Tasted with Arnaud Sirugue in Vosne-Romanée, 17 May 2022.
Arnaud & Sophie Sirugue-Noellat
5 Place de la Maire
21700 Vosne-Romanée
Tel: +33 6 37 42 92 18
www.domainearnaudetsophie.com (still not connected)
More reports with Arnaud & Sophie
Arnaud with this year’s news:
“Maybe we will see a little rain at the end of the week – the vine growth is absolutely racing right now. Not all the 2020 wines are bottled yet – we are here in the old house of my Sirugue grandparents which we recently managed to buy. Just so you know, 2024 will be the last vintage for the current Domaine Sirugue, at which time it will be split between family members and almost 6 hectares will be the resulting domaine here.”
The wines are mainly exported from France. The main market is Japan, but plenty heads to Denmark too.
The wines…
Another year where there’s not much but the wines are definitely to look out for – with the dangling carrot of more volume to come – but not before 2026!!
Not yet bottled but it will be one of the next. It’s 80% pinot, directly pressed – ‘Provencal-style.’ Partly made with bought grapes from Sophie but this wine was made at Sirugue since 2011.
A really freshly perfumed nose, this is really an invitation… Vibrant, such lively waves of delicious flavour. Holding fine flavour. Just unbelievably delicious – if you can find some, you know what you have to do!
2020 Meursault Les Grands Charrons
Lower volume of this in 2020 and 2021 but there was nothing extra to buy. In bottle for just 2 weeks.
Hmm – a broad and intense fruit but never heavy – a good aromatic sophistication here. Broad over the palate too – with a good finishing intensity – both mineral and with lots of slowly mouth-watering ripe citrus but still fresh-flavoured. Good.
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin En Champs
At the foot of the hill, not yet bottled, but close.
Large-scaled with lots of freshness – perfumed wine here – probably the 50% wc adding to that. Intense, concentrated but with beautiful balance and a slowly growing intensity. Vibrating on the finish. This is super but I remember liking the 2019 even more!
The first vintage in 2016 was simply labelled as Vosne-Romanée – since then they have added the lieu-dit to the label. Old vines – 50-60 years old – on quite a steep and sandy soil – ‘it’s very well-draining so the vines need good roots.’ In bottle about 10 days – touching on Cros Parantoux and Petit Monts, they buy all the harvest from the family. ‘For us, this is an exceptional altitude terroir – a special sector of Vosne.’
More depth of aroma, more considered too. Airy, spicy, perhaps a suggestion of gentian – fine perfume. In the mouth super concentration, a cushioned texture and a breadth of slowly mouth-watering flavour. A wine of large scale. A generous, indeed rich wine but never heavy – I’d try again in 5 years then every year for the next 23 – if I were that lucky!
And to compare:
‘Not such catastrophic volumes as the lower parts of Vosne in this vintage.’
Not the weight of the last but a wine that starts small and grows with perfume to fill the glass, at the base a tiny reduction which, as it fades, becomes much more floral and has an element of crushed raspberries. Mouth-filling energy, properly Vosne, and building all the time. Better direct freshness than the 2020 today with a little graphite minerality to finish, too. This is the one to drink today… Bravo, fading a little faster than the 2020 but still quite haunting…