And as I have the theme of Clos de Vougeot (yesterday) what better than the results of the twice-yearly Tastevinage, held by Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, which was held in the château just a week ago?
This tasting was on Friday 25th March and included 442 wines that were assessed, blind, by the tasters.
Of the 442, 147 of these wines were assessed as meriting the Tastevinage label, of which 50 wear a Bourgogne label, 61 villages, 33 premier cru and, finally, 3 grand crus – there seem to be relatively fewer and fewer grand crus, and even 1er crus, presented these days. There are lots of new names on this list that I hope to discover this year; Galopière, Desertaux-Ferrand, Ponsard-Chevalier and others.
If you click on this link, you can find the list of successful producers and their wines.
In just over one week – Friday April 8th 2022 – Sotheby’s will commence an online charity auction of wines from Burgundy. The final recipient of these funds will be the Cistercian Abbey of Cîteaux, established in 1098. sothebys.com/vougeotpourciteaux
The syndicate of producers of Clos de Vougeot and the Fondation du Patrimoine – so a group of domaines in addition to the syndicate – are coming together for this event in order to aid the restoration and conservation of the Définitoire of Cîteaux Abbey in Burgundy. Those additional domaines from up and down the Côte d’Or donating wines (red and white) as additional lots for the auction.
Twenty four* of the syndicate of producers of Clos de Vougeot have donated wine from their 2020 vintage. The elevage of this assembly has been entrusted to Château de la Tour with a planned bottling time in September 2022. There is a little over 2-barrels worth of wine – 570-litres – that has been set aside for this auction.
*Clos de Vougeot Contributors: Domaine d’Ardhuy, Domaine Bouchard Père et Fils, Domaine Capitain-Gagnerot, Domaine Charlopin-Parizot, Domaine du Clos Frantin (Albert Bichot), Domaine Drouhin-Laroze, Maison Dufouleur Frères, Domaine d’Eugenie, Domaine Faiveley, Domaine François Lamarche, Domaine Jacques Prieur, Maison Joseph Drouhin, Maison Louis-Jadot, Domaine Méo-Camuzet, Domaine Michel Noëllat, Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg, Château Philippe le Hardi, Domaine H. Rebourseau, Maison Remoissenet, Domaine René Dubois, Domaine Thibault Liger-Belair, Château de la Tour, Domaine de la Vougeraie. Contributors of other lots: Domaine Marquis d’Angerville, Domaine du Comte Armand, Domaine Bitouzet-Prieur, Domaine Henri Boillot, Domaine Bonneau du Martray, Domaine Dujac, Domaine des Hospices de Beaune, Domaine Kloster Eberbach, Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Domaine des Lambrays, Domaine Leflaive, Domaine Leroy, Château de Vosne Romanée – Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair, Domaine Jacques Frédéric Mugnier, Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Domaine Emmanuel Rouget, Domaine Georges Roumier, Domaine Armand Rousseau, Domaine Taupenot-Merme, Domaine Comte George de Vogüé.
In addition, on Saturday, April 23rd 2022, there will be a charity dinner in the Château du Clos de Vougeot – which includes a tour of the Abbaye de Cîteaux – tickets for this 5-course charity dinner are available online and cost €228 per person. The internet auction will close during this dinner. Honourary guests will include the Abbot of Cîteaux, Father Pierre-André Burton, Aubert de Villaine, and Guillaume Poitrinal who is the president of the Fondation du Patrimoine – plus, of course, multiple winegrowers who are supporting this project. Arnaud Orsel of the Tastevinage, headquartered in the Château du Clos de Vougeot makes the following comment “Seat of the Climats de Bourgogne World Heritage Site, the Château du Clos de Vougeot was owned and occupied by the monks for more than seven hundred years. It was only natural then to put our savoir-faire at the service of Cîteaux Abbey by conceiving, organizing and hosting this charity auction which will take place in the Great Cistercian Cellar.”
The wine…
A label has been designed for this cuvée that amply highlights the link to the Abbey of Cîteaux – done with pure-gold elements that are redolent of the old texts and manuscripts of the monks. The label is the work of artisan caligrapher Christelle Sordel – and took her over 80 hours to complete the original artwork.
2020 Clos de Vougeot, Cuvée de l’Abbaye de Cîteaux Tasted today. Only 13.5°, which is modest for 2020, likewise there’s plenty of colour but this is far from saturated. Hmm, that‘s a sophisticated nose – wide, faintly oak-spiced and saline with some implied silk to the aroma – still, it’s a little tighter in the higher tones as there’s no obvious floral component here – today. In the recent run of warmer vintages, you can forget the old chestnut of ‘austere Clos de Vougeot;‘ this wine is framed by the most modest of tannin – über-fine-grained – and whilst this tannin modifies the texture so that it becomes more velvet in textural style, this tannin has no dryness. Balanced, with fine width of flavour, delivered in layers – some oak complexity here for sure. A wine that’s neither overtly vibrant nor mineral but soothing, complex and certainly well-concentrated, like the nose, there remains impressive sophistication. Not an obviously grand vin today but with more elevage to come, it is still a very good, potentially excellent, grand cru – and with zero faults. Almost too tasty for young CV!
In French you may see some of the scope of the rennovation:
I shared a photo with you from Monday afternoon as the team of Eric Germain at Vincent Girardin were placing candles in their vines – these buds not just in the ‘cotton‘ stage but also starting to open. That said, these are the buds of the more precocious young vines – the more mature vines being less obviously advanced.
This is an important point for now – the timing of this week’s warmth and next week’s (forecast) snow and negative temperatures being exactly as per last year, but:
The high temperatures have been less high than in 2021.
The forecast low temperatures for the coming days will be less low than in 2021
Given that the last few weeks of fine weather have usually started their days with morning frosts, the vines are less advanced in their growth-cycle than last year.
So – it’s still an issue for the young vines in the next days – and the Saint-Glace – the day after which the growers can forget about frosts – is still more than 6 weeks away. So what more can the growers do?
I noted on Monday that the upper part (of the lower part!) of Meursault-Genevrières was being prepared for trace electrical heating cables. This generally requires a lot of infrastructure work to bring the electricity supply into the vines – though is otherwise much more environmentally conscious than the use of candles – including the more expensive ‘organic’ candles option. Or you bring a generator into the vineyards to power the cables for the time that you’re going to need them – this was the approach of Bonneau du Martry in their vines yesterday – see the images below.
Of-course, the windmills are still an option this year as it doesn’t look like the deep Winter frost that came in 2021 is expected this year – ‘just‘ the Spring variant. These windmills are starting to crop up in the vines, in waiting. Of course, they also use their own generators to function.
Finally, just a few other photos from yesterday – including a reprehensible 12-rows, or-so, of Grands-Echézeaux vines that have been laced with herbicide. I bet the owners of the nicely ploughed rows on both sides of this dirty dozen are ecstatic!
Starting the day somewhere quite well-known…
Bonneau du Martray – generator lower in the vines….
Bonneau du Martray – generator lower in the vines….
This same week, last year, I saw 27°C in Chablis and we all know what happened the week after. Some people are already preparing for the next days – the forecasts are suggesting that heading into the weekend it could snow…
The twins weren’t available for a visit to taste 2020s earlier this year. It’s close to retirement time for them – hopefully, they have a good succession plan underway as they always produce highly interesting and well-priced wines:
2016 Monternot Les Jumeaux, Beaujolais Villages Fruit & Terroir More terroir than fruit today. To be honest, I was expecting this 2016 to be a bit more accessible – but it’s concentrated and young – even a little herbed. Of-course, we still managed to knock off the majority of the bottle!
Dark coloured. A nose of weight, impact and still plenty of freshness – yet far from cliché Beaujolais fruit – concentrated and with some herby flashes. In the mouth, this is broad and has super balance, yet the structure – without harshness – retards the drinking pleasure a little – certainly the drinking speed! Good, if not great – but obviously still a baby – I wonder how long it will take for my VV cuvée from 2019 to start to show itself! I might try one soon anyway 🙂 Rebuy – No
The 1996 Castagnier of the weekend was just so damn good – so why not a couple more from 1996?
I’d been doing a little cellar-sorting and had happened upon (as you do…) some older Cortons – that would work!
1996 Thomas-Moillard, Corton Clos du Roi
A cuvée that Clive Coates used to love from this producer that, like most Corton of the era, was something of a masochistic pleasure when younger. The cork had no more than a mm of wine that had had tried to travel up its length and was very impressively robust – a great cork! Or not. The wine was actually corked!!! Rebuy – No
1996 Hospices de Beaune, Corton Cuvée Charlotte Dumay
Way back when, I scored a whole case of this – do you remember 12-bottle cases of grand crus? Just two remained from this case – a wine equivalently masochistic as the TM when young but, historically, a bit less energy and flavour precision than the TM. Also a decent cork but a wine that smelled much sweeter – though with a tell-tale accent of brett. Just for information, I like Marmite (Vegemite) on my toast but within short order, this wine absolutely stank of the stuff. Pinch your nose and you could lose some of it – but NO! I could no-longer put it in my mouth. Reject! Rebuy – No
Some weeks, the cellar depletes faster than other weeks!
Once more, just to give you that fuzzy and warm feeling that you could buy these – if you really wanted!
As usual, the prices are delivered in Switzerland – but here, include purchase tax. Note that these are special introductory prices – the price goes up at the end of the offer 🙂 In the brackets – 2018, then 2017 & 2016 prices and — indicates not offered:
There are 3 more grand crus; Griotte, Bèze & Chambertin but all are ‘price on application.’ These increases are anyway as ‘punchy’ as I have seen from anyone and given that Christophe puts his wines on the market later than most others, then he’s benefitting from the price increases of the 2020s (and then some!) already with his 2019s!
*As noted, these are delivered prices, but this email offer is discounted – whatever is sold from their normal catalogue is at a higher price – typically about 10% more…
2020 Sylvain Martel, Juliénas Bessay Vines that are all on high, on blue-stone. Certainly more rain here than in Fleurie in 2020 – though these old vines, worked organically, delivered 30 hl/ha from 0.8 ha
An aromatic of energy – mineral, almost steely red fruit – freshness too. Good depth and supple concentration but with a lovely finishing freshness – long, haunting flavours in the finish but subtle – this is no broad or powerful finish – just a very elegant wine. Rebuy – Yes
We were really treated by three out of the four wines this weekend!
2020 Jacques Picq et ses Enfants, Chablis
We needed a little white wine for the risotto – but why not some glasses to drink too? It turned out that this wine emphasised my worries about the green-meanies in 2020 Chablis: More than 10% of all the wines that I tasted in January were green or showing direct pyrazine – but this was lovely – in January. Well, not today – it’s good but there are clear notes of pyrazine where I didn’t see them before. I’m back in Chablis the first week of April – and you can be sure that I’ll be extra attentive! Rebuy – No
2019 Verret, Saint-Bris Veaupiary
Great nose, delicious flavour – what a super wine – Bravo! Rebuy – Yes
2005 Ponsot, Bourgogne Cuvée du Pinson The corked stained 90% of the way through – looks like good timing to drink this one! The last pour was full of muddy rubble and less bright
Lots of colour – and not a markedly mature colour either. A super nose – really inviting and open – hard to believe (blind) that it’s a more than 15-year-old Bourgogne. The first few sips show a lot of acidity – almost a sour style to the wine – but with food all was fine. Layers of flavour and tons of complexity. A simply great Bourgogne! Bravo! Rebuy – Yes
1996 Guy Castagnier, Clos de La Roche I was down to my last couple of 1996s from here – there remains only some Bonnes-Mares, I think…
A modest medium colour – but not much browning. Yes! What a great nose! Complex, still with fruit and a large wave of pure floral perfume – great! In the mouth, melting, perfumed flavour – oh-so complex and beautifully balanced. People talk of the 1996 acidity – but here the acidity is much less obvious than for the 2005 Ponsot. Long – with such an airy, delicate and complex persona – Jérôme’s father also made great wine! This was probably the best wine I’ve had at home this year, so far… Rebuy – Yes
Once more, just to give you that fuzzy and warm feeling that you could buy these – if you really wanted!
