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| Burgundy 2001: A Year Overlooked |
Top 10 from 2001
Paul Wasserman
02/02/2004
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One Circle to Rule Them All
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Romanée-Conti
This is textbook Romanée-Conti, and it poses the eternally perplexing question that never fails to captivate Burgundy aficionados: How can such intensity and complexity be delivered with little more than middleweight power? Even in cask, the closed bouquet was deliriously complex, with layer upon layer of the maker’s signature spice, as well as earth and ripe dark fruit. The best 2001s will not disappoint those who love precise, pure, very detailed wines of great elegance and complexity. |
Its texture, backed by a stern but perfectly buffered structure and length one rarely encounters, leaves one speechless. I prefer this to the 2002, which I tasted in cask in June.
The Redux
Domaine des Lambrays, Clos des Lambrays.
This once legendary vineyard is back in top form, and because the world has not yet caught on, it may very well be the most undervalued wine in all of Burgundy. Apart from a slight hint of heat on the very end palate, not an element is out of place in this ravishingly beautiful wine: The balance and texture are perfect. It is seamless, with perfectly extracted tannins and not a hint of heavy-handed winemaking. A plethora of mid-palate sap and mineral essences will expand slowly with age and produce the kind of flavors and layers that can convert a passion for wine into an obsession with Burgundy. In the glass, this wine grew more beautiful and more precise with every passing minute.
The Obscure
Maison Camille Giroud, Chambertin
A cult following has gathered around some of Giroud’s older wines, with a bottle like the 1949 Musigny now trading for $2,000 at auction. And the 2001 Chambertin is destined to become one of the best Giroud wines ever. The sheer size of the wine is unusual in the context of the vintage—especially as it lacks all sense of clumsiness. Enormous structure backs this powerful and fruit-driven wine. Both fruit and spine hit the palate with force, yet against this deluge of flavor, one experiences the sophisticated footwork of a staggering complexity—unusual for a wine so young. A few sips left overnight in the bottle tasted as if the cork had just been pulled; apparently this wine has the potential to age effortlessly for half a century. The only negative to this wine: The vintner produced only a single cask.
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