Jayer Richebourg 1962 – If it seems too good to be true ..

I have seen an almost endless number of pristine Henri Jayer wines being tasted and consumed over the past few years. A rough count show more than 25 bottles of Richebourg from Jayer have been tasted by a few people, including numerous bottles of 1959 and 1962.

To be honest I found this quite unusual, as Jayer wines are now more or less gone from the restaurants that used to serve Jayer wines, back in the days where there were mainly genuine Jayer wines on the market.

Fake or genuine …. ?

First of all it’s important to say, while some of these bottles most likely are fakes, this doesn’t mean that the people who are tasting these wines are involved in the fraudulent business themselves. And while some of these wines look very suspicious indeed, it is very difficult to tell if a wine is genuine or not … especially from a low resolution picture on a website.

The purpose of this article is not to point out fake bottles or fraudulent people – it’s merely done to illustrate the likelihood of these wines being genuine – and to underline that if the wine and the offer seems too good to be true, it probably is!

The old vintages of estate bottled Jayer

Henry Jayer was a very talented vigneron and not a wealthy man with large vineyard holdings, and while he was very successful during the last part of his career, he was relatively unknown during the first decades of his production.

Jayer really began his production after the war, but it was not until 1976 he began to estate bottle the main part of his production, and in 1978 he decided to stop the sale of wines to negociants, and from this vintage he estate bottled the whole production.

This means that prior to 1976 there are very few estate bottled Jayer wines, and the wast majority of wines were bottled by Alexics Lichine for the US market and by some importers in Belgium – one being Caves Dessilly in Belgium.

Some of the bottles I have seen tasted recently have very pristine labels … mint condition … and they look just like they left the cellar in Vosne-Romanee with a “new” label. If these are genuine then they, in my view, must have been sold by Jayer during his retirement or within the last 15 to 20 years of his life, otherwise the labels would look older.

The likelihood of a genuine 1962 Richebourg with a pristine label

As mentioned above the labels on some of the wines consumed are very pristine – some are labeled as domaine bottled and others are labeled as bottled by Caves Dessilly in Belgium.

If the label looks almost new – then it’s likely that it have left the cellar after 1990 or at least after 1980 – otherwise the label would have taken some color and look older.

I spoke to one of Jayers larger importers, who imported Jayer wines from the early 1980s and remained in contact with Henri Jayer until his death. He said that he was never offered old vintages like 1959 and 1962 during the years he worked with Jayer.

Other sources have heard about a few bottles of 1959 Richebourg being sold with a certificate from Jayer, but it’s pretty clear that Jayer didn’t offer quantities of old vintages of Richebourg after 1980. It’s also important to note, that the sale of his private cellar in 2012 – the Chisties auction in Hong-Kong – included only two lots with bottles from vintages prior to 1976 (1970 Beaumonts and 1973 Brulees).

It’s therefore highly unlikely that there are more than a very few genuine bottles of Jayer Richebourg 1962 in the world with pristine and relatively new label from the Domaine – if any!

Furthermore it’s highly unlikely to find quantities of these wines in any conditions or bottling. Henri Jayer only made two barrels – equivalent to 600 bottles – of Richebourg in a good year – according to one of his importers. Most of the wines were furthermore bottled by negociants before 1976 – and it’s unlikely that Jayer estate bottled more than one barrel of Richebourg per year before 1976.

Bottom line – to find and consume more than one bottle of these wines today – 50 years after they were made – is quite unlikely – regardless of condition and bottling.

The case of the fantastic Richebourg 1962

I have seen several bottles of Jayer Richebourg 1962 and 1959 consumed and given fantastic ratings within the last 10 years. The wines have been given very high scores, 98 – 100 points, indeed impressive for a 50 year old wine.

One note on the Richebourg 1962 describe the wine as almost entirely primary in character and compare it to a great vintage of La Tache … and furthermore think it’s the best Richebourg he has ever tasted.

But is this too good to be true?

The likely quality of a 1962 Jayer Richebourg

While the quality of Jayer wines from the 1980s and 1990s is well known …. and they are indeed gorgeous wines …. few people have tasted genuine estate bottled Jayer wines from the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the negociant bottlings are known for fine quality and are also very highly priced these days.

A good friend contacted Jayer about a bottle of 1971 Richebourg – a few years before Jayer passed away – to hear if the bottle could be genuine. Henri Jayer replied – yes it could be genuine, but I hope you didn’t pay to much for it. He then explained that the quality of the wines in the earlier years weren’t as good – and that he found “the formula” around 1976 and from then on the quality was higher.

Henri might have been modest here … but I think its fair to say that most likely his wines got better over the years. So while the rare estate bottled Jayer Richebourg 1962 might be very good – it’s most likely not the wine of the century. When I say most likely … it’s due to the fact that I have never tasted a genuine Jayer Richebourg 1962 … not even a fake one.

There is another important fact that supports this: The vines on Meo-Camuzets plots on Richebourg were replanted during the 1950s … according to Meo-Camuzet homepage and other sources.

In my view not even the great Henri Jayer could make a 98 point wine from very young vines on Richebourg. This is also supported by information from one of Jayer’s importers who received a 1959 Richebourg as a gift – the bottle was followed by a word of warning from Henri Jayer – remember this is made from very young vines.

So … if it seems too good to be true!

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