Tasted in Fleurie with team Bachelards, 15 February 2024.

Château des Bachelards
69820 Fleurie
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Alexandra de Vazeilles preferred to show her finished wines, hence, we looked at her wines one year in arrears – last year was the 2020s. This year we return to a more standard approach but without missing out on those 2021s – so it’s a double-helping!

Alexandra sold in 2022 but the team that greeted me have all been in place since the time of Alexandra. The new owner wants to keep the same approach and they remain with the consulting of the group Derenoncourt – despite that Stéphane Derenoncourt is actually retired. We will taste first the 21s that were vinified but not finished by Alexandra – they were bottled in March 2023 – and then we taste the 2022s which were harvested while Alexandra was here but all the further elaboration was done by the team.

The only overt change in focus that I noted was a wish to realign the domaine’s sales by concentrating less on the export market: “About 80% was exported in the time of Alexandra but we have been working hard in France and very quickly we already sell 60% in France – but that has been aided by ‘quieter’ export markets too!”

The wines…

The Alexandra show was never going to be easy to follow. Two years ago, her 2019s were the greatest range of wines that I tasted in the whole of Burgundy. Her 2020s, one year later, shocked me by almost reaching the same level! 2021 is a different animal – a complex vintage – and the wines here seemed faultless – it was just that they were rather closed, certainly aromatically. I’d be waiting 2-3 years for all of those 2021s, hoping for them to open – there’s no lack of concentration and they have great textures and no pyrazines! The 2022s had much more accessible aromatics – they are excellent wines – but I have become accustomed to great wine after great wine here – on this particular day, I didn’t find that.

Let’s start with the 2021s:
“It’s a small vintage – with three days of frost then a rainy season – triage by density – we actually recorded between 20 and 25 hl/ha depending on the parcel. We didn’t separately bottle the ‘Clos’ in this vintage. In this vintage it was all natural cork seals:”

2021 St.Amour
Here is black granite, limestone and schist. The granite here is similar to that in Moulin à Vent.
This nose is quite tight today. Discreet but there’s good volume in the mouth – super texture too. The finish eases comfortably into quite a long line of interest. This is an elegant wine and of very classy proportions – I’d carafe this today…

2021 Moulin à Vent
Also a tighter nose today but still showing more than the St.Amour – if only a little! Mouth-filling with more overt energy. A small tannin frames these juicy flavours – and holds very well – also a very discreet wine today but of fine shape and clean flavours – particularly the pretty finish.

2021 Fleurie
There’s a little more power to this nose – a hint of perfume in this case – but it remains a shy thing. This has a little more linear style and has a beautiful velour texture, subtly floral and with an extra concentration and sucrosity in the finish. This is a lovely if still quite shy wine.

2021 Fleurie Cuvée Pâcquerette
No wood here, just tank elevage and a shorter elevage – bottled July 2022. This is the only wine not AB as it was in conversion, hence, made this way – it’s a small cuvée – but as soon as it was certified – in 2023 – it was blended into the larger Fleurie cuvée
Also not a forward nose but it has a hint more floral perfume visible. Mouth-filling, silky, with a little classic graphite-style finishing minerality – it’s delicious and finishes very well – There’s lovely texture too.

So onto the 2022s:
“Two cuvées are already bottled. It was very hot during the growing season and at the end of the growing season too but we had a little rain in September and as we were harvesting later than most of the neighbours and this helped us very well!”

2022 Petit Fleur IGP
Bottled. Usually a blend of the Fleurie and Lancié vines – Syrah/Gamay
Directly darker coloured. This has deeper, darker almost cherry stone nose. Broad, texturally super, with a more spiced flavour profile but with beckoning energy and complexity to balance its concentration – that’s already delicious – simply excellent wine.

The following are all tank samples – they have been assembled and will be bottled in April:

2022 St.Amour
Very concentrated – a nose with some extra maturity and faintly spiced darker fruit. Hmm, this is a bit of luxury in the mouth – supple, a texture of velour – and then such an impressive width of finishing flavour – not the longest but it’s delicious with some subtle bitters as counterpoints. I’d carafe this in the first year, possibly two – but this is a super wine.

2022 Moulin à Vent
Here is quite some width of aroma – today dominated by its barrel component. In the mouth it’s beautifully shaped – a linear style that’s also very fluid and fine textured. Slowly fading. Wait 2-3 years for the barrel flavour to fade – it’s most prevalent in the aromatics today. But the base wine is clearly excellent.

2022 Fleurie
Here the barrel notes are a lot more discreet – there’s a little perfume and a lot of aromatic precision – this is lovely. Large scale in the mouth, today framed by some slightly drying tannin but there’s no grain. The finish has such depth but the delivery of flavour is fluid so it’s not dense. Holding in slightly mineral style. This will be excellent.

2022 Fleurie Le Clos
A slightly more vertical nose of higher and lower tones – the higher tones slowly develop more floral perfume with air. Mouth-filling – a wine of more flavour energy and complexity – it’s clearly a step up in this area. The finish is clean with a suggestion of citrus bitters and holding very well on a faint but persistent note. That’s clearly an excellent wine.