Essex County Wine Society

THE WINE PRESS

            ESSEX COUNTY WINE SOCIETY

March 18, 2008          

Dear Friends and Fellow Wine Lovers:

Our March tasting of 2005 Red Burgundy did prove the proposition that in a good vintage like 2005, sticking with good producers, one can purchase great wines at the village level rather than spend exorbitant amounts of money on Grand Cru or Premier Cru wines.

Howard guided us through a tasting of 2005 village Burgundy from five different communes in the Cote de Nuits. We went from Nuits St Georges  to Gevrey Chambertin. The favorites of the evening were the Vougeraie Gevrey Chambertin Evocelles and the Burguet Gevery Chambertin En Billard followed by the Vosne Romanees by Sylvan Cathiard and  the Chambolle Musigny by Drouhin.. We now turn from the most recently issued vintage of red Burgundy to some of the oldest vintages from that wonderful location.      

One of the most popular tasting of recent time was the old Burgundy tasting that we did in April 2005. We have decided that a repeat performance of that event although for a limited number of participants is in order. Once again, we will be led by, our formidable Burgundy expert, Richard Steinberg.  We will be tasting wines from vintages with which most of us have little experience:  1919 Volnay; 1937 Vosne Romanee; 1949 Pommard; 1961 Clos Vougeot; 1962 Vosne Romanee; 1964 Chambolle Musigny; 1976 Beaune; 1989 Gevrey Chambertin and 1997 Grand Echezeaux.

Because these wines were  from a London, England wine merchant, the quantities available were small, 2 bottle lots,.  The limited number and the lack of clear provenance mean that we have not pre-tasted the wine so that some (we hope not all) of the wines may be interesting but not reach our high level of expectation.   The number of attendees will be limited to 40.

We think it would be appropriate to excerpt comments in our letter of three years ago when we stated that “Tasting old wines may help us answer the question:  How does a good wine age, when is the wine ready, and when is it too old to drink?  To paraphrase Yogi, “prediction is difficult, especially about the future”.  Jancis Robinson approached the subject in her “Vintage Timecharts”(Mitchell Beazley, 1989) and took an “audacious” leap into estimating the maturation course of certain wines.  The subject is certainly complex and depends not only what went into making the wine (grapes, vintage, winemaker, etc.), the state of the container, in this case a cork-sealed bottle, and the care or lack of it with which it is stored.  “All of the very finest wines improve with age.  Indeed what distinguishes noble wine from merely pleasant is the ability to evolve”(Robinson)”.

Michael Broadbent (Vintage Wine Webster’s International 2002) has had the most published experience with older wines and vintages.  We reviewed his comments about the vintages.  He describes 1919 (5 stars out of 5) as a great vintage-small crop of magnificently ripe wines. The vintage of 1937 was also a 5 star vintage in Broadbent’s opinion and he states that “unquestionably this is the outstanding vintage in this difficult decade-the crop was small, grapes more concentrated and tannic which enabled the best wines to keep extraordinarily well”. We will then turn to the 1949 vintage which Broadbent states “is a most perfect end of a decade-elegant well-balanced wines-the best of the epitome of Burgundy” Clive Coates in his book “Cote d’Or”(University of California Press 1997) says this was the best vintage of them all-perfect beauty and purity”. Robert M Parker Jr. says “it was the best of post world war II vintages before 1959” (“Burgundy” Simon and Schuster 1990).

After those three great vintages we will turn to a Grand Cru, Clos Vougeot from 1961 followed by the 5 star (Broadbent) 1962 Vosne Romanee. Coates in his book says that 1962 was a vintage that had a high level of quality and has held up very well.

We will then have two 1964 Chambolle Musigny a vintage that Broadbent gives 4 stars. One of these wines will be from the famous Premier Cru vinyard, Les Amoureuses, As many of you know this vineyard as well as one other Premier Cru vineyard are deemed to be at the same level as Grand Cru and the pricing of the wines from this vineyard reflect that valuation. Clive Coates rates the 1964 vintage very high and states in his book “I rate it with 1949 and 1952 as the best of what I call “old fashioned Burgundy”

We will finish up with a 1976 Premier Cru, Montees Rouge from Beaune (interestingly Coates says in 30 years of tasting he has never had a wine from this vineyard), a 1989 Premier Cru, Les Champonets, from Gevrey Chambertin and finally a 1997 Grand Cru, Grand Echezeaux, by Emmanuel Rouget. Many of you know that Rouget took over wine-making responsibility from his uncle Henry Jayer , and continued his uncle’s approach to winemaking . Jayer is probably one of the best Burgundy producers ever to make Burgundy and his most famous wine, of course, is the Cros Parentoux.

As has been mentioned above, this is an unusual and special tasting..  The number of attendees will be limited to 40.  We will accept replies from members preferentially, first come, first served.  If there are spaces available, guests may be accommodated.  The cost, as one might expect, will be higher than usual and you should be aware that some of the expense is being borne by the society.

The tasting will be $125 for members and $140 for guests (again only if space is available).

Send your reply in as soon as possible.

The next event will be the annual Spring Dinner on May 4, 2008.

 vino veritas and a votre sante

Bob and Howard

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