Tasted in Morey St.Denis with Christophe Perrot-Minot, 14 June 2021.
Domaine Perrot-Minot
54, Route des Grands Crus
21220 Morey-Saint-Denis
Tel: +33 3 80 34 32 51
www.perrot-minot.com
More reports with Domaine Perrot-Minot
Christophe on 2021:
“Regarding the impact of the frost, I can’t really say just now, the estimates are between 50 and 80% lowered volume but we will have to see. As for the market, other than restaurants – for obvious reasons – it’s been strong for here, so there are no anxious times right now.”
Christophe on 2019:
Hot – too hot! It was a small harvest as there was a lot of evaporation from the grapes and before that, this was a year with poor flowering. For us, it’s half a harvest. But there were no frost problems for us, so that was something! We averaged 22 hl/ha in 2019 – and there was even less in 2020! Fortunately, no maladies, all our losses could be attributed to the dryness. the evaporation of the juice and the grilling of the grapes. I’m very happy with the vintage – the challenge was to have the purity and freshness and I think that we triaged very well.
The wines…
This domaine receives short shrift from some people who are unable to get past the eye-watering pricetags of the wines, yet those buyers of this estate’s wines, who have no issue with such things, finding some brilliant wines with an equally impressive level of consistency. This is just a knock-out range of 2019s.
The last bottlings of the 2019s were done at the end of March – the end of January was the start for the Bourgogne:
2019 Morey St.Denis En la Rue de Vergy
From just above the Clos de Tart, with fine, poor soil and lots of rock. 20% new oak – the rest 1-2 years old – half with whole clusters and filtration.
Starting faintly powdery but taking on more aromatic precision with air – not full power but becoming ever finer and more inviting. Open, airy but clearly lacking no depth – a silky wine, and one that holds much, much interest – that’s highly excellent villages wine.
40% 1er Combe d’Orveaux the rest is Bussières, this higher part of Orveaux is more stony – it’s the vines next to Prieur’s Musigny that go into the separate Orveaux bottling – the grapes for this bottling are mixed for the fermentation.
Not a big nose but one of great clarity. A little more structural but here is an ever-changing and growing complexity of flavour the (20%) new wood is showing only a little. A great finish and clearly a great villages wine!
From just above the grand crus
Medium-plus colour. A more open and a higher-toned aromatic. Extra open, extra dimensions – always freshly flavoured. I’m impressed that this has such a step up in presence versus the last. This wine has fewer traces of visible oak today, too. The last more was the powerful this the more refined – another really great villages…
There’s a fine freshness here – still a suggestion of oak but also a more floral depth. Extra mouth-filling – these wines are impressing me for their clear extra steps in quality. Slowly mouth-watering, concentrated but never heavy – bravo!
Up to 30% new oak for the 1ers and GCs…
A narrower but deeper and more mineral aroma – slowly adding a faint florality too. Extra mineral and fresh in the mouth too – ooh – intensity, so mouth-watering. Waves of finishing flavour. Painfully young – but great!
Not as deep but a wider nose, more florally attractive too. Less overtly mineral than the last but still a wine with some structure. The intensity grows here as you head into the finish – the wine sharpening its delivery and offering a more comfortable overall impression vs the Riotte today – another really top wine.
2019 Charmes-Chambertin
‘From right at the top – you won’t find higher – and directly across the road from one of the parcels of Rousseau’s Chambertin’
A comfortable nose – floral with an extra concentration to the attractive depth of aroma. Super, slightly direct, fresh wine – structural but all the angles are softened by the concentration and the textural quality. This is very very long too…
North in Gemeaux – 90-year-old vines mainly delivering millerandes – ‘I always avoid pigeage here as the concentration is so strong. It’s always better to be early rather than late picking here – or rather don’t be late as like Griotte it can compote and become a little chocolatey’
Deep, concentrated but never any impression of excess ripeness – just a hint of pure berry. This sits beautifully on the palate – only slowly melting, mouth-watering, over the tongue. I love this finish but this is the wine that’s holding its cards closest to its chest – not really ‘compact’ but yielding very little. I take the bottle away with me to see if it opens with time – and it most certainly does – it will be a great wine.
The nose with the largest scale here – open, some freshness and the first with a little whole-cluster perfume. Fresh, indeed incisive, layered too – also the first wine with a tiny grain of tannin – but oh-so-tiny. What a complexity of flavour – not the most sophisticated for sure but so far, the most impressive – and that’s despite what’s gone before!
2019 Chambertin
Open but a smaller nose than the Mazoyères – a faint reduction perhaps – a growing complexity with air, adding dark fruit, florals – even a faint mint-leaf that’s crumpled in the fingers. Open, mouth-filling confident – a different beast to the last, less incisive – but it really doesn’t need to be! That’s a great, easy-going wine that you may enjoy today – but it will last for decades – a late-arriving salinity too… That’s so impressive.
Starting as a vertical nose – narrow but deep and with a growing weight of heavily perfumed flowers. In terms of density of flavour this reminds me of the Chapelle except there is more of pretty much everything here. Structural yet with such sophistication – that’s a wine with extra, waves and waves of finishing flavour that are much more demonstrative than in the Chambertin today – though not with the finishing salinity of the last.