Clos des Lambrays 1999

Conventional wisdom would insist that this should be the better wine when compared to the ’98, although the format of magnum for the ’98 hardly means a level playing field. A plush, full-flavoured style with black fruits, chocolate and leather. Very fine tannins. Impressive length and the wine does linger. Drink now or down the track. Not much between this and the 1998. 94.

Very ripe aromas of dark fruits, cinders, spices and earth, along with strong torrefaction notes of coffee and mocha; there's something here that's dulling the fruit. More pristine in the mouth than on the nose, but showing obvious evolution to its flavors of black fruits, iron and brown spices. Plenty of thickness here but lacks the peppery clarity of the 2001. Finishes with robust, rather dusty tannins. This is considerably less impressive and more evolved than a brilliant bottle I tried last winter for my 1999 horizontal, perhaps owing to a touch of brett, which has compromised the wine's inner-mouth tension and minerality. (13.9% alcohol; 3.54 pH; 3.4 g/l acidity; the crop level even after a green harvest was 45 hectoliters per hectare, which Thierry Brouin said was the highest during his time at Domaine des Lambrays)

Still incredibly fresh and backward but otherwise the note from 750 ml is accurate: Reserved black cherry notes and pinot fruit followed by medium weight flavors of bacon, smoke and sappy pinot extract all highlighted by an intense minerality and fine length. This has added a good deal of weight and seems more powerful than before yet it remains very stylish and classy with excellent potential.