Tasted with Véronique Delys in St.Amour, 11 February 2019. Her father, Maurice Delorme, greeted me too but said he wasn’t up to tasting with us both.
Domaine du Paradis
Sathonat
71570 Saint Amour Bellevue
Tel: +33 3 85 37 12 35
www.domaineduparadis-saintamour.fr
More reports for Domaine du Paradis
Véronique on 2019:
“We did have a little frost – we weren’t affected too much but the parcels towards Juliénas had some. Less volume in the whites than the red. The Pouilly didn’t have a lot of juice – so 30-40% down for white, more like 10% for the reds. The reds had a little less colour than in 2018 – but I almost think 2018 has too much colour – but we are very happy with the quality in 2019.”
Véronique on 2018:
“Still have some 2017, so probably won’t be commercialising the 2018s before May – unless you offer to buy a pallet! 2018 was lovely – and we already got some gold medals for the St.Amour! It was a very warm year so we had no maladies – no fungus – but was hard for the newly planted vines, we removed the grapes from those young vines so that they didn’t tire in the dryness and could concentrate on their roots. It wasn’t a problem though as we had a good volume from the other vines – we worried at one stage that there might be too much but all ripened well.”
Only about 20% of the domaine’s production is actually commercialised in bottle.
The wines…
As, seemingly, every year, what a lovely St.Amour – an easy buy recommendation – the style of the Pouilly, with its overt oak, is rarely to my taste, butheir 2018 showed very well.
The 2018s were bottled in March:
Sweetly floral, but with a lovely depth – so very attractive. Round, gorgeously silky texture, a suggestion of minerality – what a great way to start my tasting week! Lots of material but always fresh, with sweeping lines of flavour – long, faintly saline fading quickly to a narrower, graphite-mineral line – but holding that line so well!
2018 Pouilly-Fuissé
Vines in Les Chailloux – so allowed to have 1er Cru. The part of the vines are the same age as Maurice – 90 years old. Not all the details are finished, so it’s still not yet possible to use the 1er cru label – maybe 2020(?) but it seems there’s still the chance of litigation – so let’s see. All barrel elevage, 20% new, but up to 5, 6, and 7 years old for the other barrels. ‘The sales of our 2017 are over today – it’s all gone – so are starting to offer 2018s this week.
Deep, energetic, I would say profound – of-course rounded by some overt oak – as is always the style here. Full – mouth-filling wine – that’s really mouth-watering and slightly saline – this is really one of the best that I’ve tasted from here – love the energy and depth of flavour – today only modestly mineral – but as a nod to the red – nice sweeping lines of flavour. Really excellent.