BURGUNDY REPORT
Gaëlle on 2020:
“I am very happy with it, certainly with the quantity — we started with a lot of grapes but then came the dryness — we still thought we had a lot but there actually wasn’t much juice. 32 hl/ha which we’ve become used to but we thought we had 50! Super juice and with good acidity — all fermenting easily at low temperature - all done `natural` and finished before the new harvest. We did have a short hailstorm not long before the harvest but — starting t24August and all done in 11 days.”
Gaëlle on 2019:
"A lot down in 2019 — and that was all down to the heat of the summer —some of the parcels were as low as 20 hl/ha — of-course not all. Also wines that were quite easy to ferment except for wine which we will taste first, but all were much easier than in 2018.”
They are now Ecocert qualified for all the négoce wines here.
The wines...
Outstanding — certainly my greatest tasting in the first week, from 3, of my visits in Chablis — indeed, possibly the greatest of them all! But you are (I would!) going to have to wait for a while for that barrel flavour to fade.
2019 Chablis Terroirs de Béru
350-400 m altitude, Kimmerigian, usually windy, the snow always stays here longer, but it's also warmer in the summer. The only wine 5% elevage in foudres and the rest in tank. This cuvée normally accounts for about 1/3 ofthe domaine, and always the same parcels are used.
A timid nose but one with a width of riper lemon fruit. Nice energy, a faint tannin at the base. The minerality is super but you sense the sugar — perhaps 4-5 grams, still — in the width of mouthwatering flavour in the finish.
2019 Chablis Montserre
From the plateau of the hill here, above Chichée, plus a higher hill. Very draining white soil with lots of fossils here, Kimmerigian rock but more angular. 'Have been slowly increasing the amount of oak —for both fermentation and elevage — it was all barrel vinification and elevage this year.
Rounded by the barrel but this nose is still quite attractive. Wide, beautiful clarity again, the concentration deepening and ingraining into the palate. Lovely acidity. That's a great Chablis just wait 2 years for the barrel to fade.
2019 Chablis Le Côte au Prêtre
A little terroir near the mid-slope, lots of wind the whole year. Limestone like small galets. 'Sampled from barrel and it's not seen any sulfur yet.
Here the nose shows the barrel just a shade less — nicely wide, pure, perhaps a little accent of white mushroom. More direct — good incisive start, more overtly mineral but also mouthwatering — that's really great flavour in a great finish — again wait but you will be rewarded — bravo!
2019 Chablis Orangerie
A walled section of vines next to the château — there; some clay in the soil here. All barrel for this cuvée.
A higher-toned nose, still with a modest accent of barrel. The most energy so far — bubbling with energy and a vein of minerality. The finish mouth-watering gorgeously — autosuggestion — orange-fleshed fruit in the finale? How could I not say bravo!?
2019 Chablis Ier Vaucoupins
A very steep slope here. Again Kimmerigian but also with blue clay. They are old vines and it's also a small parcel —just one barrel in 2019
A rounder nose due to the barrel again. Almost steely minerality, shimmering with acid-energy — so wide, slowly melting. That's a super wine.
2019 Chablis Clos Béru
The mother rock here is older than the Kimmerigian. It is a little Clos within high walls so it's more protected from the weather (but not 2016's or 2017's frost!) There's more clay
Faint barrel, perhaps a suggestion of reduction too. Ooh — that's so good, so mouth-watering, so intense. This mouth-filling wine is really special with a very fine agrume acidity Bravo — great Chablis... 'it’s our grand cru' says Gaëlle.
Wines de négoce:
2019 Bourgogne Aligoté
Vines from Saint-Bris
What a nose, slightly textured, cushioned but with white chocolate and wool — I could be sniffing a 20-yearold chardonnay! Supple, silky, layered, wow! This is up there with the Bret Brother's Aligoté.
2019 Pinot Gris
From Joigny — maceration in small tanks — virtually a carbo approach
Rosé colour. A deep aroma, of more natural style. Supple, interesting, floral, faintly tannic — a high-toned, lightness of perfumed red fruit in the middle flavours. That's a more than interesting bottle — delicious...
2019 Bourgogne Côte d'Auxerre
All pinot, whole cluster; no pigeage, just maybe one or two when fermentation is done.
Very open, forward red fruit but with interesting depth too. Also a perfumed style to this wine — modestly touched by the tannin still a super texture. The finish much more mineral, touched also with salinity — more serious — but never too serious — delicious again. Gaëlle says always a wine to drink after 3 or more years — it just explodes...
2019 Bourgogne Epineuil
A spicy, dark-cherry nose — this spice is very characteristic of Epineuil. A more sophisticated flavour and texture combination. Hugely enjoyable but like the last narrowing and becoming stricter in the finish but again, never too much. Probably the best Epineuil I ever tasted!