Jadot

Tasting Notes:
Meaty and alkaline notes mingle with the more typical brambly black raspberry, horehound and concentrated herbal side of the Jadot 2005 Bonnes Mares. Intense, pungent berry and herb concentration along with underbrush on the palate lead me to imagine that the thorns will draw blood. The hugely concentrated, torrential finish preserves a very tart berry freshness, medicinal herbal pungency, black tea bitterness, and deep meatiness. This is neither for the faint of heart nor for those seeking comfort or charm. Lock it up for 12-15 years. Jacques Lardiere has once again presided over a collection for the most part not intended to flatter in its youth, but rather to achieve an eventual balance of fruit acidity with (in this instance frequently quite prominent) tannin. Prolonged post-fermentative extraction promoted a formidably-structured group of wines, which Lardiere expressed no hurry about bottling. Certain of these Ñ particularly from the Cote de Beaune Ñ displayed a slightly drying finishing astringency or simply an austere lack of charm to match their concentration, traits Lardiere suggested might be traceable to drought stress in those sites. A brief July rain that reached the Cote de Nuits but not the Cote de Beaune was critical, he asserts, and all of JadotÕs vines in the northern Cote were picked before the harvest in the south commenced. (Wines from the Domaine Louis Jadot, Domaine Heritiers Louis Jadot, or Domaine Gagey, have been identified with a letter ÙDÎ in their listings.) Wine Advocate # 171 Jun 2007
Parker Points: 94
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes:
The Montrachet exhibits earth, wild mushroom, smoke, and mineral aromas as well as a hugely concentrated, extracted, and intensely complex personality. Copious quantities of Brazil nuts, gravel, spiced pears, buttered toast, and flowers saturate the palate in this velvety-textured, magnificently balanced, and full-bodied block-buster. Its admirably long finish appears to last close to 40 seconds. Wine Advocate # 115 Feb 1998
Parker Points: 95-97
Drinking Period: 2006-2015

Tasting Notes:
Following a super-ripe, concentrated nose of tropical fruits, the Batard-Montrachet serves up layers of spice-laden tropical fruit. With great staying power, this intense, long, full-bodied wine is a true Grand Cru. Drink it between 2000-2010. According to Lardiere, the Batard had 13.7% natural sugar, eclipsing the Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles's 13.5%. This note is the result of tastings I did in Burgundy between January 7 and January 29. Ratings with a range of scores in parentheses indicate the wine was tasted from cask, not bottle. Pierre-Henri Gagey, the director of the highly respected Louis Jadot negociant house and his extremely talented winemaker Jacques Lardiere, are excited about their '95s. Like everybody else in the Cote, they saw the flowering on their whites get seriously damaged by the May snow fall. This resulted in a 30% reduction of their overall production, with some vineyards having yields more than 50% below the norm (Montrachet for example). The resulting grapes were very small and packed with concentrated juice, thereby providing fabulous raw material for Lardiere to display his considerable talent. Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Parker Points: 91-93
Drinking Period: 2000-2010

Tasting Notes:
The Corton Pougets, which is the least-known great wine of the Jadot portfolio, is powerful, as well as frightfully tannic. Although it possesses the potential to be excellent, it will never be a great wine. Its high tannin, combined with shrill acid levels make for an austere mouthful of Pinot Noir. Give it 5-6 years of cellaring and keep your fingers crossed that the fruit does not fade. Jadot produced a high percentage of successful wines in 1993. There are also disappointments, particularly in the lower appellations which have turned out tough and tannic. There is no Jadot house style, save for rich, well-delineated, structured wines that stand the test of time. As a vintage, 1993 is less consistently excellent than 1990 or 1989. In 1988, all the grand crus were bottled without filtration. That vintage was followed in 1990 and subsequent vintages, with all the premier and grand crus bottled without fining or filtration. Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Parker Points: 88
Drinking Period:  -

Tasting Notes:
The white winemaking philosophy in low acid years such as 1992 is to only do a partial malolactic fermentation in order to preserve the natural acidity. This has proven to be a highly successful policy, resulting in some of the longest-lived white burgundies of the region. The 1992 Batard Montrachet is dense yet elegant, hazelnut and honey-scented. This wine exhibits richer, denser, more unctuously-textured fruit than the Bienvenue Batard-Montrachet. The Gageys make no bones about rating 1989, 1985, and 1986 as significantly richer, more complex vintages for white burgundy than 1992. Their 1992s are successful, but based on my impressions of the 1992s vis a vis the 1989s, 1986s, and 1985s, I would agree with their assessment. Robert Parker Wine Advocate
Parker Points: 91
Drinking Period:  -