Dinner with Laurent Drouhin

mmmm... what a wonderful experience! Dinner with Laurent Drouhin... 6 Burgundies... excellent company! What more could you ask? the 2004 Joseph Drouhin St.-Veran was clean, crisp, and classic Macon. Very nice minerals, honeydew melon, and pears. So refreshing and easy to drink.... wonderful wine! Wine dinner - the first was a behemoth - the 2003 Joseph Drouhin Chablis "Les Clos" Grand Cru - arguably the greatest of the 7 Grand Cru vineyards in Chablis, this was an exceptionally ripe and rich style. 20% new oak (actually seemed higher than that) - this was the last vintage Drouhin will use new oak in Chablis - they feel it masks the minerals too much. I would agree. After 30 minutes or so, this wine started to show it's steely-racy side. Very clean, crisp and rich. Full of baked pears, apples, and chalky minerals. It doesn't have the teeth-wretching acid that Les Clos is known for, but what it lacks in crispness it makes up in weight... a very good to excellent effort for this off-vintage. The 2004 Joseph Drouhin Puligny-Montrachet was minerals all the way... some nice green honeydew melon, wet stone, hints of almonds, and crisp apples. Not a great wine, but a very terroir-specific wine - with the elegance highlited by the minerals. Beautiful. We had the 1999 Joseph Drouhin Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche at this point, but I'll talk about that at the end, as we just had a taste at this point. The 2003 Joseph Drouhin Clos des Mouches (Beaune) Rouge was fruit driven, with the earth coming out with the food. This is a super-ripe, but very balanced and pretty wine for the vintage. Some nice clove spice with wild strawberry and raspberry. Very nice. Better with the food than the slightly closed 2003 Joseph Drouhin Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru. This wine is massive - very powerful and tannic with the elegance that is the Clos de Vougeot. Very nice for this vintage... now on to the 1999 Joseph Drouhin Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche. The first smell was of pure wood - clove, cinnamon, toasty and roasted fruits. after about 2 hours the wine finally opened up - revealing considerably minerality. This wine is elegant, very long, and pure Montrachet. Have I had better Montrachet? Certainly... but tonight this wine was showing very, very well. It just needs another 5-10 years to add some weight and fat. I didn't want to finish it. Montrachet takes Chardonnay to other levels. Excellent.