Tasted in Puligny-Montrachet with Jacques Carillon, once more, without his red jacket, 11 October 2023.
Domaine Jacques Carillon
1 Impasse Drouhin
21190, Puligny-Montrachet
Tel: +33 3 80 21 01 30
www.jacques-carillon.com
More reports with Domaine Jacques Carillon.
A few vintage quotes from Jacques:
“2023? Well, if you can’t be happy with this vintage you need another job!
“In 2022 we were still a little down in the 1ers due to the dryness of the vintage – there was some hydric stress – so about 10-15% below what I target but the villages were okay. And what an improvement over 2021, that’s for sure! I think these 22s have a little more fat than the 20s and might end up resembling the 2018s. For now they are in a very fruity phase but the wines will be more serious post-bottling – from the end of March. Right now they have been in tank since August.”
The wines…
Always a quietly competent range at this address – properly showcasing the the differences in the cuvées. Never the most extrovert wines pre-bottling but always fine wines.
Jacques is currently testing DIAM in his villages cuvées. To set the stage we try his 2021 villages:
2021 Puligny-Montrachet
A fine nose this with some width but also a purity to the aroma. Structural but in the best way, melting with juicy flavour there’s still ripeness but nothing tending towards exotic – just a fun and juicy thing – I’d be tempted to wait a couple of years! The finish is broad and predominantly mineral with hints of citrus bitters. Delicious!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet
7 lieu-dits, 9 parcels, 2.7 ha. This sample is assembled from three tanks, all of which will be assembled before bottling roughly in March – ‘if I have the bottles – if they don’t have the gas they can’t make the glass!’
Versus the 2021 there’s a little less focus today but aromatically it’s another fine invitation. More volume and a bit more intensity – the oak is already almost absorbed. Other samples with a hint more finishing salinity coupled with a stonier finish. It’s looking good!
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet
A single plot planted in 2013 – in 2016 there was none due to frost – before this parcel was planted to red. Vines on the plain below the Château de Chassagne-Montrachet.
The first sniff says not much but the second already has my attention – this has a hint of flesh but still a direct personality – it’s a super aromatic invitation. More volume in the mouth at the same time with a modest mm, or two, of cushion – there’s the fine texture too. Finishing well, it’s quite a mineral wine balanced by its flesh. Jacques explains the exuberance of this wine being down to its proportion of young vines.
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Champs Canet
Higher-toned and wonderful – there’s even a little ripe pear in the citrus-fruit mix. Mineral and cool in the mouth – that’s also got some citrus bitters rising in intensity as you move through the flavours. I love this complex wine but I’d be waiting until it’s 3-5 years old – it’s excellent!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Perrières
This nose is less open, it’s shy to start but it’s obviously mineral with some white flower complexity. Not the largest of scale but this is a mineral width of flavour that holds with fine finishing width. A wine to return to as it’s a little shy today but seems to have all its usual attributes…
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Referts
More open, certainly more airy – that’s a very pretty invitation. Wonderful in the mouth with a mineral fluidity to the flavour, bubbling with understated but clear complexity – so far, it’s the wine I’m appreciating the most today, holding a haunting finish – it’s simply excellent!
2022 Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet
Another modest volume of aroma but such fine aroma – holding a seamlessly fine width. There’s a little extra fat and more overt complexity – still wedded in the minerality of this place. Holding, holding, holding onto its mineral finish. Just a little more of everything – as it should be!