Tasted in Puligny with Philippe Abadie, 17 October 2023.
Domaine Alvina Pernot
4d rue de Bois
21190 Puligny-Montrachet
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More reports with Domaine Alvina Pernot
Philippe on 2023:
“23 is a volume similar to 22 – and only right at the end of the harvest did we have some higher degrees. Our 2022s were bottled just before the 23 harvest – all of them – we didn’t have much choice as we needed the space for the arrivals – but we don’t mark our wines with a lot of oak so I don’t think that it was a problem. In 2018 we produced 10,000 bottles for our first year. In 2019 10k again before jumping to 20k in 2020. In 2021 we sunk to just 7,000 bottles – in 2022 it was roughly 32k bottles and in 2023 we are roughly stable with just a hint less 30k.”
Philippe on 2022:
“Grapes harvested in September, like 2021, are rarely as clean as those harvested in August – like we had in 2022!”
The wines…
Not all the wines were great wines – but a lot were! The rest were simply excellent. For my palate this pure, acidulated, energetic, high-tension style was pretty close to peak white wine from this vintage. Bravo !!
The wines are all cork sealed: “All first class cork, untreated – that for us is Burgundy.”
Just a single parcel from an uncle of Alvina where they buy the harvest.
In interesting floral perfume – it’s a narrow but deep nose. Hmm – fine attack in the mouth that’s got clean, mobile and zesty flavour. Hmm – directly a great Bourgogne – so great finishing too!
The vines around the cuverie. ‘Harvested one week earlier than the previous – we don’t like too mature grapes. This was lightly pressed.’
A more floral width with less overt aromatic depth. Also an attack but broader, less incisive but more bubbly and juicy in personality – more 21 in style here with a fine finishing vibration to this flavour – Yes – two great Bourgognes that are very different – I personally like the first a bit more today – but would be happy to have both in the cellar.
2022 Puligny-Montrachet Clos de Noyers Bret
Hmm – fuller aromatics but with a fresh energy too. Broad vibrant and, as seems the style here this year, a zesty, juicy style to the flavours. Broad more more mineral and also floral in the finish, slightly touched by a finishing tannin. Simply excellent wine.
‘Partly (30%) in jars to test this format – we were very satisfied with the result so we are extending this to some other cuvées for 23 – but not the whole cuvées as they could become a little simple.’
Shy but fine and pure. Vibrant, with a hint of cream to the flavour – silky and quite direct – just a mm of cushion to the flavours. Top St.Romain – finishing very well!
Two new cuvées from St.Aubin – exchanging must with friends:
2022 St.Aubin 1er Au Criots
Next to Frionnes
A beauty – not large scale but a width ultra-fine yellow citrus. The flavour is juicily moreish – showing some barrel today – but what classy, excellent wine – framed again with a small accent of tannin!
2022 St.Aubin 1er Les Combes
Also a wonderful clarity to this aromatic – with just a hint more citrus complexity. Here with a small bubble of gas but not the barrel influence of the last. Growing richer and more contemplative over the palate – in isolation a beauty but next to the previous I think I prefer that wine despite its touch of barrel flavour. Anyway – simply excellent wine, beautifully fading in the finish!
A smaller nose but what a beautiful nose – so delicate! Again a suggestion of CO2, but so open and classy in the mouth – such enviable purity of flavour – juicy but not excessive in the finish – Yes, Bravo!
2022 Meursault 1er Charmes
Also a small nose but one of wonderful clarity. Extra attack in the mouth – the volume combined with this flavour energy filling my mouth. Here there is extra concentration to the fine lemon-style fruit – almost a tarte-au-citron feeling here – simply a beautiful and elegant thing!
2022 Meursault 1er Poruzots
Again, a small but ultra-fine, pure nose. There’s an extra vibration here – a tiny reduction – but what breadth and complexity this wine shows – a suggestion of barrel but also more power. Still a wine of elegance but wait – drink only after 2 years! A beauty.
2022 Meursault 1er Perrières
A small extra breadth to the aromas here, a suggestion of florals too. More direct – but still showing much width. A hint of cushion to this texture and an obvious mineral style. Less of the ultra-clarity style of many wines – but the finish is beautiful with a little more density and perfumed floral to remember it by – excellent Perrières!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Clos de la Garenne
A smaller nose on first opening – but with the clarity of the range this year. A little more attack than the Perrières, a juicy wine that’s less imposing but with finer clarity. Clearly more energy in this top finish – a great way to remember it by.
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Folatières Peux Bois
A more open and concentrated citrus fruit ripe but still fresh and clean – crystalline. Extra breadth – classy and open in the middle before the flavour slowly, slowly decaying in the finish. This sustains a really fine, lingering finish – Lovely wine!
Open and more obviously mineral with a suggestion of reduction too. So vibrant and impressive – yes with a kernel of reduction – I’d carafe – but what a breadth of mineral flavour and the very definition of tension – ultra Puligny – Bravo!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Clos de Jacquelotte
In the Champs Canet 1er
A less forward but very fine mineral-citrus hybrid. Rounder with a core of tighter fruit today – only slowly melting over the palate – fresh and pure as is the range here this year. Less open that the Clos Folatières today – carafe or have more patience. The finish is lovely and perhaps a little complex than the previous.
Exchanges of must for this and the Charlemagne. ‘One of the barrels a 450-litre was new is it’s a bit more marked by its elevage’
Perhaps a faint barrel spice on this nose but otherwise it’s broad and fine. Ooh – that’s a beauty in the mouth – volume and ultra-complexity. I’m not always convinced by Caillerets but I am by this wine! The finish not as immersive as some but very long all the same – potentially a great Caillerets!
A smaller nose again yet also again of wonderful purity. Hmm – now here is a presence, more direct, more brooding, more mineral – less complex for sure today – but also more extravagantly finishing. If I could choose only one, I would go for this. Bravo!
Opposite Restaurant Le Charlemagne – ‘Always from the Pernand side’
Automatically, I’m thinking of a more chalky impression from this aromatic. Broad and at the same time intense. There is power here like the Pucelles but with an extra volume and the growing complexity – it is very special here. As great as the Pucelles is, this is next level!
A core of fruit – of fresh clarity – like all. Really vibrant – not a heavy or fat Bâtard here. You can spit as many times as you like and this well of juicy flavour just holds and holds – a wine that in most dimensions is a hint behind the Charlemagne – but not in the finish – here we have extra. I would drink the Charlemagne in preference for maybe 10 years – after that I think the Bâtard may be the winner!
A little more open than most with an effervescent freshness and energy to these top notes. There is more! In the mouth this is almost a hybrid of the previous two wines but with more energy. The middle is a seamless breadth of minerals and citrus with just a hint of green-citrus. Beautiful finishing clarity that just hums – maybe the finish of the Bâtard is more lasting but here is still a great, great wine!
Le Red!
The only wine not yet bottled but it will be done tomorrow:
2022 Santenay Bieveaux
Lots of colour. Concentrated aromas of darker red fruit with almost a suggestion of cassis. Hmm – what energy and flavour – fluidity too with a small grain of tannin framing these fresh flavours. Maybe calmed by tasting after the grand crus but it’s just a juicy and delicious thing!