Vintage: Rather high acid wines that at times lack ripeness but in many cases show very good structure - patience.
Dugat-Py GC Les Evocelles
No real nose to speak of except that it smells very dark. On the palate very rustic and full bodied in the style of a Chataneuf du Pape from an under ripe and tart year with tons of extract and a heavy feel. Clumsy and overblown with not much pinot recognizable. Mediocre wine at best - 80.
Claude Dugat Charmes Chambertin
Very dark color. Nose is filled with notes of hot concrete. Palate is utterly packed with flavors of catfish and old blackberry teabags. A real mouthful of cherry charred oak burns a highway onto your palate - 90 points for the concentration and length of the fruit on the finish.
Claude Dugat Lavaux St. Jacques
Ripe nose of dense rose bushes and raw sawdust! Lacks class in that grandma's perfume sort of way, but is very good and obviously high quality. This will last for at least another 10 years...93.
Jadot Bonnes Mares
Nice nose of classic kaleidoscopic intensity. Nice transparent stone and pit fruit which is also well balanced and complex. But the quibble is that it lacks the depth to be great. A rather lighter effort that tastes like it was made from excessively high yields - 91.
Lafon Volnay Les Santenots du Milieu
Smells bright and shiny new like a little red Matchbox car. Right now closed and not impressive; angular, light body, high acid, and average level of complexity - a total disappointment for a Lafon - 83.
Leroy Chambolle Musigny Fremieres
Another disappointing bottle from Leroy - just a very mediocre 85 point grocery store wine at an overblown price.
Leroy Clos de la Roche
Pretty nose of violets, orange-rind and cherry fruit. After trying this wine and others from '96 I seriously started to ask myself if Lalou had put oranges to fertilize the vineyards...? But on the palate this is a behemoth with mouth-searing acidity. The powerful palate-staining fruit is full and long and fans out later into a squirell's tail of canyon underbrush and small purple flowers. The style here is highly extracted and not entirely balanced. I wouldn't count on this gaining in the grace department but it sure will live a long time - a football or rugby player's wine - 93 points.
Leroy Mazis-Chambertin
This is pretty average for a $550 wine. Can't understand how Lalou can still sell these suckers for the prices asked...it must have something to do with the Versace craze that swept the nation a while back. On the palate, surprisingly easy-going and lush, and not too deep and not very complex. Overall a disappointment especially considering the pricetag! 92. Just found out that Premier Cru is blowing these out for less than $200 per...not surprised.
Leroy Nuits St. George Aux Allots
Nose of billionaire's trashcan - oxidizing Valencia oranges and discarded Glog spices from the holiday punch - like the smell in your kitchen the morning after the big Xmas party. Very full bodied and lively on palate but it lacks class. I kept asking myself, why bother making this concentrated a wine from such an ugly duckling terroir? The end result is that it is very exuberant in that dumb-retarded sort of way. It keeps hee hawing its way around your mouth - 86 points for the exuberance it displays.
Leroy Romanee St. Vivant
Yet again another $600 wine that is not that impressive. The fruit is silky, but the palate is gutted with charred oak, and on top of that is flabby compared to the '95. Moderate and rather tart finish...89?
Meo Camuzet Vosne Romanee les Brulees
Better than Cros Parantoux in this vintage. Great nose of Vosne 5. Nice spicy and steely fruit, but not the depth or balance of the '93 model year - 92.
Montille Volnay Taillepieds
Liquid Bayer aspirin and hey, it's slightly red...blech! - 73.
Rouget Vosne Romanee AC
Super VR regular bottle - 90.
Rouget Vosne Romanee Cros Parantoux
Beautiful classic pure vosne 5 nose; on the palate very high toned though…a bit disappointing in that the fruit is too shrill, not wholly complex for a burg, and not grounded enough for me. It tastes a bit castrated and one sided. Who knows maybe it just needs a lot of time to settle down...92?+
Copyright © Peter Wittenberg
