5 bottles of the 1991 and ALL of them were mouldy, muted or corked. So far, I've had more luck with the 1994. And I won't start on the great 2008 GC Chablis nightmare...2) The second is actually something else: yes, I agree that Vina Tondonia make something pretty unique. I don't think I'll ever buy another bottle of Gran Reserva blanco, but at the price point of Gravonia or Tondonia Reserva blanco I'm sure I will, even if my experience over a long time with TRb 1999 is that you NEVER know what you'll get when you open the bottle, making it a bummer for food matching, and a non-starter for entertaining (unless you actually like serving guests corked/spoiled wine). With the reds it's even more complicated: the 1970 GR was one of the loveliest mature wines I have ever tasted, again and again (and hopefully, again in the future...) Otherwise some have been fine, but far to many at all price levels and ages back to the 1970s have been musty/mouldy, if not outright spoiled. 3) The third is more positive. I do think there are alternatives both to the Tondonia style and to the big noble Rhône whites. Not identical wines, of course, but worthy substitutes which actually work better (I think) with some classic food pairings. 3.1) Oxididation: Sherry is a big wide world with huge stylistic differences. One of my big "discoveries" last year, actually widely available in commercial quantities, was Gonzalez Byass' (Tio Pepe) Una Palma, a fantastic en rama which has a bit of a Vin Jaune richness and quality, but is about half the price. There are also Dos Palmas, Tres Palmas etc which I haven't tried, but I suspect won't be as supple and fresh, which is what I'm looking for (along with the whole oxidized complexity thing) to accompany the classic Tondonia blanco pairings, including Lotte a l'americaine and other complex fish dishes, or indeed anything cooked with mountain cheeses. Vin Jaune itself is an expensive hobby, but OMG it can be good, provided that it has been bottled under sanitary conditions, using decent corks (i.e. exactly the same problem as with Tondonia...) 3.2) Rhône Ranging: My go-to wine with garlicky fish soup for nearly a decade now has been Cal PLa Mas d'en Compte blanc (Priorat). It MUST have 5 years+ age, or it'll taste like sweaty wool socks. Acustic blanc (Montsant) is more modern, less oxidised and quite variable, but can be very good indeed if you catch it at about 3 years old. I had two bottles of exceptional Corbieres (Olieux Romanis Cuvee Prestige) a while back. And – changing grape, place and style abruptly – if you're looking for true greatness, what about dry Vouvray (Huet Mont/Bourg etc) with a minimum of 10 years bottle age? That's a very grand vin de garde which is still unpopular, astonishingly underpriced for the quality, and probably indestructable (as I write I glance up at an empty trophy bottle of 1959 Coteaux de Layon, off dry, which was one of the greatest wines I have ever tasted, twice. Bought off ebay, if I remember correctly, and showing every sign of poor storage and international coach-class travel...
2/14/21, 11:43 AM - I just felt moved to quote one of your TNs from 2007:From 37,5cl, spongey cork extracted without problem, but you squeeze it and wine drips out: not really a great advertisement for cork as a suitable closure for wines like this, intended to last for decades. This looks like maple syrup and tastes like... maple syrup made of Scheurebe with a little lemon. All in all, it's the most expensive (and perhaps most delicious) pancake topping imaginable. We drank a small glass each with Topfenpalatschinken (not poured on top, although once you've swallowed I suppose it's all the same) and got a major sugar high. More expensive than the equivalent Sauternes (Suduiraut 2003?), less expensive than the equivalent Tokaji 6 Puttonyos (Oremus 1993?), definitely less like wine and more like drinking undiluted maple syrup than either. Worth trying once, this penultimate bottle of my big 2000 Kracher Collection box makes me slightly apprehensive how obscenely sweet #10 will turn out, but then again, there's no hurry. Not confident it was worth the effort that undoubtedly went into producing it, however. NRUpdate after 48 hours. Zweder, I salute you! (TN 15.04.2007): "Flowers and muscatel in the bouquet. Enormously concentrated syrup with also flowers and muscatel in the taste." You nailed it. Now this is a bit more like 70% Muscatel and 30% Lustau-style P.X., but it's 13 years later, after all. 88-89P
2/7/21, 3:54 AM - Thanks for your comment about my TN on a (possibly refermented) 2008 Giroud Corton! I have a rule of thumb here: especially when buying directly from the producer I never return the first bad bottle, but if the problem repeats itself then I get in touch with them. In Germany that can mean quite some unpleasantness. So it was with several cases of Künstler wines from, if I remember correctly, 2001 to 2005, most of which were sealed with Nomacorq (plasic stoppers) and deteriorated fast. I was fortunate enough that a few single bottles in the cases had real corks, so even though Künstler ignored my increasingly loud complaints for several months, I was able to turn up at a couple of local VdP tastings bringing intact and ruined samples, and cause his salespersons some discomfort. Eventually, and with very bad grace, he agreed to replace the wines (with whatever was left over in the cellar. So instead of half bottles of 2003 Hölle Auslese Goldkapsel I got 2008 Hölle Auslese, not quite the same thing...) Despite that masterclass in poor customer service (unfortunately quite typical of Germany at the start of the Millennium, things have improved recently, if at a glacial pace) I have remained a loyal customer, particularly since Künstler started bottling even his top wines with screwcap.
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