Tasted in Meloisey with Alexandre Parigot, 22 July 2021.

Domaine Alexandre Parigot
8 Route de Pommard
21190 Meloisey
Tel: +33 3 80 26 01 70

Alexandre Parigot is the third generation – after Georges and Regis – of his family who have been growing grapes for at least 70 years. Their first plots were bought in 1959. Alexandre trained with Vincent Girardin before he returned to the domaine in 2004. The domaine is in Meloisy and it’s no small domaine either, covering 18 hectares of vines – and it’s quite a wide range of vines that they own too – right up to Nuits St.Georges. Alexandre explaining “Yes, each generation has added some new vines to the portfolio – many of our premier crus arriving in the 1990s when prices were somewhat more approachable!”

Alexandre on the domaine and 2019:
“All is ploughed and the work is manual. We have HVE certification underway, and we adapt, depending on the weather, between raisonnée and organic. Last year, for instance, we used no copper at all. I like to train the vines higher – 135cm. For me, the key to the 2019 vintage was the awareness of grape maturity – I was having to follow the hydric stress of the vines very closely. In the cuverie it was a year where I did lots of small remontages – 5-6 minutes only. I did also do a little pigeage when the musts were cold but stopped as soon as the fermentations began.”

The wines…

My first visit – wines I found to be very good to excellent – occasionally great and always delicious. This is an ‘off the beaten track’ domaine with an interesting width to their range and fine quality too.

2019 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune La Perrière
13 months in barrel, about 25% new oak, 30% wc, and then 3-5 months in tank before bottling.
Fresh, open, slightly strawberry red fruit aromas. Supple, a little fat, lovely texture with a very fine grain of tannin. Broadening in the middle before opening wide, some modest bitters in the finish but a freshness too. That’s very good.

2019 Savigny-lès-Beaune Au Grands Liards
A little herb but there’s also an extra floral note too – this is really complex and interesting. Direct, silky, but there’s also concentration. I like this a lot. Structural but never hard – yum!

2019 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Peuillets
30% new barrel and 40% wc
A more saline width of aroma. Concentrated, mouth-watering, minerally mouthwatering. Thats an easier to assimilate and more open finish than the last – a really fine core of red fruit here too. Tasty again.

2019 Beaune 1er Les Grèves
Right next to the plots of Enfant Jesus in the mid-slope
A saline nose like the Peuillets but with more depth of fruit below. Aeration makes this more attractively vibrant. Structural but with depth of flavour too – more ample, easier to approach today than the Vergelesses but not better just ‘easier’ – excellent Beaune!

2019 Volnay 1er Brouillatds
The last vines before Pommard Les Combes
A nose with a red vibration of energy. Fresh, incisive, layered. There’s a mid-palate concentration that’s both comfortably shaped and delicious. Just a very lovely wine…

2019 Pommard 1er Clos de la Chanière
0.86 ha. Young vines – just three years – 50% whole clusters
Aromatic, vibrant – a gorgeous nose. Round, open, easy, mouth-watering. A delicious wine – open easy. Young vines but very delicious wine.

2019 Pommard 1er Charmots
’30-40% wc here helps in a place where the acidity is often low.’
Also a nicely floral and faintly herbal combination. Fresh and slightly structural shaped. Bright red fruit, very faintly dry from the tannin but there’s good mouth-watering saline freshness that balances.

2019 Pommard 1er Epenots
Here’s an extra depth of aroma – there’s width in that red-fruited depth too. A direct style but also with fresh width here. A slightly almond accent. So wide, so persistent. Thats an excellent wine.

2019 Nuits St.Georges 1er Damodes
A very different nose – deep, almost faintly reductive but with a great invitation to drink. Mouth-filling, modestly tannic and faintly oaked too. The finish is slowly mouth-watering but long and expressive. Keep this for 2-3 years but here is something rather elegant despite the concentration.

2019 Pommard 1er Les Vignots
Hmm – more weight of aroma, rounder and inviting. Big in the mouth. Layered, slowly moving/mobile flavoured – this is a powerful wine but with no hard edges or astringence – it’s simply excellent…

2019 Pommard 1er Les Riottes
Here is a depth of aroma but with a growing floral invitation too. Mouth-filling. Lovely mouth-watering intensity, another powerful wine and a little more for waiting versus the last but deliciously dark-fruited in the finish.

Les Blancs:

2019 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Blanc Vieilles-Vignes
A fresh, not so wide nose but with an elegant depth of aroma. Structural, a little rigour, but mouth-watering – a lovely last impression of mouth-watering flavour – the best part for sure today.

2019 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Blanc La Perrière
A broader, riper nose, more pineapple here. More density to this flavour, more exotic fruit too. A little edge of minerality in the finish. Very good

2019 Meursault Vireuils
A little toast bread impression to the nose. Hmm, now here’s a faintly spiced Meursault flavour. The finish is really excellent, wide, complex and very delicious!

2019 Meursault le Limozin
In 15 years the price for this land has increased 6x!
Slightly reductive but here is a vibration of energy too. More width and more concentration here – very mineral in style. Slightly saline, robust but melting with a great finish.

2019 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos St.Jean
Airy, fresh, a faintly spiced and very attractive aromatic – that’s a beauty. Mouth-filling – this is a big wine. Saline again and complex finishing too. That’s another really excellent wine.