Big Names

But not big quality... The 1983 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands-Echezeaux seems to have finally met its end. I've tasted this on several occasions and this one was it... lots of brown, maderized fruit. Toast. Kaput. The 1993 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache was not much better... I see lots of high scores on this wine, but all it is giving right now (and I doubt that it will change) is high acid with very tart, sour fruit and no midpalate, and even worse, no weight at all (and I don't mean this in a good way). The finish just drops off a cliff... The 1994 is better! The 2006 Penner-Ash Dussin Vineyard Pinot Noir is hot, ripe and poweful. This needs a good year or two to really come down.

This week I tasted through the 2006 Louis Latour White Burgundies (18 of them!)... the highlites were Puligny-Montrachet across the board (the Folatieres was stellar, but even the village was great), the Corton-Charlemagne (which will put on more weight and the overt alcohol should become better integrated once it's bottled - oh yeah, this was a barrell sample), and without question the Batard-Montrachet, which is a perfect, textbook example of this meaty, fat, round, rich and stony Grand Cru. Needs time, but is drinkable now (again, barrell sample). For the Chablis, I thought the Clos was not as rich as I usually find it - a bit more spread out rather than focused, but the Preuses was awesome...