This was another great evening organised by Jordi at “The Square” and it follows on from some other cracking dinners (a few listed below). The dinner was back in March, I am just very slow at writing it up.
Bonnes Mares de Vogue – 1949-1999
Latour a Pomerol – historic vertical
Grouse and Richebourg @ The Square
La Tache – decades and decades
Clos des Ducs – 1920-2002 @ La Trompette
You get the idea!! As an aid I include the Musigny ownership maps from Wine Hog – this was a really good chance, with about twelve others, to look at a lots of different wines from this mighty Grand Cru site. Neal Martin’s write-up is definitely worth a look for another view. There were so many snippets during the evening – especially from Jordi, Jasper (Morris, MW) and Neal – that I wish I had made better notes.
We started with Champagne J.M.Labruyere Page Blanche NV which you can read a little more about HERE. It seemed the correct Champagne to have as the Labruyere Family are the owners of Domaine Jacques Prieur who have a lovely holding in Musigny and who feature strongly below. The wine was elegant and crisp with good definition, still young but setting the palate going nicely.
The menu was well prepared by the new team at The Square and worked very well with the wines:
Pressed Pig’s Head, mustard foam, tarragon & gribiche
Roasted Cornish Red Mullet, red wine sauce, juniper, liver
Roasted 55 days aged Pork, roscoff onion, Tokyo turnip, tarragon
Cheese
So to the wines which were all just poured, no decanting. There were a mixture of Domaine bottlings and “other” bottlings – quite a few details to try and work out – most of these wines are from when Burgundy was a different scenario from the “wild demand” and extraordinary land prices of today – all this adds to the intrigue if you ask me.
Flight 1
1989 Musigny, Domaine de Vogue – from half bottle – You couldn’t really have a Musigny tasting with out de Vogue. They own around 70% of the Cru. The wine here is renowned for needing time. This is a wine just peeping out. A good colour, lovely bright almost tender nose, good edge of oranges and floral red fruit, delicious. Still youthful.
1998 Musigny, Domaine Jacques Prieur – en magnum – Prieur have the third biggest holding and featured strongly in this dinner. This was a cracking wine. Slightly spiced, rich, fine, a little wood shows, nice richer texture. Slightly firmer darker fruit set than the Vogue 1989. With air it became more and more tender and elegant, delicious. Massively out performs the vintage but then great sites have a habit of doing that.
1988 Musigny, Domaine Drouhin – A little leather and “funk” here, tougher, a little more sturdy, but good, it just lacks the tenderness. A shade volatile. For me a typical 1988.
1988 Musigny, Domaine Mugnier – to complete the top three holdings in size you have Mugnier at number two. This had a darker nose and quite a sturdy palate, there is sweetness though and moreish savoury side as well. Impressive.
1985 Musigny, Domaine Jacques Prieur – This is a more feminine, juicy rendition of Musigny, lighter would be the wrong word, it is very good, drinking perfectly, complete and more tender than the 1988s (no great surprise).
1983 Musigny, Honoré Lavigne – Since 1984 I believe this is owned by Bichot. It is a less generous wine but has a nice sweetness and some good spice.
It was a good flight to start things, very little evidence of any over zealous winemaking.
Flight 2
1979 Musigny, Domaine Remoissenet – Lovely nose, open red fruit, expressive. The back of the palate lacked a tiny bit of definition. There is full maturity here…towards the end I was left thinking a little of mature northern Rhone character. Fascinating and good!
1978 Musigny, Dr Barolet – Slightly toffee’d note here, richer but somehow less complete, this did get better with air and has some nice notes, acidity quite high. A little leaner on the palate that some. Quite decadent but all in all not quite as complete. I clearly need to find out more about Dr Barolet.
1978 Musigny, Domaine Jacques Prieur – Very balanced. A shade decadent but more tender and complete than extrovert. Not masses of colour but no lack of energy and style. Poised and very good.
1971 Musigny, Maison Mommessin – Sturdy, darker fruit character. Quite bold on the palate but with some acidity, I think someone made the good comment that it was a bit “constituent parts rather then the whole”…might have just been a 95% bottle.
1969 Musigny, Joboulet-Vercherre Negociant – A little bit of an iodine character, more sturdy, my notes say “more Clos Vougeot than Musigny”. Nice though.
Flight 3
1966 Musigny, Paul Bonnet et Fils – A small negoce by all accounts. Slightly “stripped” by which I mean rather lean. Gracefully fading…nice, not dead, light brown colour.
1964 Musigny, Maison Jaffelin – A tiny bit of corkiness. Light iron, quite persistent, some soy to the nose, the slight corkiness became more marked quickly.
1961 Musigny, Poulet Pere et Fils (de Vogue) – Poulet now belongs to Louis Max (one of many useful insights from Jasper Morris MW). Initially seemed slightly weak but came together more with air and was nicely persistent in the end. Interesting.
1919 Musigny, De Beuverand & De Poligny – Had survived well, was together enough to glimpse at. Clearly a very old wine but had some brightness. In much better condition that i’ll be if I make it to 98!
1959 Musigny, Domaine Pierre Naigeon – Indistinct shall we say, decent enough and not a skeleton, it was just a little faded.
1949 Musigny, Domaine Prieur – Eucalyptus, a little mint, rich, quite full not even showing soy aromas yet. A good good wine. Drank every drop, pretty special.
Flight 4
(1947 Bouchard was not serve-able)
1966 Musigny, Domaine Albert Brenot – A tiny bit funky then good iron and savoury aromas, a little blunt and crude but decent.
1964 Musigny, Calvy-Grandcourt – Quite delicate initially, has a “green” vibrancy, nice, a little toffee’d, it’s slightly odd and not that complete but I really liked it, wines are like that sometimes.
1969 Musigny, Joboulet-Vercherre Negociant – Second bottle – see above for the first bottle at end of Flight 2. This was sturdy and quite rich, it had a warm vintage feel to it. Dark fruit and some good density – on the savoury side – soy, demerara sugar and a little Iodine.
Blind wine:
1979 Clos Vougeot Domaine Jacques Prieur – Delicate and poised, nicely done, very good, red fruit. This made me think back to the time, Neal, Jordi, Rajiv and I all shared 1979 Musigny from Domaine Jacques Prieur at 67 Pall Mall.
A splendid and unique evening…thank you Jordi, as ever…
194KPR 