Vincent Dancer Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Tête du Clos

Light yellow with green tint. Toasted barrel, walnut, citrus, butter. Fresh acidity and fruits, which tasted like a youngster. Well-balanced and good tension on the palate. Very long finish. Needed 3 hours to fully open.

Burned tyre, potently and disturbingly malodorous, we let it sit for 30 min and the most optimistic of us pronounced it well improved but Sensitive little me still couldn’t get past the mercaptans which I regard as a flaw. If I were in a restaurant I would have sent it back. Buyer beware.

Be a good while before I try another bottle of this. Another 2014 that has gone into an ungenerous acidic shell. Takes me back to the 80's actually. The expert view was that the the 2014's may live for 8 years or perhaps a few years more. I'm thinking this wine will be really solid, if really well stored, in fifteen years easy. For those who complain that white burgundy is not what it once was with the emergence of …

Very nice and descomplicated wine

This wine is sui generis - one of a kind - in the sense of yes terroir. The stony minerality as opposed to the limestone finesse of say Meursault is really remarkably intense and pronounced. Very rich, just barely in mid life. A cookie cutter wine this is not, and it is all the better for it. The more I drink them, the more I find Dancer's wines seem to express the vineyard. More power to him. Much more succulent …

Has sorted out beautifully. Still a bit of minerality, but the creaminess (in the texture sense) and the white burgundy chardonnay flavor sings. Very light on the oak, which I think a good thing. Almost has the precision of a grand cru. At this point I much prefer this to Dancer's La Romanee. Early on, I actually much preferred the La Romanee. So if I were to simplify this, I would say drink the La Romanee early and sit on …

Lunch at Jade Court (Chicago, IL) : Honestly, I still can't quite figure out Dancer. Some of the wines are too reductive and clammed up for my palate, but some of them are absolutely gorgeous. This belongs in the latter camp. Yes, this was intensely reductive, but there was also some really nice white fruit to balance everything out. A bigger wine, this certainly helps with the leanness that I sometimes experience.

Closer to the Bourgogne Blanc then to the 1er Cru Chassagnes, doesn’t have the reductive notes and complexity of the latter.

In a blind tasting I would confidently guess this is as a Puligny. Tasting the La Romanee and the Tete du Clos side by side is striking. The La Romanee much more generous, the Tete du Clos much more restrained. Both are wonderfully extracted with plenty of length. The dominant note to me in the Tete du Clos is minerality. Secondary notes - a bit of oiliness and apple (on the nose) and multi grain bread (on the palate). More …

Second Sunday Group: 2014 Chassagne-Montrachet (Neil's) : Double blind. Lemon, apple and butterscotch notes. Stone and mineral notes emerge as it opens, with a good bit of wood underneath. Apple and stone on the palate with a long finish. 91-92 pts. My #4, Domino's #3 Group #5, 65 pts