TN 2001 Frédéric Magnien Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Clos Baulet

[Ben Coffman]

2001 Frédéric Magnien Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Clos Baulet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Morey St. Denis 1er Cru (18/01/2016)
Pale and dried blood red colour. Cellar cold to start but soon got going. At first a faint touch of brett? No obvious oak. Meatiness for sure. And quite a spiky, spicy finish which quickly diminished. After warming up this was really rather lovely. The nod to modernity of style was in its plush nature and maybe that meatiness, but it's clean red fruit, unmistakable pinosity and its complexity would surely win over a traditionalist's heart. Criticism? A bit diffuse, but that's nit-picking here. (93 pts.)

 

[Richard_Brooks]

That sounds nice Ben.

Very interested in board opinions on these wines. I've never had one I loved, and when young I've found them a bit hard. But never had a mature example, and I don't have much experience overall.

Thoughts?

 

[Thom Blach]

No recent experience but I remember several 99-02. They seemed at the time horribly overextracted with very ugly high toast oak but I may very well have completely misinterpreted them as Ben's note suggests. I would hazard a guess that the apparent touch of brett might be reduction.

 

[Ben Coffman]

I have to say I opened this with some trepidation as I know this producer's reputation. I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't seem over-extracted and the colour was pretty pale and translucent. Nor was it Bordeaux or Rhone in disguise as some of the worst offenders seem to be. It's plushness certainly gave it a modern or even new-world style, but it's complexity was nothing I've had in my (rather limited) experience.

Perhaps it was a simple case of time healing it's early wounds?