9/98. Bought in auction, May-96 for $62 (imported for $78 net).
It has been two years since I last tasted this wine. Tonight, for Friday night dinner at home, we had this top Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru to go with mushrooms in wine and sour-cream, steak au poivre, and mango dessert.
COLOR: Dark ruby-red with some noticeable paling towards the rim.
NOSE: Very deep, very rich nose. Ample semi-ripe red and black forest fruits, profoundly elegant 'Bourgogne Nose' and a measured use of wood - all combine to give a well-balanced and totally enticing bouquet.
TASTE: Plenty of fruit and winyness on the palate. Complex and multi-flavored. Excellent grip with the unmistakable backbone of a Gevrey-Chambertin. Some hard tannins distract a little from an otherwise extraordinary taste.
LENGTH: Medium-long tannins-affected aftertaste.
TEXTURE & BALANCE: Very muscular wine, though not really a blockbuster. Well endowed with fruit, acidity, winyness, wood and tannins. Plenty of stuffings though not (yet?) rounded and harmonized as I would hope it to be.
OVERALL: Superb! The nose is more developed than the previous bottle I tasted, but the taste was flashier two years ago. A wine whose development merits close following.
MARK: 18/20.aaaaaaaaBUY MORE? Yes.

Reach Me? yak@yakshaya.com

Copyright 1996-2003.
Jacob "Yak" Shaya.