By: Ryan Tedder
It seems like most truly hardcore wine devotees have thrown their lot in with great Burgundies when it comes to drinking one bottle of compelling juice while times allows it. The appeal is the myriad of producers, styles, vineyards and vintages. Getting to know these producers and vineyards is just the beginning of the fun! Then you live the vintage, try to taste and predict the special wines each year and establish your favorites over time. We had the pleasure of drinking two stellar producers and vineyards in two years from when I was graduating high school and starting college.
As the quality pyramid of Burgundy goes that I am sure several of you have seen, the top of the pyramid representing less than 2% of total wine made /sold is from the Grand Cru vineyard sites-all 36 of them. Year in and year out these specific sites make absolutely wonderful grapes going back sometimes 1,000+ years. Once you get past some of the redundant and somewhat under-performing Grand Crus (not naming any names here) there is a core of about 16-20 spectacular sites. The best for whites include Montrachet, Chevalier, Batard and Corton Charlemagne. We got to partake in one such stellar bottle in the 1997 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru. Domaine Leflaive is unquestionably one of the finest Burgundy Domaines in the whole of the Cote d’Or. They are based in Puligny-Montrachet and they own several parcels of famous premier crus and grand crus. They even make one barrel of MONTRACHET – this has been a dream bottle of mine for some time now. Drinking the 1997 whites it is clear that the quality of that vintage lies almost exclusively with the whites-very similar to 2004 Burgundy. This bottle had layers of richness with a toasted bread, honey, apple pie, pear marmalade and sweet baking spices on the nose. The creamy, somewhat tropical mouthfeel was excellent and the wine retained its nicely balancing acidity. The finish was quite long and stone fruit, wet river stones, and yellow and white flowers and honeysuckle showed with a bit of time. Really fantastic wine and extremely consistent!
Next we moved into the red camp. We drank a bottle of 1998 Jean Grivot Les Boudots Premier Cru Nuits-St-George. This premier cru site is a very special site indeed. Going back to our pyramid, this level of wine represents only 10% of the wine that Burgundy makes in any given year. Jean Grivot is a favorite of Graileys and he works predominantly in Vosne Romanee and the grand crus of Echezeaux and Richebourg. Although Les Boudots lies in Nuits Saint George, it does not have the typical “rusticity” of NSG. There is more in common with it and the adjacent vineyard, Aux Malconsorts 1er Cru in Vosne Romanee. The soil type, exposure, etc speak more to VR than NSG. For that reason this is one of my favorite premier crus in NSG next to Les Saint Georges. This bottle of 98 was relatively open and accessible out of the shoot. It got better for the first hour, leveled out for about 45 minutes and then faded in my opinion. The truffle, turned earth, wet leaves, forest floor, pine needles, dried roses and black cherry /red plum were all quite wonderful. There was an iron like minerality and a somewhat savory finish with loads of spice and exotic aromas. Really delish and well priced for such an excellent bottle of wine with age on it. A great follow up but it was hard to beat Grand Cru Leflaive!!