Bonnes Mares de Vogue 1949 - 1999

Very few Domaines need as little introduction as Domaine de Vogüé. Dating back to the 15th century it has been under the same ownership for 20 generations. The general manager, Jean-Luc Pepin, was in attendance to host the evening with Jordi (to whom so many thanks as ever) in a unique retrospective of the Domaine's Bonnes Mares. Even Jean-Luc has never done so extensive a tasting of Bonnes Mares as this. I must declare my bias here as I work for the UK agent of this great Domaine. The bottles for this tasting were all bought by Jordi over the course of 6 or 7 years with as little research as is possible. 

Ready for battle...

By way of a little background I found this: de Vogue Bonnes Mares - Terroir insight by Wine Hog which I think is a good overview and includes a good map (love a map me!). The one analogy Adam used that Jean-Luc liked and re-uses is that you "would want Bonnes Mares on your side in a fight"...

To kick off as people gathered we had Philipponnat Clos de Goisses 2004 en magnum - A shade reduced, a little cocoa bean and reduction on the nose like a late release Champagne. A food Champagne was how I view this, vinous and rich with good texture and enough life.

A very good appetiser for what lay ahead... 

The team at the square did a good job with the food, all of which was a high standard but importantly played a good second fiddle to the wine. Nothing over powering and the service worked well as there was no over emphasis on trying to match things. A flight of wines was poured, into not overly big glasses (a good thing), then the food followed. The menu is below:

Amuse Bouche

Crisp Milk Fed Veal Sweetbreads with New Season’s Wet Garlic,

Violet Artichokes and Preserved Lemon

Slow Cooked Fillet of Cod with Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Smoked Anchovy and Red Wine

Roast Organic Guinea Hen with Smoked Sausage of the Leg, Creamed Morels, Provencal White Asparagus and Roasting Juices

Cheese

So now it was time to get going:

"Modern" vintages

Modern vintages: These tastings always focus on vintages that are mature or at the very least maturing. Whilst this started with the 1999 I have heard good things about the 2000 and had the 2001 recently at a cracking dinner in St.Emilion and it's delicious...this was a stunning flight.

1999 - Pure colour, actually the colours in the first two flights were very consistent, with a tiny bit of development. Lovely fresh mulled red fruits on the nose. This is the only wine on the evening that was most certainly primary. Really good balance and density, a shade reduced and a little hint of cheesecloth, sweet berry fruit on finish. Very promising.

1996 - Good colour and clarity. A little pine-like spice, richness on the nose, palate good but a shade drier, quite taut and serious. Some sweetness. There is a very "1996 like" sternness. I like this and would like to drink a bottle, it isn't showey enough to standout in a tasting like this but is good.

1993 - A slightly deeper colour, deliciously sweet and succulent, not just red fruit on the palate, good depth, a shade of clementine and tangerine. This is a little bigger than some of the 1993's I've had. Delicious and certainly still loosening up and improving! Very fine.

1990 - Good colour, pure, delicious, opulent, decadent, this is a little degraded. It doesn't quite have the poise and focus of the 1993 or 1999 but has an easy appeal of obviously being good....very 1990-ish 

1989 - A shade lighter in colour but so bright and so clean. A shade of animal character just showing a little more a maturity. Pure and lovely sweet fruit, really delicious, this is a feminine and sweet, poised wine. A little herbaceousness certainly, this is, on this showing, a classier and more refined wine than the good, but more brutish 1990. Special.

1988 - A shade more evolved, a dash more texture, almost a slightly chalky, powdered feel. At the same time it is very moreish and a little saline, the note doesn't seem "glowing" but this is good and a little like the 1996 in being very typical of the vintage.

The classics

Classic vintages: A dangerous title given that it raises expectation.

1985 - Paler and lighter in colour but so clear and clean. A little development but such profound sweetness, a lovely greenness that gives energy. This is a really super wine, focus but generous, rich but not remotely weighty. Special, graceful, perfect now.

1979 - Bright, clean and lean. This is in a similar style to the 1985, it remained remarkably consistent in the glass, not budging an inch. Great persistence and poise. Lovely.  

1978 - Slightly less clear as a colour. More texture, a little more degraded but at the same time saline, this is bigger and bolder than anything else going back to the 1990. Opulent and generous. Nicely a little vulgar.

1976 - More red to the colour here. This is very deep and quite resinous. Serious and with really decadent richness and opulence. There is a sense of the hot and dry season but not of burnt fruit. The image is one of small intense berries. Very good indeed.

1970 - A shade orange in colour, clear madeirisation, the palate initially had a dash of sweetness but ultimately this is not right.

1967 - This has a little madeirsation but whilst the 1970 does not appear to be representative I think this probably is as 1967 is just very tricky.

Illustrious indeed!

Illustrious vintages of the George de Vogüé era:

1966 - Sensational wine this. Good colour, lovely saline, some smoke and generosity but also focus. Rose petals and delicate aromas, a little like the 1985 in character but with even more to give. Staggeringly good.

1964 - Slightly frazzled, degraded even, then a little fruit and some sweetness but ultimately this is not in perfect condition.

1962 - Delicious, seriously giving the 1966 a run for its money. Herbs, cocoa bean and then some spices before a little coffee but all with good intensity. There is an element of the 1976 character here. Special.

1959 - Clean bright colour, some decaying fruit, clinging on a little. Interesting.

1953 - Sweet decay, a slightly milky texture, this actually got a little better with air which was unexpected.

1949 - Smells a little herbal, almost minty with some saline too, a shade powdery in texture. This is interesting and not dead if a shadow of what it probably once was.

The last flight!

Musigny Blanc mystery vintage - So this had to be 1994 or older as the white has been named Bourgogne Blanc since, knowing Jordi it could well have been much older. There was a grapefruit character and some citrus. To me there was an almost Chablis like quality. Clearly very little new oak. It was impressive and enjoyably pure too but I really needed to know what it was. One of our number got it bang on saying it reminded him of another white of the same vintage - Corton-Charlemagne from Bonneau du Martray - it was the 1987 vintage.

Fonseca 1963 followed on and was lovely, a little volatile, slightly raisin like. The marzipan character was there but in perfect balance with the succulent dried fruits. Another reminder, as in the last post, that we really should drink more good port.

Jordi, in a fit of generosity, then opened two more bottles both of vintages we had had earlier - 1976 and 1953. The 1976 was a fresher bottle, insanely so. The previous bottle was superb and what you would hope it would be in terms of maturity. This bottle tasted more like the 1993 than any other wine of the night, amazing really. The 1953 was a more lively bottle, showing more fruit and a little more balance...

All in all a stunning evening, a really good group, everyone's expectations were surpassed. What we learnt I think is that Bonnes Mares from de Vogue is more that capable of Red Burgundy of the highest order and is not to be underestimated. Also that whilst the de Vogue style is one that repays cellaring this has been exaggerated...I look forward to many more vintages in the future.

Thank you Jordi and thank you Jean-Luc for your insights!

Amouse Bouche

Crisp Milk Fed Veal Sweetbreads with New Season’s Wet Garlic,

Violet Artichokes and Preserved Lemon

Slow Cooked Fillet of Cod with Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Smoked Anchovy and Red Wine

Roast Organic Guinea Hen with Smoked Sausage of the Leg, Creamed Morels, Provencal White Asparagus and Roasting Juices

The Square on a Wednesday...a great dinner...

None to shabby for a Wednesday!

So for this dinner we were six. I had done nothing to organise it, just turned up with a bottle, I knew everyone coming and knew the ingredients were there for a lot of fun and some rather splendid wine…I was not disappointed. We were:

- A collector / drinker with a passion for older/mature wines. (Many of these wines!)
- A collector / drinker with a passion for most wines and mainly in magnums!
- A wine writer and enthusiast.
- A Chateaux owner/producer, Wine merchant & Negoce.
- A broker/negoce.
- Me.

The venue also helped massively - The Square - as it was on top form. I regret not picturing the food as the Crab Lasagne (a Square classic) and the Grouse (possibly the best I have ever had) were both spot on and complemented the wines perfectly.

We started with - Clos de Goisses 1990, Philiponnat - A deep colour for Champagne, almost a slight pink orange hue, I have heard of Clos de Goisses being decanted and as this spent time in the glass I can see why. As with good white Burgundy this grew from a delicately biscuity but quite oxidative nose into something sweeter and easier with time.

As the first courses arrived we then had a pair of white Burgundies to contemplate.
Meursault 2004, Coche Dury & Le Montrachet 1991, Ramonet. A very good contrasting pair. The Coche was a delight, lemon and citric acidity with a small dash of reduction, it's cleanliness made me think of sorbet. It got better and better in glass but was linear to the end, a young wine but starting to open, very 2004, taught and poised, impressive. Never "just" a "village" wine from that man. The Ramonet was fascinating. I have looked back through the blog and realise now (one of the main reasons to do this exercise!) that I have been very privileged in having this wine from 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994 before. There is a commonality but also the desired vintage variation. The 1991 is a savoury wine to sip and think on, not gregarious or showy. A savoury almost saline hazelnut is in the there as well as tea and pine resin. Traditional and all the better for it…what a start.

The next three wines were served blind, all we were told was that there was a link and it quickly leaked out that all these wines were older than everyone at the table. Bordeaux was obvious. There was an even split of guesses for left and right bank. I was one of the wrong ones. The wines right to left as we drank them were Cheval Blanc 1949, 1948 and 1966. It was great to have three wines showing well, only the 1949 did not show much on the palate but the nose was superb. 1949 was deep in colour with a rich nose, lovely and hard to believe it is the age it is, the palate was just muted and tight. 1948 had a high-octane nose of exuberant cherry and compote fruit. There is a volatility that made this so extrovert and a little quirky, there was no way you couldn't like this wine, spice, herbs and a meaty density on the plate just made it amazing. It only started to fade when there was very little wine left in the glass (a stage I found myself at easily!). 1966 was incredible, cepe and other mushrooms initially but this left with time. There was a darker fruited succulence about this, I so wish that more St.Emilion was like this. Incredibly youthful in colour and wonderful fruited plate. Long and persistent, so complete that it is hard to write about. As mentioned above the Grouse with these older wines was just perfect. The character of Cheval Blanc was there to see, such a great site, it just makes you all the more sad about the pricing of the estate these days. People should be loving this estate and buying it almost blindly ever year but so wrong has been its positioning been that that is almost certainly insanity.

Next up was the bottle I took - Musigny Grand Cru 1998, de Vogue - alongside another red Burgundy - Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses 1990, Drouhin. This was a lovely pair, briefly the wines were blind and people got close. I was really impressed by the 1998. I had thought it would be too closed. The 1995 that I had recently thanks to one of this evenings attendees was delicious on the nose but very tight. This 1998 put on weight from the moment it hit the glass, the purity of dark cherry fruit initially was trademark de Vogue. The Drouhin had a lovely soft easy sweetness, "persistent finesse" I have in my notes, fully mature but in a fruited way, really delicious.

With several petit fours we had a pair of "sweeties" - Disznoko Tokaji Aszu 2002 6 Puttonyos and Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Beerenauslese 2009. The Tokaji was really good, oranges, creme brûlée and finesse, not too much rancio character but the trade good acidity to lift these flavours. The Schaefer was precise but at the same time generous, a dash of spritz and some real energy, white fruit. To only think that BA etc needs endless time to mature is a mistake, the vast majority are not a waste to drink young.

A delicious dinner and lots of good conversation, some quite vociferous as a debate should be…this dinner will live long in the memory. Many thanks especially to our organiser who provided the lions share of these wonderful bottles.