Clotilde Davenne – 2016

Update 30.1.2020(24.1.2018)billn

Tasted in Préhy with Clotilde Davenne and team, 18 January, 2018.

Domaine Clotilde Davenne
3, rue de Chantemerle
89800 Préhy
Tel: +33 3 86 41 46 05
www.clotildedavenne.fr

Clotilde, as always. was quite succinct about the last two vintages:

2017 – “The vintage was a nice surprise in St.Bris though harder in Chablis because of the frost.

2016 – “There was almost no harvest! There is practically no St.Bris and only a tiny amount of aligoté. I bought a little chardonnay, but in total I have only 15% of a regular vintage volume.

The wines…

A very tough vintage for Clotilde – there is so little wine here – but what there is, is largely very good, often excellent.

Clotilde surprised me by first serving three 2017s – “Filtered this morning – there are few 2016s, so why not some 2017s?

2017 Saint Bris
An attractive nose of fresh mint – very inviting. Plenty of gas, but wide, tasty, layered and growing in intensity – really a very fine finale – a long, slow diminuendo – delicious…

2017 Chablis
Filtered yesterday
Some ripe fruit, here a little pear fruit. More direct, fresh, pear again at this stage (apparently it’s often found after malo – a phase ), open with lots of freshness. Very pretty wine of fine volume.

2017 Bourgogne Rosé Côtes d’Auxerre
Some width of tighter aroma. Lots of gas, freshness, more facets of fermentation in the middle but the finish is open and fresh – nice here.

2016 Bourgogne Aligoté Vieilles Vignes
A pretty top note, some freshness and volume. Ooh – this is lovely in the mouth – lots of volume, layers of intense and delicious flavour – lovely, and quite a mineral wine.

2016 Beaujolais Blanc
From St.Amour – so almost Mâconnais , harvested quite early
Wide, faintly spiced, some pepper. Good volume, and quite mineral, a wine that’s hard to guess the origins, but it tastes pretty good – an attractive floral note in the finish.

2016 Mâcon ‘Plaisir’
From 3 villages – Vergisson, Vinzelles and Roche Vineuse, all harvested the same day.
More open and more sun on the nose – but still with some freshness. Nice over the palate – supple, mineral, lots of growing flavour. Decent freshness and a very nice of flavour – this is very tasty wine, and also a little floral finishing!

2016 Macon ‘Paradoxe’
A deeper, more concentrated nose with some sweet oak spice. The palate is less sweet than the nose – wide and with a little minerality. I find the previous wine much more interesting today, but this has a lot of mid and finishing complexity.

2016 Saint Bris
‘There’s just a tiny amount in 2016, I was in the vines every week into November to find grapes as they ripened…’
This is much more saline than usual. Really different in the mouth, wide, saline with just a hint of the mint that you normally see. Interesting in a nice way and long too!

2016 Saint Bris Vieilles-Vignes
Interesting, more direct nose, almost cooked green asparagus but in an interesting way (today!) – unlike the ‘turn-off’ way of many 2011 Chablis. The flavour is redolent of the nose yet much silkier than the last wine. I don’t find the mint of the basic wine here – this is intriguing and I’d love to try it again age 10+

2016 Bourgogne Blanc
From the vines in front of the house here in Prehy.
Almost a little spiced. Lots of freshness and mouth-filling volume – quite some minerality – layers of mouth-watering flavour. Not easy to taste following the St.Bris but I like the shape and mouth-watering character…

2016 Petit Chablis de Temps Perdu
Hard hailed and hard to make a good pruning.
This has a finer nose, little notes of complexity. Fine, fresh, detailed and pure – lots of bubbling, fresh complexity in the mid and finish of this wine – it’s really a great PC! Bravo.

2016 Chablis
With bought grapes, bought every year – from Villy.
The nose is just a little more dense and concentrated – less open. Bright open and fresh – a weight of mineral flavour – starting less sweet than the PC but growing in sweetness as you travel through the wine. Starts modest, finishes great…

2016 Chablis Vieilles Vignes
From vines older than 50 – the average is about 70 years old.
Not so wide but the aromas are more open, accessible and pure. Lots of volume in the mouth, fresh and with fine points of complexity – really an open wine, slowly offering it’s complexity. Fine and relatively easy. Like the last the finish is the high point with a mineral intensity that’s not obvious before…

2016 Chablis 1er Vaucoupin
Bought from same producer each year.
A larger-scaled and open nose. A more intense start to this wine, lots of energy – mineral and complex – slowly fading in the finish. Lots of up-front interest for this wine, more modest thereafter.

2016 Chablis 1er Montmains
35-year-old vines in Courgis, from the bottom of Montmains.
Deeper, concentrated, brooding aromas. There’s some gas here, but this big wine, lots of energy, fresh and mineral, layers of flavour in the middle – lovely classic wine with tons of finishing interest – but wait – this will need 18-24 months to give you the full show – super wine.

2016 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
More width of aroma, freshness, almost a suggestion of flowers too. Ooh – this is good – lots of volume in the mouth, lots of energy, minerality, a hint of rigour in the flavour – accented a little with salinity but very tasty indeed today.

Unfortunately there are no grand crus in 2016, but here are the 2015s:

2015 Chablis Bougros
Deep, tighter width, a subtle complexity escaping. Ooh – lovely freshness, slightly saline, rather more direct than opulent, layers of fine, tasty finishing flavour – but this gives the impression that the flavour comes only grudgingly today… Super wine though!

2015 Chablis Blanchots
40-year-old vines.
Also a little tightness and some salt and pepper style reduction. A little more volume and certainly more open in the mouth – lots of fine complexity, delicious flavour, long and lingering. Super wine!

2015 Chablis Les Clos
Like all wines at this domaine, never any wood.
Here the nose is just a little tight but there’s a clear impression of minerality within the complexity here. Ooh – sleek, muscular but fresh and complex – some salinity here – melting flavours really adding and adding complexity – this is super even though it’s tight. Excellent…

I rated these 2015s highly last year, but today they are a little serious / tight in the aromas, but delicious in the glass.

Les Rouges:

2016 Bourgogne Côte d’Auxerre
A bright and concentrated fruit nose. Adding fresh dimensions all the time. Fresh and showing some impact in the mouth – lovely fresh pinot fruit here over a modest base of tannin. Long, in fact deliciously long. This starts with a challenge and finishes with a caress!

2016 Mâcon Rouge
From Milly-Lamartine 100% gamay with some old oak elevage. 70 year-old vines
Exciting, a touch of reduction but tons of interest from this nose. Open, fresh, melting flavour – this is easily a super wine – long. Excellent great length too!

2016 Irancy
With 10% cesar. From Paradis and Les Rez
A little oak on the nose – but this is wide, with some sweetness and lots of interest. Good volume in the mouth, also with some melting sweetness from the core. The oak is there too, but much more modest. Really a lovely wine!

We try the 15s too:

2015 Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre
A big, friendly, open-armed nose. Lots of volume, fresh concentration too – this has lovely depth of delicious flavour – such an excellent wine!

2015 Mâcon Rouge
A big nose and a little reductive and really wide and deep – super! Lots of mouth-filling volume, plenty of tannin but fresh complexity too. Long. Big wine to wait for but there is lots to wait for!

2015 Irancy
Like the 16 there’s a little oak accenting this wine – but there’s also a nice depth of fruit aroma too. Big in the mouth, young flavour but lots of complex dimensions to the flavour. Really excellent in the long finish – bravo!

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