Clos de la Roilette Zen

J

Joe Dressner

Joe Dressner
David Lillie has been drinking Roilette since the 1988 Vintage.

Denyse Louis and I have been drinking Roilette since the 1989 Vintage.

My son, Jules Dressner, has been drinking Roilette since the 1995 Vintage.

My daughter, Alyce Dressner, has been drinking Roilette since the 1999 Vintage.

The vineyard has a historic, tasty and long-term profile which has been cultivated by the Coudert family in the past, present and will be continued in the future.

I'm glad everyone is so ecstatic over the 2009 Vintage, the sales of which are paying for my expensive brain tumor surgery and treatment as I write these notes from the deep wards of New York University's Cancer Wards. As someone who has followed the wines for twenty years though, let me assure you all that there is nothing new or revelatory going on.

Those of us who love great expressions of natural terroir are being treated to a small spike in a long history and development. The spike, the 2009 Vintage, means nothing outside of the overall history. Personally, I will always prefer the 1991, which was a total revelation to me.
 
My name is Jay and I've been drinking Roilette since the 1998 vintage. And hope to continue to do so for many vintages to come. Thank you Joe for having made that possible.
 
Although I think for a lot of people, the 2009 is their 1991, their revelatory experience. I don't count myself in that group.

I'm just feeling sorry for myself that I don't have more '99s.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Although I think for a lot of people, the 2009 is their 1991, their revelatory experience. I don't count myself in that group.

I'm just feeling sorry for myself that I don't have more '99s.
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Here, hear (or was that hear, here?)! I missed out on the '91s (and the '92s through '97s, too). For me, '99 was the watershed year, which just happened to coincide with a life-altering trip to Beaujolais in the company of a local boy who shepherded us to many fine stops. Perhaps the '09s will in time prove to be equally momentous -- who knows? -- but I doubt it since my own understanding of the region, the wines and even the personalities has progressed immensely, due in no small part to the time spent bandying quips on this here bored. I am marginally pissed off by the '09 feeding frenzy, which has made getting some of my favorite wines more difficult this year, but I am willing to overlook that minor discomfort if it means that the importer can get better health care during his time of need or if Alain Coudert can afford an extra week of vacation this winter.

Mark Lipton
Satistfied customer
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Although I think for a lot of people, the 2009 is their 1991, their revelatory experience. I don't count myself in that group.

I'm just feeling sorry for myself that I don't have more '99s.
Click to expand...

Here, hear (or was that hear, here?)! I missed out on the '91s (and the '92s through '97s, too). For me, '99 was the watershed year, which just happened to coincide with a life-altering trip to Beaujolais in the company of a local boy who shepherded us to many fine stops. Perhaps the '09s will in time prove to be equally momentous -- who knows? -- but I doubt it since my own understanding of the region, the wines and even the personalities has progressed immensely, due in no small part to the time spent bandying quips on this here bored. I am marginally pissed off by the '09 feeding frenzy, which has made getting some of my favorite wines more difficult this year, but I am willing to overlook that minor discomfort if it means that the importer can get better health care during his time of need or if Alain Coudert can afford an extra week of vacation this winter.

Mark Lipton
Satistfied customer
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Well, let's keep a little perspective. Yes, '09 Beaujolais is selling fast, and a lot of people who never bought the stuff before are motivated to try it because of the buzz about the vintage. But in terms of feeding frenzies, this has got to be the most benign hyped-vintage feeding frenzy of all time. Nearly every wine I've wanted to buy has been available (and not on a special customer hush-hush basis either, I'm talking right there on the shelves or online inventory), and many of them cost me less than previous vintages of the same wines (e.g., $25 Foillard - I think the '07 ran me $32). Yeah, you had to pull the trigger faster, but in most cases we're talking about a window of weeks, not days or minutes. If you want to talk feeding frenzies, think back to the 2005 Burgundies when all sorts of wines (1) cost 2x to 10x their usual price and (2) sold out within minutes of hitting wine-searcher or the Premier Cru RSS feed if they were ever even offered to the public in the first place. *That's* a feeding frenzy. This 2009 Beaujolais thing is just a case of a region getting slightly more mainstream attention than normal. I guess a true feeding frenzy is possible if it ends up getting a Wine Spectator cover story, but then the run will be on DuBoeuf.
 
Yeah, you had to pull the trigger faster, but in most cases we're talking about a window of weeks, not days or minutes.
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It's probably a function of misplaced expectations, but I came into these wines at a time when they were always on the shelves and there was no notion of 'pulling triggers'. Wander into CSW, KLWM, buy what you want. Which was perfect for someone like me without a large cellar.

But I don't expect the world to cater to my needs. And even if part of me resents having to 'pull triggers', other parts of me are happy that money is being spent on these wines.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Yeah, you had to pull the trigger faster, but in most cases we're talking about a window of weeks, not days or minutes.
Click to expand...

It's probably a function of misplaced expectations, but I came into these wines at a time when they were always on the shelves and there was no notion of 'pulling triggers'. Wander into CSW, KLWM, buy what you want. Which was perfect for someone like me without a large cellar.
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No doubt. But my point is, if there's a wine you want, you got the chance to buy it, at the same price you're used to paying or less. So, what's to complain about?
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Yeah, you had to pull the trigger faster, but in most cases we're talking about a window of weeks, not days or minutes.
Click to expand...

It's probably a function of misplaced expectations, but I came into these wines at a time when they were always on the shelves and there was no notion of 'pulling triggers'. Wander into CSW, KLWM, buy what you want. Which was perfect for someone like me without a large cellar.
Click to expand...
No doubt. But my point is, if there's a wine you want, you got the chance to buy it, at the same price you're used to paying or less. So, what's to complain about?
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Cash flow, I imagine.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg: But my point is, if there's a wine you want, you got the chance to buy it, at the same price you're used to paying or less. So, what's to complain about?
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Since you asked, if I had a complaint it would be that I don't have the money or the space right now to stockpile the total amount of 09 Beaujolais that I would like to drink. In my ideal world, I would be able to buy a couple of bottles every month, for the next 12 months (or longer).

But I realize that is increasingly unrealistic (not to mention a less helpful model for retailers) so I don't expect it to happen. But if you want my (out of touch) complaint, there it is.
 
Dear Joe,
With every bottle I open, I'll drink to your speedy and full recovery and with every bottle of the Tardive I lay down I'll look forward to opening them years from now with you still importing the then current vintage. Sie gesund; hag sameach.
 
Initially, for me it was hard to retailers interested in stocking stuff like Lapierre Morgon '96, back when I first began to investigate the cru Beaujolais wines
 
I've been drinking Roilette for as long as Joe's daughter it seems. Of course, I'm old enough to be her father, so I started late. But I'm grateful to Joe for bringing it in and for Robert Callahan for introducing me to the wine. Alas, I drank the last of my 1999s last year and have only a couple of bottles of the 2000s and 2002s left.
 
originally posted by Ned Hoey:
Initially, for me it was hard to retailers interested in stocking stuff like Lapierre Morgon '96, back when I first began to investigate the cru Beaujolais wines
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With painfully few exceptions, it is apparently still '96 in Detroit.
 
To Joe's original point.

Spikes like 2009 can be useful to ignorant assholes like me. I drank Coudert for years but I never really listened to the wines. The 2009s did get my attention, but the outcome was that I immediately went back and retasted older vintages, to great satisfaction.
 
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