Degustation Dinner - le fin!

So we left you hanging, on hooks and nails, devoted readers, after yesterday's posting. However, we've been warned it is important to provide you with bite-sized postings rather than the lengthy missives we so easily fall into. So, to continue the description of our great tasting dinner and without further ado...

We paired the cheese course with a 1988 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru from Maison Joseph Drouhin. A far cry, age wise, from the previous wines, but '88 in Burgundy was particular. Described as year with a decent harvest of clean grapes with thick skins that rendered little juice, 1988 produced, because of these thick skins (that is where the tannins are), red wines with a significant expression of acid and high levels of tannin. While difficult when the wines are young, the acid and tannins also offered great support for a long maturity.

Clos de la Roche is a Grand Cru from the Côtes de Nuits, produced cheek-to-jowl with its better known neighbors - the various Chambertin Grand Crus, Mazis and Charmes, as well as Clos de Vougeot. All of these wines have dark red color and traditionally, regardless of the year, are very tannic when young. The Roche is closer characteristically to the Chambertin and is a somber wine, not very expressive at first with heavy notes of herbaceous matter and truffle that with age begin to mellow and allow notes of very ripe red fruits.

Maison Joseph Drouhin is one of the oldest in Burgundy, founded in 1880, and is promoted as having their cellars where once were the Kings’ of France and the Dukes’ of Burgundy. With an enormous production from numerous appellations in Burgundy, their wines are readily available in the United States over various price points. It is with the higher level of wines they produce – the Premier and Grand Crus – that one can find the finest examples of their production.

Our Clos de la Roche was a superb example of the convergence of a Grand Cru appellation in a year with great potential for maturity and a dependable producer. It was a ‘reflective’ wine, not screaming from the glass. The color was deep red, with age the usual ruby and purple tones had faded. The nose was subtle, more musky than fruity. In the mouth the subtly continued, traditional Pinot Noir expressions of fruit or purple flowers were absent. It took a moment to identify the musky flavor of truffles and ‘forest floor,’ over the subtle taste of very ripe fruit. And the end was the most surprising – a long and lingering expression of the wine’s flavors buoyed by its acid. The latter was something we had never experienced in wine of this age.

Drink deeply and with thought!