1945 Domaine
Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru

BY NEAL MARTIN | FEBRUARY 03, 2020I LOVE HALF-BOTTLES!
Phew, it feels good to come clean. I am well aware how everyone bangs on about
magnums as the optimal format for maturing wine. Received wisdom is that
half-bottles cannot age.

Rubbish! Go and taste
a few. In my experience, countless half-bottles have been found to age
marvelously, and upon reflection, why shouldn’t
that be so? Assuming wine matures via micro-oxygen ingress through the cork,
then surely the surface areas of 375ml and 750ml bottles are practically
identical. I know that the volume of wine is greater, but frankly, it never
seems to make much difference. Another benefit of half-bottles is that 375ml is
often an ideal quantity to drink. I’m long past the bacchanalian days when the
measure of a great evening was volume of consumption. I have always moderated
my alcohol intake, and the truth is that on many “school nights” I fancy a
glass of vino but a shared bottle is too much. My final defense of half-bottles
is that they offer an opportunity to juxtapose related wines, which is exactly
what transpired during a recent dinner in Hong Kong.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1580748978715-musigny_1945_vogue_copy.jpg"> 

The half-bottle pair
of 1945 Musigny Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru
from Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé
was part of an extraordinary private dinner that focused upon 1945 clarets. I
did not mind the brief detour into Burgundy. Our generous host wanted to
compare two bottlings of this legendary Burgundy, one bottled at the domaine
and the second an “Avery of Bristol” bottling acquired at the auction of the
much-missed John Avery MW. First and foremost, for all those half-bottle
naysayers, after 74 years both showed extremely well, and according to a fellow
guest they were as good as a 750ml bottle. They revealed no signs of fatigue,
nor did they exhibit any excessive vigor that would have raised suspicions about
their authenticity. The domaine bottling came with a neck label stating that
the wine was bottled in August 1947 and the quantities produced, although I did
not take a note at the time. It demonstrated bricking commensurate with a Burgundy
of this age. It is blessed with a heavenly bouquet of astounding precision,
extant red fruit laced with camphor, jasmine tea, loam and, with aeration, a
splash of balsamic. The bouquet seemed to gently intensify with aeration but
always remained somehow languid. The palate comes across as extremely
harmonious, exuding that sense of Pinoté.
I noticed some distant similarity to a mature Rioja Gran Reserva toward the
finish, but if anything, with aeration it reverts back to quintessential mature
Musigny, developing a discreet gamy note that I absolutely adore. This is a
magnificent wine that lived up to expectations. 98/Drink 2020-2035. The Avery bottling was very similar in
appearance to the domaine bottling. Likewise, the aromatic profile bore many
similarities, albeit with perhaps even more precision. That sweet core of red
fruit is present and correct, laced with similar tertiary and gamy
characteristics. The main difference was on the palate, which was texturally
slightly more honeyed by comparison and consequently shaved away a little
precision on the finish. It is still a gorgeous wine, but in the end I decided
that the domaine half-bottle just had the edge. 97/Drink 2020-2030.

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