I made a stew with chicken legs and thighs and red wine (pinot noir)
at the farm last night and I rummaged around in my storage cellar and
found this bottle of 1999 Domaine de Charmy Clos de Vougeot GC. I
have no idea where it came from or the provenence but I suspect that
it was a gift and never had nor heard of the Domaine before I figured
I would open it since none of the others would know burgundy from
bullshit. It was bullshit. The wine was quite light in the glass,
almost rose in color. There was little discrnable nose except for a
faint hint of sour cherry. The wine was thin on the palate with a bit
of cherry and cola and an overwhelming green acidic streak. The wine
would perhaps pass as a slightly below averge Bourgogne but wasn't
even close to village wine let alone a Grand Cru wine. The wine
didn't taste old...just bad. "C-"

On Jan 11, 10:02�am, "Bi!!" > wrote:
> I made a stew with chicken legs and thighs and red wine (pinot noir)
> at the farm last night and I rummaged around in my storage cellar and
> found this bottle of 1999 Domaine de Charmy Clos de Vougeot GC. �I
> have no idea where it came from or the provenence but I suspect that
> it was a gift and never had nor heard of the Domaine before I figured
> I would open it since none of the others would know burgundy from
> bullshit. �It was bullshit. �The wine was quite light in the glass,
> almost rose in color. �There was little discrnable nose except for a
> faint hint of sour cherry. �The wine was thin on the palate with a bit
> of cherry and cola and an overwhelming green acidic streak. The wine
> would perhaps pass as a slightly below averge Bourgogne but wasn't
> even close to village wine let alone a Grand Cru wine. �The wine
> didn't taste old...just bad. "C-"

While I always like to taste new things, I must say the GCs from
producers you've never heard of are a truly risky bunch. There are
probably plenty of producers of Bourgogne or village Pommard, Gevrey,
or Santenay that most of us have never heard of. But no name Grand Cru
tends to taste more of the no name than the GC! Sorry re the
bullshit!!!

On Jan 11, 8:31*pm, DaleW > wrote:

> While I always like to taste new things, I must say the GCs from
> producers you've never heard of are a truly risky bunch. There are
> probably plenty of producers of Bourgogne or village Pommard, Gevrey,
> or Santenay that most of us have never heard of. But no name Grand Cru
> tends to taste more of the no name than the GC! Sorry re the
> bullshit!!!

At one time some of the larger stores in the US had house brands of
wines, and perhaps some still do. I have only one example of such
which is a GC Burgundy for Macy's "specially selected in France by
Macy's Famous Taster for Macy's Fine Wine and Liquor Store." It is
labeled as Vintage 1959, Mise du Domaine, Marceau Le Chambertin,
Burgundy Red Table Wine, Appellation Controlee, Exclusively Bottled
For R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., Bamiberger's, Newark _ N.J. The above
label information is given in the order it appears on the label. In
addition "Estate Bottled" in very large red letters is printed over
the label text at about a 45 degree angle. A tiny back label reads:
"Imported by Treasury Importing Company - New-York - N.Y." The bottle
size is 3/4 quart.

The color of the wine now is now quite light as seen through the light
green neck of the bottle. It could still be good, but I have my
doubts. One will know much more when the bottle is first opened so
that it can be seen if the light color is pinkish or tan, in which
case the wine may stink and have to be discarded. I do know that a
1958 DRC La Tache still has a much deeper color as seen through the
neck than this wine does.

On Jan 12, 12:50*am, cwdjrxyz > wrote:
> I do know that a
> 1958 DRC La Tache still has a much deeper color as seen through the
> neck than this wine does.

Correction: 1959 La Tache, Fortunately I have never had a 1958 La
Tache if DRC even released one that year.

On Jan 12, 1:50�am, cwdjrxyz > wrote:
> On Jan 11, 8:31�pm, DaleW > wrote:
>
> > While I always like to taste new things, I must say the GCs from
> > producers you've never heard of are a truly risky bunch. There are
> > probably plenty of producers of Bourgogne or village Pommard, Gevrey,
> > or Santenay that most of us have never heard of. But no name Grand Cru
> > tends to taste more of the no name than the GC! Sorry re the
> > bullshit!!!
>
> At one time some of the larger stores in the US had house brands of
> wines, and perhaps some still do. I have only one example of such
> which is a GC Burgundy for Macy's "specially selected in France by
> Macy's Famous Taster for Macy's Fine Wine and Liquor Store." It is
> labeled as Vintage 1959, Mise du Domaine, �Marceau Le Chambertin,
> Burgundy Red Table Wine, Appellation Controlee, Exclusively Bottled
> For R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., Bamiberger's, Newark _ N.J. The above
> label information is given in the order it appears on the label. In
> addition "Estate Bottled" in very large red letters is printed over
> the label text at about a 45 degree angle. A tiny back label reads:
> "Imported by Treasury Importing Company - New-York - N.Y." The bottle
> size is 3/4 quart.
>
> The color of the wine now is now quite light as seen through the light
> green neck of the bottle. It could still be good, but I have my
> doubts. One will know much more when the bottle is first opened so
> that it can be seen if the light color is pinkish or tan, in which
> case the wine may stink and have to be discarded. I do know that a
> 1958 DRC La Tache still has a much deeper color as seen through the
> neck than this wine does.

Funny, the Macy's and the "estate bottled" info- I guess the producer
is Marceau?

But who knows, maybe it's great. I've had very good older Burgundys
that were quite light in bottle. Plus Chambertin is a much more
uniform vineyard than Clos Vougeot, Not to mention there was far less
domaine bottlings back then. Whenever you get to it, be sure to post!

Hi Dale,
How I agree with you.
On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:31:37 -0800 (PST), DaleW >
wrote:

>> found this bottle of 1999 Domaine de Charmy Clos de Vougeot GC. ?
>> even close to village wine let alone a Grand Cru wine. ?The wine
>> didn't taste old...just bad. "C-"
>
>While I always like to taste new things, I must say the GCs from
>producers you've never heard of are a truly risky bunch.

Here here, and the same goes for 1 cru too. I remember ages ago, I
haopened to meet the new manager of a local supermarket and he invited
us to the pre-open ing wine tasting of their fair. I won't comment on
the fact that there was a table 30 feet long stuffed full of unknown
Bordeaux of indeterminate parentage and uncertain vintages, while more
interesting regions had only 3 or 4 examples.

No, I will reserve my ire for the Burgundy table about 3 feet long
with maybe ten wines or so, most of which were regional wines from
poor years. However, there was one wine which looked interesting, I
regret I didn't note the grower. Anyway this was a Beaune 1er Cru Clos
des Mouches if I remember right, thought it might have been
Bressandes. It was from a perfectly decent year, possibly '90. On
pouring it, I was struck by how pale it was. But when I sniffed it, I
was transfixed by it's awfulness. A strong odour of vomit, with no
discernable fruit at all. It wasn't corked, it was merely dire. And
that disagreeable nose was carried through onto the mouth - I did have
some difficulty in bringing myself to taste it, but my oenological
curiosity overcame my sense of self preservation.

This was about the worst tasting bottle of wine I've ever had the
misfortune to come across.

--
All the best
Fatty from Forges