Nuits-Saint-Georges 1995, Joseph Drouhin

I am open-minded about every wine before tasting but I confess that a string of uninteresting wines from the big Burgundy negoçiants has put me on edge when confronted by their labels. This Nuits-Saint-Georges should have been a benchmark wine, spicy, gamey with plum fruit and plenty of backbone. Instead it was dried out without much to offer on the nose and a "brown suede shoe" impression on the palate. We had three bottles so this could not be blamed on bottle variation -- a handy excuse trotted out by Parisian sommeliers for centuries. In fact this Joseph Drouhin wine was so unimpressive that the two dozen blind tasters at the dinner switched to claret.... of all things. Shame they didn't have any Domaine Drouhin wines from Oregon which were excellent when we tasted there back in October 2005.

Comments

  1. Anonymous10:25 PM

    Did it not occur to you that most 95s are not for current drinking? They aren't which is no reflection on their quality. I'm sure this will be a good wine.

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  2. That's fairly typical for Drouhin wines, especially the 1995's, which seem filtered to death, void of life and boring.

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  3. Thanks for the comments. I think that all 1995 red Burgundies should be ready for drinking today. They are well past the 4 year to 8 year period when they sometimes close up. When they are closed they have a restrained potency and its difficult to assess the flavours. This NSG 1995 probably peaked 4 years ago. There isn't any hint of greatness to come. I certainly don't recommend buying this or keeping it longer if you already have some.

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  4. Anonymous1:01 AM

    You may very well think that 95s should be ready for drinking today, but of the thirty or so of the best wines tasted over the last six months none of them are. Where do you get this nonsense about closing between 4 and 8?it can just as easily be between 3 and 16 or 7 and 9. There are no hard and fast rules here as you should jolly well know.
    I have not had this wine but Drouhin make some of the greatest wines in burgundy-in fairness this is not likely to be one of them.

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