Tasted in Premeaux with Géraldine Godot, 22 October, 2019.

Domaine de L’Arlot
Premeaux
21700 Nuits-Saint-Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 01 92
www.arlot.com

This year, I tasted a little earlier than usual, that was because Géraldine was almost due for motherhood. Mother and daughter are doing well!

We tasted in the new tasting room at the domaine – with a lovely picture window that looks onto the Clos de l’Arlot.

Géraldine on 2019:​
“This year it was warm! It’s the tendance of-course, two periods of canicule in June and July. Before that we had quite an extended flowering over 3 weeks – this wasn’t optimal as we had both hot and cold weather. Because of that we experienced both coulure and millerandage – there could have been some effect of frost too though we didn’t really note any damage. All the vines were down in quantity but we were 50% down in Suchots – this was the worst – that’s why I think we could have had some frost effect. All the rest were more like minus 15-30% – the whites certainly suffered. But despite the inferior yield, the quality looks fine, in particular, the balance between the sugar and acid – not always the case when you have ripe hot years. So, not a lot, but …”

Géraldine on 2018:​
“some wines were already bottle – HCDN and CDNV – just before the harvest. Two whites; Gerbotte and l’Arlot Blanc are racked into tank but are now waiting. The rest are mainly in barrel. A little more volume in 18 versus 17 – lucky as we had three big storms during of the year – twice with some hail but the timing was more like that of a green harvest – we lost possibly 40% of the grapes at that time but we didn’t have minus 40% at the end of the year – still only 29 hl/ha for the domaine though. We had more in Vosne where there was no hail. Our harvest started in Vone 1st September, finishing on the 7th.”

The wines…

Super whites. I’m still in two minds about the reds; not because they are not good – they are very good – rather because the wines of Nuits and Hautes Côtes were made without stems. For me, the stems is part of the reason that I buy Arlot…

All whites sealed with natural cork – though ‘extra!’

​2018 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Blanc
From just above the Clos des Forêts. Bottled. Sterile filtered as the malo never took place here – the only wine and naturally so – all the rest finished their malos in October.
Ooh – that’s a brisk, interesting, mainly pineapple nose. Wide, fresh, sweeping lines, growing sweeter and rounder toward the finish. Hmm, depth and a nice finishing intensity. Lovely mouth-watering finish.

2018 Côte de Nuits Villages Aux Lurets
Also bottled end of August
A broader nose, concentrated and with energy – more a tight agrume mineral here. Rounder, more supple with rounder texture. Long, mouth-watering on a lovely almost reductive mineral note – I like this very much!

The rest are tank samplessamples – planned bottling is December:

2018 Nuits St.Georges La Gerbotte Blanc
Now 21 years-old, forming the southern part of the Clos l’Arlot – next to the Clos Marechale. 30cm of soil here over a ‘huge plate of limestone.’
Less volume of aroma but finer, more focused, aroma. Wide, good texture – more freshness than the CDNV – Lovely little fresh waves of finishing flavour washing over the palate. That’s lovely!

Les Rouges
Almost no whole clusters in this vintage – “I felt they would affect the balance in this ripe year too much.” Only Suchots and RSV retained some whole clusters – about 35%:

2018 Hautes Côtes de Nuits Le Mont​
The same parcel as for the whites. Young vines, not much more than 10 years old – but that’s older than the HCDN blanc.
A vibrant core of pure fruit. Round, melting with a base of fine acidity. I worried that this may be a little less Arlot without the stems – and that’s the case aromatically, but the middle and finishing flavours are super.

2018 Côte de Nuits Villages Clos du Chapeau
A 1.6 hectare plot in Comblanchien. Bottle end August
Hmm, this has a lovely nose, and I would be guessing that there was some whole cluster here, despite the bright red fruit. Ooh – this has a driving style, direct, acid-forward, a small touch of drying to the tannin. Slowly mouth-watering despite some small dryness. Yum!

All the following are barrel samples taken today:

2018 Nuits St.Georges 1er ‘Mont des Oiseau’
Middle of Clos Forets but young vines of 10-15 years old.
A little more depth of aroma, but fine focus to the very red berries. More balance, plenty of energy here – good width to the flavour. This has an extra depth of flavour in the finish – still couched with a little dryness but this will come around quite quickly – tasty wine.

2018 Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos de l’Arlot
The vines now average over 70 years – marl is a characteristic of the clos.
Much more aromatic depth – still very red-fruited – attractively so. Plenty of volume here – quite open from a structural perspective – dryness of tannin in the middle but a lovely line od sweet, mouth-watering, finishing flavour – this is very lovely – but you still should wait a couple of years!

2018 Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos des Fôrets
A relatively massive vineyard monopoly of 7.2 hectares – it’s half of the domaine – with three distinct soil types, all harvested and vinified separately.​
A little extra colour here. Bright, wide, pure red-berried. Clean, nice drive to this – cushioned with very lovely extra-fine grain to the tannin and with relatively little dryness. The finish seeps out through the cracks and lasts long on mouth-watering finish – very long.

2018 Romanée Saint-Vivant
From 24 rows of vines that face Romanée-Conti and run only half-way to the village.​
This nose starts a little smaller than the Suchots but is in the same register, slowly a pure red fruit also rises from the glass. Fuller, less sweetness of fruit vs the Suchots, but mouth-filling, and more complex – there is a little more drive to the flavour here – the Suchots was hyper-elegant, this has more drive and structure, it will require more time. The finish is wide and like a few here, very slowly mouth-watering. Excellent!

More reports for Domaine de l’Arlot