Park Avenue II

Sadly, dear Readers, we are a bit late with our final few notes on the remaining wines from Park Avenue Liquors and officially that sale may be over. However, in these times, we will wager a good bottle that if you went in and bought a couple of bottles (that means six or more), they'd honor the sale. Times ain't what they used to be...

There remain two red Burgundies to discuss: Santenay 1er Cru Grand Clos Rousseau, Domaine Mommessin 2002, $32 and Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Narbatons, Louis Jadot 2002, $30. We wish we had raves, but we don't! But we will offer a disclaimer, a ray of light on the review - it is very possible that we were drinking these two wines too young; ugh, wine pedophilia.... Not really, we have been saying that 2002 is the new 2000 (you can quote us on that!!) because as we tasted and degusted we have found some 2002 that upon first 'sniff' a year or two ago did not excite us that now are making us smile with that first sip.

Both of these wines are from the Côtes de Beaune, and Santenay is located southwest of Beaune and Chassagne-Montrachet. Interestingly enough, the parcelle Grand Clos Rousseau lies on the border between the Côte-d'Or and Saône-et-Loire, making it really easing into Mâcon, where temperatures are warmer. Santenay generally falls into the general wine category, "Beaune-type" of which we are so fond; their elegance and finesse often allows this wine to be overlooked. Typically, Santenay is very aromatic with hints of red fruits and also flowers - roses, violets, peonies. In the mouth, the tannins are firm but not too sharp but balance an intense burst of flavor.

With this Santenay from Mommessin, we did not find fault but we did miss the burst of flavor in the mouth and the bouquet was not as full as hoped. The tannins were still apparent and the color was excellent - a deep purple - and for those reasons we believe this wine will mature in the coming years. We believe another year and it will be prime. Buy it and guard it or come back in a year and hope PA Liquors still has it.

On to the Savigny from Jadot. We've all seen their wines everywhere for years but without defending over-production (it's actually illegal in Burgundy, production levels are controlled by volume per hectare of vineyard each year, meaning that some Premier Cru juice ends up in Village appellation wines on some years which can only increase the quality of those wines), if you are buying Jadot wines of a certain level, say Premier Cru or small Village appellations, then you are probably not going to be disappointed. At the same time, you are probably also getting a very middle-of-the-road wine that, on very good years, is missing some of the extraordinary heights other producers' wines will exhibit.

That said, 2002 was not a blockbuster year and this wine was very drinkable. The color was good - a dark cherry red - and the nose carried a decent bouquet of fruit. Now the village of Savigny lies slightly north of the city of Beaune and south-west of Mount Corton which gives most of the parcelles a southern exposure without much elevation. Typically that can mean a flabby wine but here the rocky soil give the wine a fine, thin body. While the southern exposition probably limits the expression of tannins, they are present until maturity but throughout the life the fruit is apparent and up front. In this Jadot, we may be missing a bit of the full fruit and some of the elegance but for $30 we were not unhappy. Buy it to drink now or over the next year.

Lots to tell in the coming days. Until then...