Tasted in the Château Bellevue with Tristan Larsen, 06 February 2020.
Château de Bellevue
Lieu-dit Bellevue
69910 Villié-Morgon
Tel: +33 4 74 66 98 88
www.chateau-bellevue.fr/
More reports for Domaine Château Bellevue
Tristan on 2019:
“We has some problems in the bottom of MaV – there was some freezing fog at the bottom of the hills – this led to a very low yield in these places – but our vines are mainly in Morgon, and in this sector, we didn’t have many problems. Lots of parcels had very small grapes and therefore low rendements – not much juice. So it’s not the greatest vintage for volume, but we didn’t need to treat much as the weather was so dry. We had concentrated grapes, something that fits with our style of wanting to make vins de garde. The vines certainly suffered in the 2 episodes of canicule – we had some water stress. We had a great end to the season leading up to the harvest, just enough rain for the vines/grapes to recover their balance and energy. Wine than needed patience to make, but were a pleasure to vinify after the trials of 2018.”
Tristan on 2018:
“We had to make space for some of the volume – some grapes waiting for a place – let’s call it logistics! The last of the sugars in many cases were hard to finish – so more of a technical vintage than 2019. Our first year separating some climat wines – also with new livery for the labels. We are now really concentrating on the Morgon – there’s still a Fleurie but we have no more Brouilly. 2018 was a canicule year which followed a great flowering – though the yield was still quite high – some vines produced grapes that were normal and concentrated, some with more volume and less concentration. I think the two together make a good balance – in-fact I’m agreeably surprised with the quality of some of the wines, despite beautifully clean grapes.”
The wines…
A classy selection of wines to keep – 4 Morgons and all very different – as it should be!
Only the last wine here is bottled – the others were sampled from tanks/foudres…
2018 Morgon Les Charmes
2009 was the first vintage for this cuvée.
Very bright and forward fresh fruit, becoming perfumed in the glass. Wide fresh, good energy, plenty of dried fruit is my impression – dried cranberry style. Broad finishing, nicely but modestly structured – modestly tannic finishing. Very tasty wine.
2018 Morgon Grand Cras
First vintage here. ‘We’re looking to make Morgons not a Morgon!’
More compact, also rather perfumed but on a deeper register. Fuller but also more overt freshness and structure – mouth-watering. Hyper-classic Morgon; structural – this will be at least excellent. The finishing suggestion of the serious bodes very well.
Also the first vintage here. The first part of elevage here, the second part in foudres chez Loron. Almost 100 year-old vines.
A fine nose, more compact and less perfumed – more a stone fruit impression. Wide and fresh -a much more insistent minerality here – pushed by the extra energy. The tannin is showing a little around the edges – framing the palate – not completely together today. The intensity growing and growing. Great persistence, more mineral and textural today – probably more patience required than the Grand Cras – but great, great finishing.
2018 Morgon Corcelette Le Clos
The only wine bottled – done in August.
Here’s a nice width of aroma – a little tighter above, much tighter below. More supple, fine concentration, a good driving intensity to the flavour but there’s certainly more cushion to the texture, a late-arriving grain of flavour. I like the finish very much, some fruit-stone bitters right at the end, long too. This the most drinkable of these wines right now.