Attendees at the event were primarily collectors and area retailers. Stacole enriched the event by bringing in a powerhouse group to support its effort: Laura DiPasquale MS, GM and VP Country Vintners; Brian Koziol MS, Sales Director, Stacole; Tom Johnson, District Manager, Stacole; and Carter Nixon, Regional Sales Representative.
I have previously recommended that the buyer of Burgundian wines be familiar with three quality elements prior to making acquisition decisions: the AOC, the producer, and the vintage. I have provided information on the Burgundy region and Côte de Nuit AOCs in prior posts and will provide the same (in this post) for the specific producers and vintages included in the tasting.
White 2008 Flight
With one exception, this was a red wine tasting. The white on offer was the Domaine Roulot 2008 Meursault. The 2008 whites from the Côte de Beaune had been well received. Berry Bros & Rudd found the wines to be "intriguing" due to their richness of fruit combined with excellent acidity. The Burgundy Report lauded the wines' "minerality and aidity with good ripeness" and found them "hard to resist."
Doamine Roulot is managed by Jean-Marc Roulot who replaced a line of caretaker winemakers who had bridged the gap between his father's death and the initiation of his stewardship. The estate tends 13.5 hectares of vines organically to produce a "bright, chiseled" style of Meursault.
Tasting notes: This wine was nutty on the nose along with icy apple pear and a slightly toasted oak. It had a bright acidity which burst on the palate and accompanied notes of citrus and citrus rind. The limestone presence was reflected in a coating minerality.
Red 2006 Flight
The 2006 Côte de Nuit vintage was good but not great. According to Clive Coates "while overall the red 2006s are charming, fruity, and soft-centered ..." they lack the "depth, vigor, and concentration of the 2002 ..."
Domaine Michel Magnien Clos de La Roche Grand Cru
Domaine Michel Magnien sources grapes from family-owned Grand Cru, Premier Cru, and Village vineyards sited from Gevrey-Chambertin south to Chambolle-Musigny. The grapes for the Grand Cru wines are destalked prior to being placed uncrushed into tanks for six to eight days of pre-fermentation maceration, followed by alcoholic fermentation, and then 10 days of post-fermentation maceration. Malolactic fermentation is initiated after the wine has spent 8 months in barrel. The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered
Tasting notes: On the nose cinnamon and red berries. On the palate soft, round, fleshy, almost flabby with a medium finish.
Maison Frédéric Magnien Latricieres-Chambertin Grand Cru
Frédéric Magnien is the son of Michel Magnien and, in addition to helping his father out at Domaine Magnien, he runs his own negocé which he founded in 1995. Frédéric has been described in the Wine Advocate as having a "commitment to quality winemaking" and an "experimental, inquisitive mind." He works closely with wine growers in the region to ensure that he obtains optimum-maturity, old-vine grapes from the best appellations. His business has grown from 21 barrels annually to over 1000 today.
Tasting notes: On the nose red fruit, vanilla, baking spices, petrol. Petrol on palate along with hot pepper. A good finish. Ron ( my regular tasting partner; a Burgundy collector of note and the driving force behind the event) felt that this wine had more structure than the Clos de La Roche and had staying power.
Domaine Trapet Chambertin Grand Cru
The Trapet family has been producing wine in Gevrey-Chambertin for seven generations and currently owns 13 hectares of Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards which yield 5000 cases of wine annually. The Chambertin Grand Cru holdings total 1.9 ha spread over three parcels. The winemaker is Jean-Louis Trapet, a disciple of biodynamic farming. Grapes are harvested by hand and sorted twice before natural-yeast fermentation ( 30% whole cluster, 70% destemmed) in open-top vats. The wines are aged in 35%-75% new oak for 15-18 months before being bottled.
Tasting notes: Notes of green prunes and a little vanilla but, for the most part, ungiving. On the palate lean, watered down red fruit. Flat.
Red 2007 Flight
In 2007 Burgundy vignerons experienced a fairly miserable summer sandwiched in between a fine April and a cool, dry autumn. According to Clive Coates MW, 2007 is the "least-good" of the Burgundy red wine vintages between 2005 and 2009 because there were few wines "with the depth, concentration and intensity one would like to find ..."
Domaine Comte Georges de Vogué Bonnes Mares Grand Cru
This 20th-generation domaine is among the very best Burgundy houses and seeks to maintain that standing by blending tradition and modernity. The estate owns 7.5 ha of Le Musigny (80% of the available vineyard), 2.75 ha of Bonnes Mares, and 1.8 ha of Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru vineyards. The estate manager is Jean-Luc Pepin and the winemaker is Fancois Millet. This team is focused on maximizing fruit flavors as evidenced by crop thinning practices and a resistance to having more than 30-40% of the Grand Cru aged in oak.
Tasting notes: Red fruit and baking spices on the nose with a slight phenolic note. Rich and creamy on the palate. Great weight with a long finish. This was an excellent wine.
Maison Frédéric Magnien Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru
The capabilities of this house were detailed in the Red 2006 Flight discussion.
Tasting notes: On the nose smoke, red berries, vanilla, and rich shoe polish. Soy on the palate with a long, lean finish. Low acidity. Ron detected some earth and agreed with the richnesss assessment. He felt that the acid level was appropriate.
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With a few exceptions, the wines tasted to this point had all showed pretty well (keeping in mind that red Burgundy is designed to be drunk at a more advanced age than was the case for this particular tasting). I will cover the remainder of the tasting in a subsequent post.
© Wine -- Mise en abyme
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