2002 Cote de Nuit Rankings

We had a great turnout for our 2002 Côte de Nuits tasting on January 18, 2011 and we were proud to welcome Konrad Ejbich as our guest speaker for the evening.  Konrad is well known in the world of wine and has a long list of accolades, including writing for such magazines as Wine Spectator and Decanter and making  many appearances on both radio and television.  He is also currently the Interim VP of the Wine Writers Circle of Canada.  One interesting fact that we learned about Konrad is that he is the inventor of Sparkling Ice Wine, which he accidentally created in 1988 in his home cellar.

Our reception wine was a 2008 Yealands Estate Pinot Noir.  This wine is currently available through the LCBO.

Konrad began the evening by telling the group that the most common descriptor used to depict the 2002 vintage was "Exciting", and after we had a chance to taste them, he said that these wines definitly lived up to that the hype.  All of the Côte de Nuits wines showed very strongly, with only one bottle that showed a few signs of being corked.   

The big surprise of the evening was the 2002 Gevrey Chambertin, Les Cazetiers 1er Cru – Jadot.  The group ranked it as their top wine, while Konrad ranked 8th, saying it tasted a little tight, and that it would probably be great in another 3-5 years.  He did also say that this wine was still better than 90% of Ontario Pinot Noirs he has tasted.   Konrad’s favourite wine of the night was the 2002 Nuits-St.-Georges, Clos de Vougeot, Jadot, Grand Cru (which the group ranked as their fourth).  He said that this wine had strong black fruit flavours along with good hard oak notes that gave this wine “excellent scaffolding” for all the complex flavours to be balanced on.  He commented that this wine was “crazy good”.

Name of Wine (in order poured)	Group Ranking	Guest Ranking
A. 2002 Chambolle Musigny, Les Gruencheres, 1er Cru, Domaine Armelle & Bernard Rion;	6	2
B. 2002 Vosne-Romanée, Les Suchots, 1er Cru, Alain Hudelot-Noellat $89	7	7
C. 2002 Nuits-St.-Georges, Les Proces, 1er Cru, Robert Arnoux	5	5
D. 2002 Vosne-Romanee, Les Beaumonts, 1er Cru, Bruno Clavelier	8	3
E. 2002 Nuits St. Georges, Clos des Argillieres, 1er Cru, Domaine Michelle & Patrice Rion	2	6
F. 2002 Gevrey Chambertin, Les Cazetiers 1er Cru – Jadot	1	8
G. 2002 Latricieres-Chambertin, Rossignol-Trapet, Grand Cru	3	4
H. 2002 Nuits-St.-Georges, Clos de Vougeot, Jadot, Grand Cru	4	1