Dinner at Mezzo 07/05/2012

Having missed one month due to work pressures, the Mezzo crowd were all pretty keen to catch up and taste some seriously good wine.  And we were far from disappointed despite cork playing a starring role in two of the wines. CURSE YOU VILE THINGS! This month the theme was 2004 Burgundy, a vintage that I have tasted a lot of and enjoyed since release. A lot of people don't rate this vintage because it was a cold vintage, but the good producers made excellent wines. The wines below are a good example.

Lanson Gold Label Vintage Champagne 2002 I'm a huge fan of Lanson Champagnes (see why) and this wine only served to further my love. Great texture, zesty, floral, good amount of yeasty/autolytic notes and plenty of life in it. This is one Champagne that definitely lends itself to aging. Even a few years on this would have some of the lovely honey, toast, brioche and truffle notes that good older Champagne develops.

Maurice Ecard Savigny-Les-Beaune Les Narbantons 1er Cru 2004 Floral, mineral, ironstone, chocolate, tea leaf, dried leaf, herbal tart and hint oxidised.
Nice tart acid, clean, fresh, rounded, mineral/stoney, chocolate, very long.
Everything you want from a good Savigny!

Most of the 04s we tasted.

Robert Chevillon Nuits-St-Georges Les Vaucrain 1er Cru 2004 From the Southern end of the village of Nuits this wine initially showed signs of TCA. It did also show some good character too. Herbal, dry, leafy sour, pickles, red fruits, potatoes. The nose certainly changed with air.
The palate showed coffee, chocolate, increased density, good flesh, nice tannins if a hint on the astringent side, ironstone. V. long and persistent.
I'd love to see another bottle of this as I have had a few of their 04s and they just had more lift. The makings of an excellent wine were there though.

Jean Grivot Nuits-St-Georges Les Boudots 1er Cru 2004 This vineyard is situated at the Northern end of Nuits right next to Vosne and was served as a bridge between the Chevillon and the Mongeard that followed.
It was lovely, almost wine of the night! Floral, lifted crushed ants, currants, tobacco, blood orange mulch, mulberry.
Dark cherry, tart, chunky tannins, stoney, marachino cherry, hint bitter.
Very enjoyable wine from an excellent producer

Mongeard-Mugneret Vosne Romanee Les Suchots 1er Cru 2004 Defintely the wine of the night. Les Suchot is a Premier Cru situated amongst some of the greatest of the Grand Crus. At its best it rivals them. Tonight, it was by far and away the best wine on the table.
It opened up a lot with time in the glass. Coffee, savoury, rocket, pepper, brown spice, clay, meaty, pickle, dense, musky, oak.
On the palate it was dense, silky, pretty, red frutis, musk, violet and cherry. It was a complete Burgundy that just made me happy to be drinking it.

The Two Echezeaux

Bruno Deaunay-Bissey Echezeaux Grand Cru 2004 This was an unsual wine. It was green as a they come on the nose, a really good example of why people might dislike the vintage.
The palate was much better though. It had dark fruits, olives and minerals. But it was still tart and green. I have no experience with this producer but it was a shame because it wasn't all that enjoyable.

Mongeard-Mugneret Echezeaux Grand Cru 2004 Sadly this was a corked as they come. It was almost DNPIM (Did Not Put In Mouth). But curiosity got the best of me and I instantly regretted it. It was definitely and undeniably corked.

Options Wine
Lynch-Bages Pauillac 5th Growth 2004 If you saw my notes from last Matteo's Dinner (here) you would remember the pride I had at picking the options wine. Well it all came undone tonight. I thought it was Italian, then Merlot based and then Patrick gave up and told us what it was.
Earthy, dirt, dense, clay/terracotta, hint beef and pepper.
Fine moderate tannins, limes tones. Long, floral cherries, seductive.
It was an excellent wine but just a baby. It has a lot longer to go yet!

Lynch Bages 2004 - Awesome wine. Just a baby.

Additional Wines
Grosset Gaia Cabernet 2002 I'm not sure how we came to be drinking Gaia. It was definitely welcome on the table, but as always, Australian wine tends too look sweet, thin and bland after a lot of good European wines.
I thought it looked quite smart if you ignored the French winese. Currants, cherry, clay, earthy, stalky. The palate was silky, elegant and it looked young and lean despite being the equal oldest wine on the table.
Good old screwcaps, sealing in freshness and keeping away nasty cork taint!

Awesome Aussie Cabernet - Grosset Gaia 2002

Outis Nessuno Etna 2007 So this was the last wine of the night and if you don't know much about it, neither do I. It comes from Sicily and the region is Etna which is near the Mount Etna volcano. The varieties are Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, both of which are native varieties.
It was a lovely drink, but again after all that old wine looked and tasted almost like a fortified. There was some nice characters there.