Domaine des Lambrays, Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 1999

robert_parker91

Reviewed by: Pierre Rovani

The dark ruby-colored 1999 Clos Des Lambrays exhibits blackberry, cassis, blood orange, and spice aromas. It is medium-bodied, with a well-made candle wax, blackberry, cassis, and hoisin sauce-flavored personality. This spicy, extroverted wine is velvety-textured and appealing. Grand crus of the Cote de Nuits were entitled to 46 hectoliters per hectare yields (including the PLC) and the Domaine des Lambrays produced 45.5 hectoliters per hectare. My impression is that they would have achieved a more concentrated, deeper, and longer finishing wine if their yields had been more moderate. Drink this wine over the course of the next 10-12 years. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Peter Weygandt, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800.

vinous92

Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer

Very ripe aromas of dark fruits, cinders, spices and earth, along with strong torrefaction notes of coffee and mocha; there's something here that's dulling the fruit. More pristine in the mouth than on the nose, but showing obvious evolution to its flavors of black fruits, iron and brown spices. Plenty of thickness here but lacks the peppery clarity of the 2001. Finishes with robust, rather dusty tannins. This is considerably less impressive and more evolved than a brilliant bottle I tried last winter for my 1999 horizontal, perhaps owing to a touch of brett, which has compromised the wine's inner-mouth tension and minerality. (13.9% alcohol; 3.54 pH; 3.4 g/l acidity; the crop level even after a green harvest was 45 hectoliters per hectare, which Thierry Brouin said was the highest during his time at Domaine des Lambrays)

vinous96

Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer

(vinified with 100% whole clusters; Thierry Brouin told me in January that the yield of 42 hectoliters per hectare--despite a big green harvest--was the largest in his 38 vintages at this estate): Healthy dark red. Very sexy scents of plum, spices and cedar. Rich and silky but not a bit exotic--or even advanced, for that matter--with its seamless flavors of raspberry, spices and soil energized by salty minerality. Boasts terrific inner-mouth energy and tension, no doubt partly due to the stem element. Finishes saline and very long, with edge-free tannins and uncanny lift. At once seductively sweet and youthful, this wine should continue to evolve gracefully for another two decades.

vinous90

Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer

Good full deep red. Complex aromas of wild red fruits, underbrush and minerals, complicated by hints of earth, herbs and game. Sweeter and riper than the village and premier cru bottlings, with much more buffering volume to support its fairly sizable tannic structure. Still, the tannins are slightly dusty.

vinous92

Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer

Very good saturated red. Nuanced, pure aromas of cherry, raspberry, bitter chocolate, mocha, smoke and veggies. Sweet, rich and chewy; a distinct step up from the premier cru in both texture and complexity. Finishes with big but ripe tannins and subtle, restrained sweetness. A lovely '99 in the making.