Tasted in Vosne-Romanée with Maxime Cheurlin 31 January 2022.
Domaine Georges Noëllat
1 Rue des Chaumes
21700 Vosne-Romanée
Tel: +33 3 80 61 11 03
More reports with Domaine Georges Noëllat
When I last visited the domaine in November 2020 I was lucky to experience the day that – despite heavy rain – was their second 2020 harvest: all the second-set clusters from two quite grand vineyards; Chambolle 1er Les Feuselottes and grand cru Grands-Echézeaux had been collected – and quite a number of cases it was too – the fruit looked perfect! (Below right) At the time Maxime told me “I often thought about making a later pass in the vines to collect the later bunches – and if you were ever going to do it, 2020, with the earliest harvest on record, would be the year!” So the question was, ‘How was the wine?’
“Actually, not that good – it was very aromatic and pure but lacked depth and structure. So I sold it.” ‘Not good enough to declassify as Bourgogne Rouge?’ I asked. “Oh no. My Bourgogne is great,” he beamed.
Maxime on 2021:
“18 hl/ha here – the prices will have to increase but we will survive. There were a lot of experiences this year! ”
Maxime on 2020:
“Nothing is bottled yet. I will start between February and March. In volume terms, it’s a small year but we are now used to it! There were no problems with the vinifications, all ran well. We will taste from the new barrels but the average use of new oak is 50% here.”
The wines…
What a great set of wines! Great or just a little too tight in one direct-or-other to be great – but all are worth your time – a mixed case please!
2020 Vosne-Romanée
Grapes assembled from 4 vineyards.
A width and depth to this proper Vosne nose. Supple, fresh, vibrant tasty and showing lovely waves of finishing flavour. That’s really more than excellent – a great start!
Lots of aromatic depth; faintly reductive too. Hmm, I love this open structure and freshness of flavour, long finishing – thats great wine!
A contract here since 2019, together with Bonnes-Mares and others.
Ooh – thats a beautiful nose – so pure – wow! Airy, pure, open – like the last – but with less visible structure. An extra dimension here – bravo length too!
Had these vines since 2017
A middle-red register but good vibration and slowly becoming floral with air. This has a super and airy style again – not as elegant as the Chambolle but this is great Beaune
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Fontenys
Sandy soil here almost the only place in Gevrey
This is open and airy. Slightly reductive. Super extra structure but again so fine. Wider and deeper on the middle and finishing flavours. Extra persistent. Super wine!
2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er les Chaumes
Half a hectare of vines forming the ‘garden’ of the domaine.
Ooh, more purity from the start. Vibrant, direct, long, waves of flavour, stricture but no tannic grain textural wide and very open finishing – super wine again.
2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Petits Monts
Very airy, super elegant, never powerful – but gorgeous. Fine intensity, super grainless texture again but this is direct when the Charmes was wide – very floral complications in the finish. Yet another super wine.
2020 Clos de Vougeot
From Petits Maupertuis
A really compact nose – it’s not speaking much. Extra width and fine intensity – structured but never hard. Wider in the finish – really extra here, less textural finesse but only a little. Yet another super wine.
2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Beaumonts
Old vines at the bottom of the climat.
A compact nose again. In the mouth there is a lot though – mouth-filling, sweetly spiced, fine energy and a more obvious weight and complexity in the finishing flavours – that could be a great wine but it needs to open a bit more – it’s already excellent – and so persistent!
2020 Echézeaux
In Les Cruots ‘with very old 1917 vines – 70% the original vines.’
Also a compact nose. In the mouth this is a cross between the last two wines – the direction of the CV with the finer texture of the Vosne 1ers. That’s just a nose short of great today – so long…
2020 Grands-Echézeaux
Also compact – all these later barrels with plenty of gas and tighter noses. The form slowly growing in the glass. Extra-wide, extra direct, ultra-fine tannin – the clos was direct but this is its equal but also in with more width.
And for the road:
This was bottled in June
Fresh wide and floral – that’s lovely – still not fully open as it’s quite cold – but – yes! Hyper elegant, direct – super-sophisticated texture – opening wider and wider in a super sustaining finish. Bravo!