Last night at our anniversary dinner, served with Onglet and Lapin a la Moutarde:

Tasted at 2 hours:

The wine was a brilliant light to medium red with that great floral nose cherries that mature great Burgundy possesses. On the palate, the wine explodes with essences of violets and sweet cherries. It's difficult to tell where the sense of smell leaves off and the sense of taste begins. The wine kept improving throughout dinner. As far as I can tell, this is great Burgundy at its prime. Spectacular. 97.

This is one of my two wines of the year so far, along with the '92 Matanzas Creek Merlot.

Congratulations Board-O on hitting the Burgundy high-note, on a special day nonetheless. Kinda like hitting a homerun in the World Series, I imagine.

Thank-you. I'm afraid my beloved Yankees won't make it to the World Series.

Every year, at our anniversary dinner, I open some of my most special wine. For many years, I opened a 1959 Bordeaux or Burgundy, however I only have three left (La Tache, Latour, Mouton), so I have to look elsewhere. I had planned to open the '59 La Tache next year, but my wife wants me to sell it. We had one about ten years ago and I thought it still needed a little more age.

I'd be glad to seel it from you...

Whatever are you talking about?

The Mariners are looking pretty good!

Board-O, how could you POSSIBLY have given up on the Yankees already. You should KNOW that Grandpa George will just go out and buy whatever he needs to get him into the playoffs. Now whether or not that will be enough to get you to the Series, who knows? But you never have to worry about not making the playoffs, like the rest of us.

On the subject of wine, have you tried any other 78 Remoissenets? I know I have seen some around town here over the past couple of years, but have balked b/c you never know for sure how that given bottle has been stored. I loved his 89 Savigny les Beaune though--finished my last one about a year ago. 93 MBD points.

I haven't given up on the Yankees.

The only '78's from Remoissenet I've had are three Clos Vougeots.

I have also read on several occasions that Remoissent has been accused more than once of bottling with different varietal (i.e. blend) or vintages from what's stated on the label. Have you heard that?

No, I haven't, but please allow me to bore you with a story along similar lines. In 1979, I bought three bottles of Chambertin produced by Bernard Grivelet. A year or two later, I read that he was charged with the crime of bottling vin ordinaire and calling it Chambertin. He partially admitted this, saying the wines were all from Gevrey-Chambertin. I hadn't paid much for the wine and didn't even remember where I had purchased it, so I opened one. It was good, solid Burgundy, maybe an 88 pointer. Certainly nothing like Chambertin from Voarick, Leroy, or Rousseau, but drinkable, so we had the had the two and made the best of it.

I've never heard a bad word about Remoissenet. (til now)

There was some scandal about this but I don't recall the specifics. What I have heard them accused of is "topping off", not sure what the term is for this. In other words, when you buy an older wine from their cellar they clean it up, recork it and stick a very thin needle in the cork and top it off with fresh juice. I personally doubt this as I've been in their cellars and have seen the fills on the very old wines.

It's a great tour if you ever had the chance - I took 150 pictures just in their castle and cellars in Beaune. Walls and walls of '47 Vosne Romanee and '66 Volnay...

The best burg I've ever had (and maybe one of my top 5 wines ever...) was a '69 Clos Vougeot directly from their cellar. Yowsa.

I've never been to Burgundy. A while back, before the Iraq war, I inquired about getting a group together for a Burgundy/Bordeaux tour, but with the political climate, it didn't seem promising. Instead we'll be touring the West Coast wineries.

Quote:

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It's difficult to tell where the sense of smell leaves off and the sense of taste begins.

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I've been following a discussion of whether "bigness" is better in Pinot Noir, and it reminded me of what you wrote here. To me, a great Pinot Noir should have that ethereal quality of seemlessness and balance that you describe. To some extent "bigness" is of secondary importance.

Sounds like a great wine and a great occasion.

I think we're talking about the same thing. You may refer to it as "ethereal," and I call it "expansive," but I suspect that naso-pharyngeal magic is what we both mean.

Agreed.

Yeah, I can lay it on a little heavy at times.

Board-O,

A little off topic rehash. You mention in this thread that your wife wanted you to sell your last bottle of 1959 LaTache. What is the auction value of this wine? I had a perfect bottle two weekends ago, and this was my wine of the two nights. I cannot find it listed anywhere though.

I did auction off my last bottle. I got either $1800 or $2200 for it. I know it was $200 off from $2000. I paid $100 for it in 1978, a hefty sum at the time.