1990 Joseph Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches, Burgundy (Part Three)

We did it. We opened the Clos des Mouches last evening and had it with dinner. It was a unique experience. We served it with pan seared and roasted beef tenderloin with a shiitake mushroom and parsnip ragout and a pinot noir reduction. The reduction was made from this wine, that's just how we roll. Dinner was great and the wine paired very, very well with the beef.

Before I tell you how the wine was, I want to drag this out a bit and explain why, perhaps, Clos des Mouches is considered to be so special. Burgundy is a small area, about two miles wide and thirty miles long. Only about 62 acres of Burgundy comprise Beaune Clos des Mouches, and this land is divided among twenty different winemakers. The largest single owner is Maison Joseph Drouhin, and they have the 32 best acres in the lot, land perfectly situated to make great pinot noir and chardonnay grapes. Joseph Drouhin acquired the beginnings of his Clos des Mouches holdings back in 1918 and has steadily added to them when possible and believes these vineyards to be their most precious holding. Maison Joseph Drouhin makes terrific wine, and they consider the wine made from Clos des Mouches to be their best of the best.

So, the vineyard is special. The winemaker is prestigious. But then add in the challenges of making great pinot noir (cue your internal clip of the movie "Sideways"). For those of you who have not seen this movie, I offer a brief explanation here. Pinot noir is challenged during each step of the transition from vine to bottle. The vines and fruit are fragile and susceptible to virtually every malady possible. Though favoring of cooler climates, the vines are easily damaged by spring frost. Every grape destroying pest finds a comfortable home in pinot noir vineyards as their fragility prevents resistance. A lack of particularly leafy vines exposes the grapes to much sunlight and makes them easily damaged by heat. Add in attacks by grape eating birds, and the very thin skin of the grapes and you have to wonder why people bother. They bother because when everything works, which is not often at all, the results can be absolutely staggering. When the weather works and harvest is timed well, pinot noir vineyards can produce incredible fruit. But then you have to make the wine.

Pinot noir is incredibly challenging to ferment, too, as it quite often "boils" out of its container. This is because the grapes have 18 amino acids that are naturally balanced, which can increase the rate of fermentation to the point that it is not controllable and can ruin large lots of the fruit. Making wine from this grape requires constant attention and focus. It is not a set-and-forget affair, and the pinot noir winemakers of the world must always be on their game. Making great pinot noir is something that can take a lifetime to get right.

Back in 1990 everything came together for Joseph Drouhin's heirs, and with his son Robert now running the winery (he took over from his father in 1957) they had a miracle vintage. Some of that wine made its way into my cellar. I've been able to sample bottles of the 1990 Beaune Clos de Mouches, and other great Burgundies from this vintage, over the years and remember many of them being excellent, some of them being tight and sharp, and others just not ready to drink. This bottle, though, has remained intact. Until last evening.

We opened the magnum and decanted about half of it to serve with dinner. We bottle poured a tasting and sampled the wine right after being opened. It was as we expected... tight, sour cherry smelling, thin in color and the nose hot with alcohol. It also had a pronounced wet leather smell to the nose and taste on the palate. This concerned me a little, as that musty and slightly stinky scent can indicate the wine is faulty. Ultimately though, there were no big surprises and we just wanted a baseline for when we tasted it again later. We poured glasses about an hour later after we decanted and tasted before we sat down to eat. It had changed dramatically. The nose was still a bit sharp with the same sour cherry scent, but the hot alcohol quality had dissipated and the wet leather scent had become very subtle. The palate was really beginning to open and was beginning to offer fruit that was much more rich. It was very balanced and had a terrific finish. The color, too, had developed and while the wine came out of the bottle with a very thin color ranging from light reds to reddish browns, it was deepening into more ruby reds. We were beginning to really enjoy it.

The kicker came with dinner though. Having the wine with food totally changed it. We ate over the next hour and the wine continued to unfold. It paired absolutely perfectly with our meal, and the ragout brought out more intense fruit in the wine. This was a good match. The wine had perfect structure to hold up to the beef, which is actually a lot to ask of an old pinot noir. Both Cat and I agreed that across the entire palate there were tremendous flavors, but they were all in balance. There was good rich cherry fruit. There was the leathery, earthy backbone. We even tasted a little asparagus... it had a subtle vegetal quality.

What a relief.

To be fair, this was not a wash-off-the-fireengine-we're-having-a-parade wine. But it was really, really good. I would have been happy with just really good, but the wine delivered a little extra for our efforts. Now, the 1990 vintage is going to be tough to come by, but both the 2002 and 2003's are excellent... and much more accessible price wise. I plan on getting a bottle each of the 2002 and 2003 to fill the hole in my basement where this wine sat so comfortably for so many years.

cost - $90 (in 1993)

served with - pan seared and oven roasted beef tenderloin with shiitake mushroom and parsnip ragout

winecommando rating (1-10) - 9

1990 Joseph Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches, Burgundy (Part Two)

I had a scare yesterday. It was one of those moments where you quietly freak-out to yourself. I was doing a little digging into this wine in preparation for writing Part II and came across a review of it. The reviewer was looking at a number of Burgundies from 1990, both red and white. He exclaimed that he did not see what the big deal was surrounding Clos des Mouches. He found it thin, uninviting and not worthy of further investigation. Uh... say what? My first thought was how I would break this to all of you... I mean, I'm trying to build a little tension here.

Then I scrolled down to the bottom of the page and saw the post date. November of 1998. HA! That was 10 years ago. I did a little more research and discovered that this was when this wine was smack dab in the middle of the aforementioned "dumb" period. Dumb periods are like minefields to wine collectors. You have to be checking all of the time to make sure you get maximum enjoyment out of your investment. Or, you could just be like Cat and I and drink the freaking wine when it suits you (but after checking around, natch...).

But then I started this blog and now have to DELIVER. What if the wine blows? What if the whole thing was just one big waste of our collective time? Well, we'll just have to wait and see as I'm not cracking the magnum until tomorrow.

I did get confirmation that the wine is killer and that now is a good time to drink it. Maybe not the "best" time, but "best" is theoretical and we are all about practical action over here. Also, as a result of the confirmation I wanted to do a financial break down of this wine for you:

Purchased in 1993 for $90.00
Lot sold at auction in 1995 for average of $56/bottle or $120 for a magnum
Retail price in 2000 averaged about $60/bottle or $140 for a magnum
Last price review in 2006 had bottles around $150 and a magnum holding at $325 (updated!)
Restaurants are listing 1990 Clos des Mouches for between $300 and $500/bottle and around $700-$1000 for a magnum (updated... did more research and found a chart on proper valuation validated by Robert Parker)

Magnums tend to command a premium. I'm not exactly sure why, but my guess is that it is because they are more limited in availability and tend to age better due to the additional volume. I'll check this out and tell you what I learn.

Anyway, $90 to $1000 (updated!) - not bad for just sitting around and yes, I understand that $1000 is a restaurant price... just be patient. Auctions and restaurants are the only places to now buy this wine. My associate said that it will probably begin to appreciate quickly over the next two years as more reviewers are beginning to assign it a "drink now" designation.

Here's the deal, though. We don't collect wine. We drink it. We have great wine around so we can share it with friends and family and the investment quality is purely academic to us. And yet, it is still fun to see how wine appreciates in value.

Will tomorrow's tasting be worth $1000 for the experience? Probably not. Will each glass taste like $100? I sure hope so. I once had a $100 glass of 1900 Madeira (on New Year's in 1999!) and I have to say, it was pretty damned good. I'll let you know how we make out here tomorrow, once the deed is done.

1990 Joseph Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches, Burgundy (Part One)

This weekend we will be drinking this very, very special wine. It is a really big deal to me as not only is this an absolutely incredible bottle from a fantastic wine maker (Joseph Drouhin) it is also from one of the best Burgundy vintages in the last 150 years. 1990 is held by Burgundy lovers with a special reverence as it was one of those vintages when all of the challenging variables of making awesome pinot noir came together just right. This is also a special bottle as it is actually two bottles. It is a magnum (1.5 L as opposed to 750 ml). Double the fun. All of that, and this bottle has been in my "cellar" since around 1993 or so. That's nearly 15 years. This wine has seen me through many experiences and I have had it with me longer than I have had my dog. This bottle was in the basement when I got married. It was there when I had my daughter. It has seemingly always been down there, resting comfortably. Now it's time to share it.

As much as I love wine, it is the stories behind the wines that get me all excited. Every wine has a story... or at least it SHOULD have a story, as that makes the whole thing so much more interesting. As much as I seek out great wines, I seek out great stories. I may forget what a wine tasted like, but I always remember the interesting facts and legends around it. This bottle has many stories with it and, in anticipation of actually drinking it, I am going to savor the next couple days by telling them.

So, 1990 is a super-vintage (rated "Exceptional"). Joseph Drouhin is a top Burgundian wine house. That alone is a killer combination. But this bottle is from the vineyard Beaune Clos de Mouches, which is considered to be one of the best, if not THE best Premier Cru vineyard in all of Burgundy. The vineyard is located on a hill with direct southern exposure and is made up of stony soil with a very high chalk content. The vines love it, and when the weather works just right they produce incredibly intense fruit. The weather rarely works just right. The name Clos des Mouches is interesting. Mouches in French actually means flies - like the nuisance insect. But in this area of Burgundy mouches means honey bees. Dating back to the 1500's this vineyard was once the location of many bee-hives as its orientation made it ideal property to help keep bees. Hence, Clos des Mouches means "Enclosure of the Honey Bees." That explains the little bees on the wine's label (you'll see that in Part Two).

That's enough for the moment. Look for Part Two in the next day or so. I do have a call into an old associate who is this wine's original importer (this actual bottle, I bought it from him back in 1993). I need to speak with him before I open it. I have to know that I am doing the right thing as great Burgundies are notorious for going in and out of "dumb" periods. That, and I want an estimate on this bottle's value. It's got to be way up there.