Last night was the first tasting for the year of the New Zealand Chapter if the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, an excellent tasting presented as three flights of three wines.
The first three wines were all White Burgundy, 2004 vintage, from different producers and parts of the region. First up La Chablisiennne Chablis 1er cru Les Preuses, then Pierre Matrot Meursault 1er cru Les Perrieres and lastly Blain-Gagnard Batard Montrachet Grand Cru. 2004 was a much underrated vintage, it was excellent to see the wines with nine years of age. Generally they were drinking very well and I loved the Batard. The second flight were all Vosne Romanee Les Suchots, all from 2006 and from differing producers. Les Suchots is a 1er cru, positioned in centre of the Vosne Romanee slope neatly nestled between many of the great Grand Cru of Burgundy. This was an interesting comparison, taking away the influence of site and year and looking at the hand of the winemaker. My standout in this line up was Domaine de l’Arlot, I love the higher percentage use of whole bunch and the texture. The final line up was another take on the same theme, this time, the same producer – Domaine de la Vougeraie, the same vintage -2004, and from different Grand Cru. An excellent comparison of site taking out the impact of vintage and producer. So back to the title of this post – Vintage Matters. In tasting the wines and discussing them last night, there was much discussion on the two vintages in the tasting, 2004 and 2006 being poorer vintages and whether they were good examples. Would we have been better to be tasting vintages like 2005 or 2009? I love vintage variation and the fact there’s a place for each of these vintages, lesser or super stars. These so good lesser or poorer vintage wines were incredible and approachable much earlier than they would be from vintages like 2005, 2009 and the like. I also find in vintages like 2004 that you see an even greater expression of the site. In fact, worth considering that if the 2005 need 30 years to be ready – is that the right timing for you? So that’s my rant on vintage, a great night last night – looking forward to the next.