originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
'11 is worse than '04. '04s were very pretty for a time after they came out, and SOME of them are still good. '11s were already lousy on release, and didn't even have the advantage of being cheap.
04s were also really interesting in barrel if you wanted to compare dirt among different sites, especially those in the same village. Certainly not a feature that stood out for the 11s in barrel. I will say though that a lot of problems in 11 are from chaptalization that went way beyond trying to get the wines to a "safe" level of alcohol. OK, I get risk management for such a hot commodity as burgundy, but who says bonnes-mares *has* to be 13.5%? Is it so that it is expressive enough, or to make sure morons can tell the difference between a grand cru and a 1er/village on release in a vintage like 11? And it isn't chaptalization in itself; it's more about making ample and extracted wines in juxtaposition with naturally bitter and herbaceous flavors in many 11s. Thank you, but I can get robitussin at Walgreens for much less money.