Tasted in Meursault with Jérôme Patriarche while his partner, Laetitia, offers admiring glances. 07 December 2023.
Domaime Jérôme Patriarche
D974 – Pontot Dessus
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 20 34 80
Domaine’s Instagram
Jérôme has been at this address since 2011 – but is very discrete!
There’s also a Patriarche inscribed on the wall near Meursault’s Château de Velle – where I assumed my meeting was – until it obviously wasn’t! That’s the old domaine name of Jérôme’s grandfather!
Jérôme has actually had his domaine since 2005, aged just 19, starting with 2 hectares of family vines, later adding 1.5 ha in Bourgogne Monetine in the commune of Meursault. He currently works 6 hectares in Meursault but his first bottlings under his own name were for the 2017 vintage. “I did all the work, so thought about bottling in 2016 – before the frost! But I slowly grew the volume; first 3,000 bottles, then 9,000 – today it’s 20,000, I still sell an important part in bulk, which helps with my cash-flow.”
Mainly the wines are exported but Jérôme is hoping to grow more of his sales in France in the next years.
The wines…
What a great first visit – and what brilliant entry wines too!
48mm natural cork for these bottles:
From vines around the house – Le Pontot – ‘with elevage just like my Meursault Charmes.’
Very pretty and vibrant aromas – quite floral. ‘We lost a lot of volume, more than in 16.’ Silky, concentrated, beautifully textured. That’s a simply beautiful aligoté!
This is the parcel that faces the house
A beautiful and direct nose, fine yellow citrus almost silky. Broad, intense, further growing in intensity. Long, satisfying – that’s a great Bourgogne too!
2021 Meursault les Vireuils
A calmer, more complex nose. Hmm – a wine that bursts into life in the mouth – super energy and just a tiny accent of the barrel. Slowly, slowly finishing – another beauty…
2021 Meursault 1er Charmes Dessus
A larger, more concentrated ripe citrus. Larger in all dimensions – but also more composed and less overt, yet so intense. Faintly saline – drink the others while waiting 3 years for this. It will be super…
The 2022s – there have been no bottlings at this stage, the wines just racked in August.
“Since 2017 I haven’t really seen a bad vintage – only good wines – it has just been a question of the volume.”
A little riper but still fine and fresh aromas. Large in the mouth, there’s tons of class here again – the antithesis of direct, metallic aligote – this is another great aligote!
More vertical, still some width. Extra direct, also broad and intense. Here’s a wine with structure to wait for but what super energy and broad delicious flavour. Super wine – bravo!
2022 Meursault Clos du Cromin
Much deeper but with the classic, faint Meursault-spice for top notes. Hmm – that’s got a lovely structure – plenty of fresh flavour too. A hint of finishing salinity in a fine, lingering finish. A beautiful wine…
2022 Meursault Vireuils
Larger scale with similarly large aromatic energy – today, the oak still accenting the aromas. Large in the mouth, beautifully energetic with melting flavour, a big but completely balanced wine.
2022 Meursault 1er Charmes Dessus
Airy but still more open than the 21 – ooh – broad, really broad, direct, a more open, more chiselled delivery of flavour – some of the oak of the last but on a lower level – it’s already eaten much. Beautifully shaped wine and with no pressing reason not to drink some of these early!