Tasted in Préhy with Clotilde Davenne, 19 January, 2017.
Domaine Clotilde Davenne
3, rue de Chantemerle
89800 Préhy
Tel: +33 3 86 41 46 05
www.clotildedavenne.fr
Clotilde was quite succinct about the last two vintages:
2016 – there was almost no harvest!
2015 – was a normal harvest, but lower yields in the old vines!
The wines…
Much of the bottling was done in December 2016. Such a great range of wines – there were many more on the cusp of highlighting from here range – bravo!
Young vines – 19 years old.
Ooh. Deep, a little cushioned, and some sweetness, a pretty point of sauvignon. This is really inviting. Wide, fresh, bright, lucious, with beautiful acidity. A burst of finishing flavour with melting sweetness. Bravo. A great wine!
More than 100 years old and not yet bottled.
Bigger, wider, even more complex, less direct sauvignon character – round and lovely. Lots of gas. A little more direct, melting flavour again, wide, complex, you could easily be drinking a Chablis 1er cru here in terms of the shape and mouth-watering flavour. More rigour for sure and needing a little more time.
2015 Aligoté
75 year-old vines, still vigorous with a good exposure.
A fresh, slightly golden impression to the nose. Good width, again a melting impression to the flavour, holding a great line with just a touch of salinity. A hint of flowers and a nice finishing line. A touch of finishing texture too. Tasty wine.
2015 Bourgogne Blanc
25 year-old vines in Prehy, delimited from Chablis
A softer nose, yet tighter. Anything but tight in the mouth – this is open, energetic, nicely complex and with a great line of flavour – you would say Chablis blind. Sweetly complex in the finish. Lovely.
From around St.Amour, the vines aged 35.
Hmm, bright and fresh with a little overt herb. Supple, fresh, direct hmm – this is completely delicious.
2015 Macon Blanc
A blend of different parcels
A fresh, more saline nose. Wide, mineral, citrus-infused flavour. Really lovely in the mouth – complex, faintly floral and absolutely delicious.
2015 Macon-Azé
Bio vines from Les Grands Bruyères
A more intense and direct nose – not directly a delicious impression, yet inviting all the same. A little more richness of flavour, depth of flavour too. More herbed, more muscled. Herbed in the finishing flavours too. But long and mouth-watering with just a touch of tannic texture.
2015 Bourgogne Blanc Boisé
A Macon village wine, in a mix of barrel ages for 12 months.
A more floral note, perhaps slowly releasing a little barrel too. Also in the mouth this is very floral, nicely textured and slowly in the mid-palate and finish there is a sweet, creamy oak too. A little too much oak for today, yet it is delicious in its style already.
2015 Petit Chablis
Young vines on Kimmerigian, two parcels assembled.
A little tighter, a slight softness, but a correct and faintly herbed nose. Wide, fresh, mouth-watering wine. A super line of flavour with excellent acidity. Bright with a little lime fruit.
2015 Chablis
Some bought grapes on the hillside of Courgis, 40 years old.
Deep, a little savoury but this nose is slowly opening with a riper core of fruit. This is lovely in the mouth, fresh melting flavour, no padding, just a chamferring of the edges, long and deliciously flavoured – lovely in the finish too, with a little hint of the floral.
From vines older than 50 – the average is about 70 years old.
fresh, sweet, transparent complexity, a little more depth of riper fruit. Hmm – melting acidity – a beautiful line of flavour, indeed a really great line of flavour, long, long…excellent!
35-year-old vines in Courgis, from the bottom of Montmains.
Ooh! – rounder, sweeter, a ripe fruit – almost quince. Despite the ripe fruit this is beautifully wide, and mouth-watering. Really long, simply delicious wine – bravo!
2015 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin
Here a little more rigour – a cooler, more mineral nose – very engaging. In the mouth too, stricter, but melting flavour, long and invigorating. Really a fine complexity here, less overtly gourmand vs the Montmains, but super wine that requires just a little more patience. Super!
2015 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
A little riper, yellower fruit, a growing vibrancy of aroma. Here the stance is a little more rigorous again, not quite austere, and that’s despite a ripe fruit core. Broad, mineral, a hint phenolic – and you know that I like that! Really you should be patient, but again a really super wine.
A large-scaled nose – some floral and some herb aspects, but a beautiful line of chiselled sweetness behind. Really a fresh wine, a wine of intensity and complexity, not a wine of richness – a racehorse. Fresh, complex and very long, really holding brilliantly well. I love!
40-year-old vines.
A ‘blanket’ comes to mind, a wine that covers and cossets. A little more considered depth of aroma, less width. Really a palpable extra width of flavour, a richness of flavour without really an extra richness of texture. Then a panorama of finishing flavour. Really this is lovely cosseting wine – I usually love Blanchots and here is no exception.
Like all wines at this domaine, never any wood.
Both height and aromatic depth, really much tighter in the width – but transparent clarity of fresh aroma, mineral-tinged with citrus. Hmm, this is extra mouth-watering, extra wide and with beautiful bright notes of complexity, just subtly saline. A beauty and a complex beauty at that – sublime wine – bravo!
As Clothilde told me last year: “My family origin is a partly from Champagne so I like bubbles and I’m happy to have some gas in some of my ‘still’ cuvées:”
Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc Zero dosage
Pretty, quince, fresh nose. Bright and fresh in the mouth. Wide, at the same time delicate and complex but also with a good intensity. Simply a very tasty wine!
Cremant de Bourgogne Rosé
100% pinot and also zero dosage. Both these have 18 months on lees.
A more open nose that’s wide and fresh if currently lacking a direct fruit comparison. A nice line of intensity in the mouth, just a touch more softness. And a very nice line of flavour, holding well in the finish. Today I might rather take the extra fresh clarity of the former wine.
Cremant de Bourgogne Rosé (Brut Extra)
A bright attack of aroma – touched with ted fruit also all pinot. More overt bubbles in the mouth, but not at all coarse. Fine red-fruited freshness in the mid-palate and even more-so in the finish. This is lovely.
Les Rouges:
2015 Mâcon Rouge
From Milly-Lamartine 100% gamay with some old oak elevage. 70 year-old vines
A nose with a nice volume, deep bass notes, and a little fresher above. A good width with a backing of well-controlled tannin. Floral top notes in the mid-palate and length. A young wine but very, very tasty.
From Côtes d’Auxerre
A bright fresh and really interesting, partly mineral nose – this is lovely. Supple, fresh, layered, delicious complexity with some violet flavours – easy – bravo!
With 10% cesar. From Paradis and Les Rez
Wide, interesting, some violets, a little less open than the last but a similar vernacular. Wide, muscled but not rich, supple, intense, a little accent of herb. A very fine, and rather young Irancy. Drink the bourgogne while you exercise some patience!
There is one response to “Clotilde Davenne – 2015”
Is this the first time you have endorsed Beaujolais Blanc?
It is indeed – something of shock!
A shame that the domaine is so far away from Beaujolais – eh? 🙂