Ever since I created this blog, I've dreamt of the day when I would write a post about exactly two grand crus. Let's all cheer a pun fifteen years in the making!
Steinmetz, Mosel, Dhorner Grosser Hengelberg, Monopollage, 2020
This might not be considered a Grand Cru legally, since chez Steinmetz is not a member of the VDP, but we decreed that it does count. If it doesn't, I'll just recreate the setting of two grand crus in the future. It starts off delicate and nuanced, a touch of sweetness offsetting the angularity usually found in GGs. The angularity did show up later in the evening, but kiss of sweetness was always present, nurturing the flavor spectrum (apples and peaches, mostly).
Domaine Gerard Julien, Echezaux Grand Cru, 2013
A Grand Cru proper, from the region that invented the title, this is accompanied by all the trials and hardships of opening such a wine when it's not right in its window. I thought it would be readier, since 2013 isn't a great year, but I neglected to read my tasting note from five years back, when I guessed it would need fifteen to twenty years. How awful to be so right. Upon opening, it was soft and inviting but became dense and extracted the more air it got. The nose is not exactly very Bourgogne. The spices and herbs are a couple of steps to the left or right of what I would consider Bourgogne-like, close, almost there, but not quite - and those two steps are actually a great deal, since the palate does not provide the exotic, peacock tail sweep of a Grand Cru.
A few things mitigated the experience. The company, the fact that its harshness actually made for a better pairing with the meats we had, and the nigh odd fact that the winemaker's touch could be felt beneath all that extraction. In other words, the balance was there, but we were peering at it through a dark mirror.
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