Tasted in Chambolle-Musigny with François Millet, 13 June, 2014.
Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé
7 Rue Sainte-Barbe
21220 Chambolle-Musigny
Tel: +33 03 80 62 86 25
2013s:
Before looking at the bottled 2012s, François kindly showed the 2013s from barrel, noting that there was plenty of malic acid in the grapes and in their cellar the wines were only just starting their malolactic fermentation. François also described 2013 as ‘a high mineral vintage.’
From barrel, the Chambolle villages is round, with deep colour. The 1er Cru shows wonderful transparency whilst the Amoureuses is pure beauty already. The Bonnes-Mares was characterised by its energy. Great wines in the making…
2012s:
François relates: A bad spring, bad flowering, some downy mildew, a little hail and them some sunburn in July, however, August, unlike previous months, was hot and sunny. At the end of the month, the state of health of the grapes was excellent, comparable to that of 2005. The grapes were picked from the 22nd September and there was no botrytis. Despite all that went before, they were very happy with the health of the grapes at harvest.
The wines…
All these wines were bottled between January and March 2014. I could easily have given each one a ‘coup de coeur!’
The nose has beautiful depth and weight but without heaviness – very fine fruit. Wide, textured and concentrated – there’s a real extra dimension of flavour here. Freshness and richness. Very impressive. (I already bought some!)
2012 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru
The nose has depth and weight – real perfume. There’s more structure here and even the tannins have their own dark flavour. Very, very complex and long. Really super.
Higher tones, lower too and some minerality. In the mouth this is fuller, but not fatter. A super extra dimension of mid-palate flavour-dimension that seems both wild and alive. The last drops in the glass showing a more floral aromatic – fantastic.
2012 Musigny Vieilles-Vignes
Not the same weight of aroma, but it has a panoramic width. This wine looks for, and finds, every space in your mouth and then fills it. Yet another dimension of flavour in the finish. Brilliant! There is even tannin if you wish to search for it, just faintly grained…