Tasted with Julien Millet and the longest lineup of Bourgognes imaginable in Gevrey-Chambertin, 09 February 2024.
Domaine Les Astrelles
1, route de Saint Philibert
21220 Gevrey Chambertin
Tel: +33 3 80 33 46 03
Domaine Instagram
www.domainelesastrelles.fr
More reports with Domaine Pierre Naigeon
“We want some poetry in this harsh world – we want the echo of the vintage!”
Bravo Julien for that – I kept this poetry from last year!
Julien on 2022:
“In 2022 we had volume – 80% of our cuvées were at the volume limit and (because of that) we didn’t use any stems as they add 30% to the volume in the tanks. I like the vintage a lot for its freshness and delicatesse. It’s easy to understand and we taste a mix of bottled and assembled wines waiting for bottling. We had some blocking of maturity – 12.5-13° was our result. Gevrey Crais is normally an early bottling for us but it was blocked so we waited. A vintage with serenity that’s very tasty – none of the austerity that you may have found, the serious side, of the young 21s”
The wines…
Nothing gives me more pleasure than finding a properly great regional wine – and this visit brought a lot of pleasure!
50-50 pinot-gamay
Hmm, a creamy, large, attractive nose. Good shape and juicy energy. There’s a bit of oak to suck up but this is delicious already today – that’s a top PTG!
2022 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
Petites Vignes and En Riottes. Bottled in January
Aromas that are fresher and more direct – without the creamy accent. Hmm – more immediate/direct in the mouth too – the oak is much more of an accent. This is simply excellent, delicious wine.
2022 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Les Martennes
More depth of aroma – lithe muscle and a suggestion of cooking herb. Extra breadth and incisiveness. Intensity too – that’s really super but it will need 12 months to 3 years of patience – Potentially excellent.
2022 Bourgogne Maladière
Vines in Gilly/Chambolle
Hmm – more floral for sure with a hint of herb. I like the extra structure and how the flavour grows over the palate. The oak quite obvious today but what a delicious wine – wait 2 years again.
2022 Bourgogne Athets
Also from the commune of Chambolle – the next vines to the last – but more clay.
Airy, still that creamy accent of barrel. I little extra inner density – this holds beautifully and has super finishing clarity whilst slowly fading. Very slowly – less energy but I’m engrossed!
From Fixin
A more complex, rounder fruit. This is round and finely cushioned – and what a great finishing intensity and length. Ooh – that could be a great Bourgogne!
In the commune of Flagey not far from the Clos de Vougeot
Very perfumed – that’s a great invitation. Fuller, more fluid – if I had any doubt about the last there’s none here – bravo! Vosne by any other name…
2022 Bourgogne Grands Chaillots
South of Nuits
More direct with a clarity of high tones. Larger scale – the structure more apparent. The intensity and finishing flavour are super – drink a case of the previous whilst waiting for this!
2022 Bourgogne Grand Champs
From the bottom of Gevrey across the road from Crais
A more open, more overtly red fruit – a hint airy – certainly attractive. Fine structure – architecture vs the bulk of the previous but much finer. A super finish too – that’s a beauty.
2022 Marsannay Sampagny
Deep aroma but with a clarity of dark red fruit. Extra width – and what super structure – the shape of this the fineness of texture and the juicy flavour – a simply excellent wine again. Holding very impressively…
North of the AOC
Hmm – here’s a nicely vibrant nose – red fruit accented with graphite. Broad width, velour texture – ooh that’s so classy – there’s depth to these flavours – Great Fixin villages
2022 Fixin Herbues
More in the plain with additional clay.
Beautiful clarity of fruit in the depth. A little more volume – the grainless tannin will need a little time to fade but here is a generous width of slowly mouth-watering finishing flavour that already partly balances. That’s super again!
2022 Fixin 1er Hervelets
More open and airy – here is aromatic volume. Hmm, volume but a more relaxed structure in the mouth, the structure finer and more approachable – I would drink this with pleasure today – another beautiful wine.
2022 Aloxe-Corton Les Chaillots
Quite some scale to this very attractive nose. In the mouth too – volume – a suggestion of structure but with finesse – the finish is engagingly delicate and slowly fading. I love this finish!
Terraces next to the cuverie of Boisset – just a feuillette of this…
That’s a large scaled and slightly spicy nose. Big in the mouth too – depth to both the flavours and textures – almost a coffee accent from this new small barrel. That’s a really top villages that you can drink today or in 20 years – bravo!
2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Damodes
Bottled.
A nose that slowly releases a very attractive, quite elegant perfume. Hmm – holding the centre of the palate – fine velvet texture – an elegance but also a wine that needs to open out more – but I think that all the parts are in place – it’s very delicious!
2022 Gevrey-Chambertin
An assembly of 3 different lieu-dits because of the parts are so small.
A smaller, tighter nose. More direct and fluid in the mouth – growing in intensity – I like this insistent, fluid flavour. This is completely delicious.
2022 Gevrey-Chambertin Craite-Paille
Near the cemetery – the extension into the plain of Justice.
Slowly releasing some florals. This has fine, faintly cushioned width of flavour. And then a slowly finishing, delicious, slightly juicy wave – then another wave of fine flavour. Love that finish but this is a wine to have 2-3 years of patience with.
2022 Gevrey-Chambertin Creux Brouillard
The ‘foggy hole!’ An assembly of 5 different small parcels. The last was very stony, here is more clay.
Hmm – not fully open but you can sense the extra density here. In the mouth too – cool fruit flavour – architecturally interesting. Complex fruit with a little floral. That’s another super wine – also to wait for but less than the previous.
It’s a big vineyard (26 hectares) with a lot of limestone – always harvested first by us as there’s a lack of water here and the grapes can turn very quickly.
A more supple and concentrated depth of darker-red fruit. Open, very aromatic fruit and lovely energy – a hint more direct and certainly more silky than the previous. I sense even some citrus skin in this complexity – that’s super wine – ¨potentially a great villages…
A nose that opens out impressively – perfume and fruit – with enviable clarity. More vibrant energy here, very faintly showing the tannin a little more – hardly any grain. A fine, fading, direct line of finishing flavour, quite mineral. I actually prefer the previous today but this is just as good and will improve – bravo!
North of Gevrey next to Brochon – near the cemetery – again!
More aromatic density here – the florals have more density even – it begs extended aeration. Ooh – but the clarity and fluidity of this is impressive, faintly saline – I think that this is my new favourite! What a beauty!
2022 Gevrey-Chambertin En Sylvie
More airy but with purity and more of an implied complexity too. Broad, open, almost as fluid as the last and with a little more complex energy. This has more to offer/develop so seems a little behind the previous in total – but I don’t believe that will be the case in another 3 years – ceratainly it’s already an excellent wine.
Near Mazis and Perrières
Larger scale and more floral nose – but less ready than most of the previous wines. Scale – clarity, a very faintly grained frame of tannin. Another faintly salty lick to this finishing flavour. That’s going to be a great wine but I would counsel waiting at least 5 years and 8-10 may be much nearer the mark. Super!
The coolest part, next to Varoilles
Not the widest but here is the next level depth of aroma. Crystalline purity, with a vibration of energy – extra middle and finishing width to these flavours too – clearly next level after the En Pallud. One of those wines whose flavour seems to grow after you swallow – then holds. That’s a great wine!
2022 Mazis-Chambertin
From the higher part next to Ruchottes.
Extra deep, extra complex with a subtle cooked note to the darker fruit. Super texture and sinuous depth of mobile flavour. That’s ultra classy – I’d like the nose to take on more elegance – but the rest is really top-level and delicious.
Les Whites:
2022 Côteaux Bourguignone En Riottes
Pinot Blanc and pinot gris – 50-50
What an inviting perfume – round and very attractive. Nicely mineral and structural through the middle, chalky, finishing, and a little creamy barrel too today.
From Fixin
That’s got a lovely freshness. Extra mouth-filling volume – complex, energetic, saline – long – great aligoté!
2022 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Les Martennes
All the HC parcels of the domaine add up to about 8 hectares.
A more direct nose with an impression of more minerality. A lot of gas today so the energy is obviously fine – slowly a width of nice citrus, maybe a little lime in there too.
2022 Bourgogne Closeau
From Puligny, bottled in January – the previous whites were all samples, pre-bottling.
A calm nose but with some suggestion of silk and direction. Larger scale in the mouth plenty of citrus bitters – quite a zesty wine – with a little creamy oak too. Large finishing too. That’s very good!
2022 Corton Les Grand Lolières
Stockinger for this…
Calm but a growing width here too – silky is my impression again. Properly generous but with fine energy supporting this concentration and flavour complexity. The barrel is forward but not overdone in the finish – and what a finish too – long, long, long.