Clos Saint Louis – 2019

4.5.2021billn

Virginie & Philippe Bernard 2021 Clos Saint Louis FixinTasted in Fixin with Virginie & Philippe Bernard, 19 March 2021.

Domaine Clos Saint Louis
4 Rue des Rosiers
21220 Fixin
Tel: +33 3 80 52 45 51
www.closstlouis.com

The label of Clos Saint Louis is something that I’ve seen each year at the Roi Chambertin Tastings – until 2020 when there was no Roi Chambertin! Tasted against their peers these were always good wines – so I decided to visit!

The domaine is housed in a fine old building where I was met by Virginie & and her father Philippe Bernard. Virginie, who has been working with her parents since 2014, is now the 5th generation of the family at this 19-hectare estate. Grounded in 1918 the estate has vines in in the communes of Dijon – for their Bourgogne – Fixin, Brochon and Gevrey-Chambertin.

There’s not a lot of exporting done by this domaine, the wines mainly finding a home in the French market – though a lot of wine is sold to visitors to the domaine – non-French.

Virginie on 2019:
2019 was a very clean harvest – the weather helped us a lot this year. The volumes could have been better but they were not too bad.

The wines…

A good range of wines at this domaine.

They used the area (plastic) seal for a while but the French market didn’t like it, so they moved to using DIAM. The reds were all bottled at the end of 2020:

2019 Marsannay En Sampagny
A nice red fruit – round, attractive. Open airy, growing modestly tannic in the finish – an easy, very tasty wine.

2019 Côte de Nuits Villages
From Brochon
A slightly deeper and darker fruited nose – that’s nicely clean and pure. Mouth-filling, a little tannin here again but with fine energy and some purity of fruit. Mouth-watering and tasty. A super finish – I like the dimension of flavour here. Lovely – faintly floral accented you – Excellent wine.

2019 Fixin Clos Entre Deux Velles
Have the monopoly of the clos of this climat but at over 3 ha it has different maturites so it’s not all harvested at the same time.
Plenty of colour. A nicely perfumed nose – there are plenty of floral accents here. Hmm- airy, fresh, energetic fruit – a touch of Fixin about the structure but not too much. Wide and vibrantly finishing flavours, long too – a really super finish.

2019 Fixin l’Olivier
Higher vines close to the woods – the first rows are always eaten by the animals in the hot years…
A deeper nose – still of fine and pure fruit. A little more direct, growing wider, structured but not too much. Mouth-watering again. A lovely width of floral-accented finishing flavour. Finishing much more elegant than it starts but completely delicious.

2019 Gevrey-Chambertin Etelois
This climat, of course, sited next to Griotte-Chambertin
The nose is redder but also tighter – elegant and only slowly opening. Open, in the mouth an airy style, salinity here. But long, that’s a more contemplative wine – but very fine – less power than the previous wines but elegant and very tasty.

Les Blancs:
They represent about 10-15% of the total production depending on the vintage:

2019 Marsannay Champs Perdrix Blanc
In Couchey close to the domaine. Fermentations start in tank but finish in barrel for the whites.
The nose is saline and a little savoury – more Fixin style. Mouth-filling, a fruit of good ripeness and a mouth-watering style – relatively round, the finish is very tasty slightly acidulated and long, faintly tannic.

2019 Fixin Les Treuilles Blanc
It’s deeper soil here, lots of clay, ‘it’s the Marsannay that’s closer to the rock.’
That’s got a much fresher more pure fruit aroma – so attractively so. In the mouth this is saline and direct it’s actually rather good.

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