Tasted high up in the Clos de Haute-Combe with Vincent Audras, 16 February 2022.
Vincent Audras
Clos de Haute-Combe
69840 Juliénas
Tel: +33 4 74 04 41 09
www.closdehautecombe.fr
More reports with Domaine Vincent Audras
It’s not clear if I will be meeting Vincent next year – retirement is imminent – but the question of continuity for the domaine is yet to be settled – but Vincent has some hope!
Vincent on 2021:
“2021 was hard: Two nights of frost – the first hit the bottom of the slopes then the second the top! Without the maladies and weeds brought on by a lot of rain the middle could have been okay – but then we got hit by hail – practically the only place in Juliénas – the result 80% losses. For the wines I would say normal degrees – fruity – fresh not a compote – but alive in the finish.”
Vincent on 2020:
“2020 is a very lovely year – we talk of a sunny year but the gamay is a special cepage, you can sometimes have a taste of over-maturity – like 2003 or 2005 – but generally gamay, even with plenty of alcohol can have a fine nervosity. It was a vintage that was hot and dry – the third vintage with the dryness and then there were periods of heatwave too. They have a vivacity that masks the slightly higher degrees of alcohol – we are lucky with the elastic properties of the gamay – so we still have some lovely wines. It’s a low volume vintage, minus 15-20% – the clay soils did their best. We suffered because high up and south-facing we keep the sun quite late. The grapes looked really great but pressing didn’t bring a lot of juice.”
The wines…
A fine range from Vincent – a crescendo of a range – The ‘Haute Combe’ is brilliant! Worth a special search!
The first bottlings were done in the Autumn. A mix of cork and diam-style seals:
2020 Juliénas Clos de Haute Combe Tradition
The classic cuvée – the assembly of all the vine locations of the domaine
Plenty of colour. Pretty, good aromatic volume – silky is the impression with flashes of pure fruit. Round, darker fruit, deeply flavoured – a faintly roast accent but then mouth-watering and long – this wine framed by a little dry tannin today – grainless – but in the middle it’s very silky. A sophisticated shape and texture. The finish exposes the tannin a little more but also a nice graphite style to some finishing minerality too. Give this time – a couple of years for sure – but this is certainly very good and possibly excellent!
Two wines from tank:
2020 Juliénas Escuissin
The name of the lieu-dit, the west side of the appellation – clos to the border with ‘Burgundy’ on a blue-stone soil. ‘Often a violet and pepper style to this terroir…’ This is still in foudre, not sure when will bottle, certainly a small early bottling in the next weeks but for the bulk, still not sure
That’s pretty – airy a little floral – lovely. Gas. Mouth-filling. A bit more clarity to this flavour – open and energetic too. Vibrant – almost dynamic flavour – a little licorice towards the end – but really complex in a darker fruit register. The finish is very clean – less long but the length is more tannic/textural in the previous so actually they are not far apart. I think that’s a super wine…
Here in Haute Combe there is very little granite but there’s a band right here, very similar to in Fleurie – ‘the la Madone of Juliénas’ – for these vines above and below the house where there’s no blue stone like the last. Not sure whether he will make a first bottling or not yet.
A more graphite nose – airy fruit in tow. More fluid, mouth-filling flavour. There’s tannin but with zero-grain – really sophisticated structure. The best freshness too. That’s a great wine, still structural but with clarity, fluidity and despite the concentration, accessibility. Bravo!