Six of us, a mild early winter afternoon and beautiful sunshine, perfect pinot food (plenty of proper Beijing kaoya) made for the perfect setting.
All the wines showed beautifully, a little surprising for their age and vintage, and the cork Gods were with us this day.
Every wine double decanted four hours beforehand.
2002 Krug
had this a few times recently, beautiful wine but certainly in need of another decade. Great start. 95pts Drink: 2025+
2010 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet
wow, a seven year old Leflaive that has not premoxed!!! White flowers, citrus, wet pebbles and mint... a classic Chevalier profile. Young, but very drinkable, with length to burn. An excellent wine, but not when you need to buy three to drink one. 94pts Drink: now-2035.
Then on to the main event:
2010 Lucien le Moine Clos de la Roche
these two guys are making stunning wines, absolutely love just about all of their stuff. Somehow they still manage to get their hands on good parcels even in the miniscule-yielding vintages.
bright red fruits, awesome mouthfeel, which I find a signature of the vineyard, extremely rich yet focussed. This will last decades, but very hard to resist now. 94pts Drink: 2020+ (but great now!!)
2010 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche
bright red fruits, searing acidity and extraordinarily high-toned. Plenty of stems methinks. Again, despite the obvious youth and tenacity of the wine, the mouthfeel is brilliant. However, this needs at least another decade to begin to give somewhere near full pleasure. 93++ pts Drink: 2030+
2010 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche VV
for me at least, Ponsot is the king of the Clos, and this wine is another example of his brilliance. Again, an extraordinary array of red fruits, supported by hints of white pepper, tilled earth and roses. The length is breath-taking, the lift and focus mind-numbing , and the complexity simply staggering. A classic example of a wine that exhibits infinite intensity without weight or substance... one of those "effortless and airy" wines that remind you why top Burgundy is worth the expense. A must-have wine that is a level above everything else today. 98pts Drink: 2020-2050.
2010 Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche
this is a big, tannic wine, certainly much more robust than the previous three. However, it retains the vineyard's character, with bright red fruits, rather candied, floral and with beautiful mouthfeel. Difficult to follow the Ponsot, we should have served that last. One observer thought the wine a little unbalanced, and questioned if the tannin might out-last the fruit. We all found a hint of green in this wine. Much more difficult to assess, I think this is still way too young. 92pts Drink: 2025-2040
2010 Domaine Leroy Clos de la Roche
never had this wine before, and I very much doubt I will ever again!!
Really, really polished wine, typical of Leroy. Perhaps more than any other wine, this had the Peacock's tail in spades, with magnificent length. The group was split between this and the Ponsot as the WOTD, but for me the Ponsot was clearly the better wine. A wine for billionaire label-hunters. 95pts Drink: 2020-20402010 Dominique Laurent Clos de la Roche
hmmm, I actually like this guy, but as always, this is far too oaky in it's youth. Hard to get past the oak, particularly on the nose, but once you do, there is great fruit with a classic vineyard profile lurking underneath. Give it a decade to shine. My assessment is not a lot more then an educated guess, but I think this might turn out just fine. 92++pts Drink:2025-2035.
2010 Domaine Faiveley Clos de la Roche
actually, the label doesn't spell it out, but I believe this is a Maison, not Domaine, wine. Whatever, it is a beauty, and reflective of this Domaine's renaissance since the mid-noughties. Rich, round, red and ready, a wine to sit back and enjoy, perhaps the exact opposite of the intellectual effort of Dujac. Wonderful, and again a great reflection of this great vineyard. 94pts Drink: 2017-2030.
A great day, with great wines and great company. The horizontal only re-enforced my love of this vineyard, and of Morey St Denis in general. I also believe CdlR still represents decent value when comparing to other top GC's of the Nuits.
Wow!
