Brief notes from a wonderful tasting earlier this year. Many thanks to the host for sharing such rare wines and creating a wonderful menu of quails to go with them! Fantastic! Wines were tasted semi-blind and the jokers double blind, though the guy bringing one of the jokers is known to like Chateauneuf a lot and quite often bringing wines from this fantastic area.

We started with a bubbly:

Jacques Selosse “Initiale”, degorged august 2nd 2006

Beautiful colour. Deep straw yellow. I t has a slightly oxidized note in the nose, that reminds me a little of provencal lavender soap. This is repeated in the taste and is not so much to my liking. However, there are tons more going on. The taste is generous, fairly full bodied, creamy, and soft, yet with refreshing, balancing acidity. Overall: Excellent quality here but not in my preferred style. Others also liked it more than I did this night. 90 p.

Then we headed to the main tasting and what a way to kick things off!

Flight 1

1996 Dugat-Py Charmes-Chambertin
Explosive nose! Intense and deep. Almost meaty and do I sense baconfat? Lots of dark fruits. Wonderful! Really displays “the dark side” of Burgundy in an almost non-burgundian way! It has oak still, almost a roasted espresso element to it. Taste reveals it to be definitely burgundian, with lively, juicy red berries and fruits and fresh acidity but enough fruit to keep it balanced in the background. Nose merits 96 if not 97 points except for the lack of typicity and taste 94 so overall: 94 p.

1996 Serafin Charmes-Chambertin
Beautiful, beautiful nose! Zappy, bright and lively! A little bit of the indescribable Burgundy zing. A vague hint of brett blows off quickly, which allows the nose to blossom even further! The cleanest, pure, ripe pinot fruit, yet such distinct coolness. More and more zing in lack of a better descriptor. Yes please! If all burgundy could taste like this! Only “setback” is the acidity from the 1996 vintage, yet in this case it is well concealed behind loads of all the good stuff! Couldn’t decide between 95 or 96 points. 96 emotionally but the acidity made me stay at: 95 p. Highly recommended!

Flight 2

1998 Dugat Py Charmes-Chambertin

This displayed an unusual resemblance with 1996 Serafin. Bright and zappy again. A bit lighter bodied and less zing but what a wonderful wine! 93 p.

1995 Pegau “Cuvée Maxime”
I have written that I find this wine to be more “boorish” (using google-translate). Can you say that about a wine? Identified to be the joker and suspected to be close to 100% Grenache from Chateauneuf given its character. It still displays some lively Grenache fruit but seems a bit closed/tired and the aftertaste is a bit metallic. When revealed it was once again a great honour trying this wine. Only once have I tried it where it lived up to the hype and it actually bested a winner bottle of Da Capo 1998. This time the lively fruit helped it garner a score of 89? P.

Flight 3

2001 Serafin Charmes-Chambertin
Yes please! We are back home! Again this beguiling lively fruitiness, that is so cool and well balanced. What a joy to recollect. This too displayed tremendous stuffing and surplus of “the good stuff” despite a present acidity. It’s got the zing, baby! Oh so delicious! Stylewise comparable to Serafin 1996 and Dugat Py 1998. 95 p.

2001 Dugat Py Charmes-Chambertin

Here we were introduced to another style of Burgundy. Quite interesting given that we are only trying two producers and one vineyard. It does have very nice aromatics nonetheless. It comes across as slightly sweeter and confectionary. The Swedes reading these notes will recognize the flavour as the red winegums called PimPim Båtar that have this rather confected raspberry flavour. This is not of the same class as the sibling of the same age but a wonderful glass. 92 p.

Flight 4

2003 Serafin Charmes-Chambertin
Oh yes, now we are talking. It is perhaps most fair to the reader to mention that I am passionate about Californian wine and generally really like the styles of wines produced there. That might help explain why I liked this so much but everyone around the table seemed to find it (and the 2003 counterpart from Dugat Py as well) to be of the highest quality too! And they are generally quite “old world” in their preferences. First let me get the few “minuses” out of the way: It displays some toffee and a hint of diacetyl/dairy products that might be bordering on being too much for some. It wasn’t too much for me but I wouldn’t want it any higher. My take is that the malolactics were performed in new oak and pushed to the limit just before having gone too far. With this out of the way let me state that this was such a treat and to me the best show so far this evening. It maintained such poise and balance even though it was very full bodied and rich. Zingy again and I cannot state enough how important this is for me in my appreciation of great Burgundy. Furthermore, it helps explain that it was well balanced, as it cannot have lost its balance and still have zing. Remember this when I say that I also found some Espresso roast/freshly ground coffee. This would surely be controversial to some but wow, I enjoyed it so much. No problem with elevated acidity here, that’s for sure. I’d really love to see how this develops over the next 10 years. 96+ p.

2003 Dugat Py Charmes Chambertin
This also had some class in spite the hot vintage. I suppose you could say that this is the 5th style of wine the two producers had presented for us and we had only tried 7 at this point! This is really one helluva mouthful. Meaty, rich and densely full bodied. This tastes absolutely wonderful but there is also lots more structure to fight with here. I have written that is perhaps the potentially most complex of the two. I haven’t written many particular flavours other than the wine being completely and utterly wonderful! 95++ p.

Interlude

1999 Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru “Valmur”
I brought this as a joker, thinking it might work well as an interlude between the reds. It was served doubleblind to the others but of course I knew what it was. Im unhappy to say that I was slightly disappointment with this. It displayed provencal soap, lanolin, and an almost german petroleum scent in the nose. In addition it had this slightly sweet flavor of apples that have started decaying – started turning brown. Either this should have had a lot of air to let these scents blow away or it has been poorly stored. I have bought this very late in 2001. It has been standing on the shelf of the importer up until then. I’m not sure exactly when Raveneau releases his wines, but still, can it really have been damaged by such a short period on the shelves? The flavor unfortunately fulfills what the nose “promised”. In addition it was quite full bodied and had a refreshing acidity. If this is one of the worlds great whites I just do not understand it. I have written that it develops some refreshing scents not dissimilar from Corton Charlemagne with extended airing but it didn’t lose the soap/glue/lanolin/varnish – ness to the aroma and smell. Not my cup of tea this night. N/R

Flight 5

1997 Serafin Charmes-Chambertin

Corked! N/R

1997 Dugat Py Charmes-Chambertin

This is wonderful, really an excellent wine but still a step down from the 2003’s IMHO. Great to find that a general theme this night is bright, zappy fruit but unfortunately also an ever so slightly elevated acidity. This is “only” medium bodied compared to the full 2003’s. Still: Wonderful! 93 p.

Flight 6

2000Serafin Charmes-Chambertin

This has an almost Chateauneuf-like scent of sur-maturité to it. What causes this? Probably the warmth of the vintage. Yet the taste has grace and poise and is wonderfully balanced even though we moved up a notch in density compared to the 1997. Funny that the nose has this overripe element when the taste is so fresh and lively. Taste is actually better than the nose on this one. 94 p.

2000 Dugat Py Charmes-Chambertin

This displays a slightly sulphury note in the nose that quickly blows off. After that this again shows the bright, zappy side of Burgundy and in the nose is a nice contrast to the Serafin. Oh wow! Yet another wonderful glass from Burgundy! Maybe a hair width less complex in the mouth than the Serafin but it is roughly of the same caliber. 94 p.

Flight 7[

2002 Rayas, Chateauneuf du Pape

Impressive, sweet liquor nose especially considering what a horrendous vintage this was. Wow, what a surprise! This is a complete and utter miracle in this vintage. It is really pleasant and delightful and can quite easily follow the 2000’s. 91 p.

2002 Dugat Py Charmes-Chambertin

Again a slight sulphur note to begin with but yet again, it blows off very quickly. When it dissipates it gives way to a wine of stunning world class! Dense, dense nose with perhaps the biggest surplus of “the good stuff” so far this evening yet once again: I could just keep nosing this. Great balance aromatically. Taste is still young and unresolved yet it already delivers such an attack that you have to admire it! Zing! Bright! Zappy! –And yet so full bodied! This must have at least 25 years of further potential! 96+

Flight 8

1999 Serafin Charmes-Chambertin

Brief summary here as I had to just sit back and enjoy it: This beautifully summarizes what has been the most ongoing theme tonight. Grace, balance, ever intriguing Burgundy spice and zing, the most lively red fruits and then: Here it is! Almost as full bodied as the 2002, yet perhaps slightly less promising but just the tiny bit more resolved to give it all the necessary firepower and intensity of flavours to keep the structure well hidden and allow for a more tremendous drinking experience tonight! Great world class! 96 p.

1999 Dugat Py Charmes-Chambertin

Well then, here it is! The WOTN! All that the heart could wish for, well, at least my heart;-) All the balance the best ones have showed tonight and the bright flavours but here it also incorporates a bit of the roasted element, that a big Cote-Rotie fan like me enjoy so much! A slight element of chocolate and coffe. Remember that this full bodied wine retained coolness and balance. Completely and utterly top class drinking and what a wonderful way to end the tasting! 97+

Then there were a few more old bottles of wine, a 1974 Barolo from the Marchesi and a quite nice 1983 Torres Black Label Mas la Plana. In the end: 1995 Taylor’s Vargellas.

What a treat to be able to try these wines! Thank you so much to the host!