Large Coche-Dury tasting and few others: The Corton-Charlemagne 2002 was equally as impressive, but in a more mature way. It was in a perfect spot, on a bridge between youth and wisdom, with extraordinary balance and tension. I think that the 15-20 year mark is a real sweet spot for great vintages of Coche CC. Ooh la la (98).

The 1978 Roumier Bonnes Mares once again delivered an immaculate experience. It had a smoky nose full of deep, dark purple fruits. This oily red was a 99 point wine from the get-go with its smorgasbord of delicious fruits. It still felt so young but was so open, with great length and grit. This wine had impeccable concentration and zip, and it lingered on my palate effortlessly and endlessly (99).

Now anyone that knows me, and knows White Burgundy, knows that Jean-Marc Roulot is one of my favorite producers, and one of Chardonnay’s masters. We started with a “degustation” of the 2018 vintage, a vintage that Jean-Marc compared to 1982 when I tasted it out of his cellar a few years ago. We had two village wines and three premier crus, even though village would be an understatement given the quality of these vineyards year after year in the hands of Jean-Marc.

DRC tasting with some real rarities like 1945 La Tâche: This is a legendary vintage for DRC, Burgundy and the world, and this bottle delivered more freshness than its previous two counterparts. There were lots of red cranberry fruits and citrus smack to its nose. I wondered whether it was possibly reconditioned at some point, as it had that edge to it. There was a subtle, smoky edge to it and great minerality, but it had a hint of ‘simpler’ to it despite the freshness. It got creamier and fleshier in the glass, becoming lip-smacking. It opened up quite nicely in the glass (96). 

When you are fortunate enough to taste nineteen Rousseau Chambertins at one meal, you can be sure you will have some perspective. The range of vintages was 2018 back to 1990 with almost all the most heralded vintages (no 1991), and the one that stood out above the rest was the 2005 Rousseau Chambertin. Make no mistake about it, there were many standouts, but the 2005 hit the highest note. It was deep but more hi-toned than some of its younger brethren, in a bright red way. It has a raspberry, cranberry and citrus mélange. While rich and saucy, it wasn’t like the other saucy vintages as it had more tension and style. This was a wine to restore one’s faith in the often glacial 2005 vintage. It had enough spice to satisfy the entire House of Atreides (99, Paris).

DRC Montrachet tasting from 2002-2019. / The new style, the 2019 DRC Montrachet.  It was definitely a bit cleaner, and while 2019 is not supposed to be the best white wine vintage, there was a noticeable difference here from the last two. It was much less heavy, and while smoky it was also more oaky and oaty. It felt like it had more flaws, but don’t get me wrong, it was still DRC Montrachet. I will leave the vintage versus winemaker debate open to discussion (95).  

2024 saw lots of great nights and lots of great bottles shared all over the world. Amazingly, most of the wines highlighted below were sampled this past Fall. It just goes to show you that no matter how good a year you are having, there is always time to make it a better one! I definitely missed a few notes along the way this year as my diligence in this regard became a bit overdue, but I still kept track of the significant majority of the great dinners I had the privilege to attend or the pleasure to organize. Some wines sampled had different scores on different nights, the biggest variability for me being the 1999 Rousseau Chambertin, but always remember that every bottle and every night is different.