More on Tuesday lunch in Beaune…
My head is still reeling from the staggering array of truly amazing old burgundies making the rounds on Tuesday. Many of these were certainly once-in-a-lifetime bottles, as the chances of ever finding another bottle of many of these is virtually nil.
I keep going over my notes, and don’t know where to begin. The Burghound himself, Allen Meadows, was at a dinner I went to last night, and we chatted briefly about some of the wines from La Paulée. He was most blown away by the ’47 Volnay Clos de Chevrey from d’Angerville. I’ve never heard of nor seen another example of Clos de Chevrey – but this wine was absolutely mind-blowing in every way. Purity, texture, complexity of aromas and flavors, vibrancy and life – perhaps the best way to describe it is multi-orgasmic. I can’t wait to see Allen’s notes when he puts them into his on-line data base at some point in the future…
Doug Barzelay, Michael Rockefeller, Allan Meadows, & Michel Boss
The ’23 Bonnes Mares from de Vogüé was also right up there on the mind-blowing scale. It wasn’t Burgundy’s greatest of times in that period between the two world wars (in fact the 30s were pretty much a wash-out), but this wine was captivating. This bottle was apparently from a stash that was hidden from the Germans during WWII (legend has it that many in France constructed false walls in their cellars to keep the good stuff from the marauding nazis) – here’s a shot of the back label that was affixed to the bottle explaining the story (this back label is obviously a more recent addition – the front label is original, as confirmed by the domaine…)
de Vogüé's Jean-Luc Pepin with the '23 Bonnes Mares
The back-label
The ’45 Musigny from de Vogüé was also at the very top of the list. The domaine did not estate-bottle all of their production at that time – they sold some finished wine to others for bottling. This was a version that was bottled by Drouhin. Two years ago at this event we had two magnums of this wine, one bottled at the estate and the other at Drouhin – And as I recall I liked the estate-bottled version slightly better. This was a 750 that was pure silk, with underlying power and absolutely endless length. This remains one of the two or three greatest wines I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.
On the white side, the star for me was the ’69 Montrachet from Drouhin. Only Montrachet can do this. At age 40 it was still ridiculously powerful, vibrant, dense, conentrated, amazingly long, and a complexity that escapes words.
I am also a huge fan of old Champagne. It’s always a bit of a crap-shoot – but when you hit that great bottle you have indeed hit the motherlode. The Magnum of ’64 Salon that was going around was in fine form – stunningly fresh, crisp and bright at 45 years of age…
Our hostess - Véronique Drouhin
As you can see in my previous post, the list of wines tasted that day goes on and on and on. Nearly every wine on that list deserves an entry of its own. On any other day, under any other circumstances, anyone would be more than thrilled to have just one or two of these wines to enjoy over the course of a very special meal with freinds and loved ones. Here, it was a literal orgy of great wines, one after another, with barely the time to fully comprehend each wine before someone was putting another old Richebourg or Musigny in your glass. Is it too much? Probably so, but I’m happy to go off the deep end once a year if that’s what it takes to experience these marvelous treasures…
Oh, and we ate pretty well too! Sea Bass Sashimi and smoked Salmon with a spicy Mango Gelée, then Sea Scallops poached in butter over a bed of country sausage (unbelievably great), Truffled Pheasant Boudin, Venison a la Royale, Cheeses, and then Pineapple confit with Vanilla Bourbon ice cream, ans then coffee and truffles. Is it wrong to sometimes just want a good cheesburger? I’m just sayin’…
