Tasted in Meursault with Patrick Essa, 16 October, 2015.
Domaine Buisson-Charles
3 Rue de la Velle
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 21 22 32
domaine.buisson.charles.over-blog
Patrick on 2015:
“Really excellent. It was a super harvest and I hope with great wines to follow. For harvesting it’s not a question of acidity; the first people started 23rd August, others the 5th or 6th of September – such a gap is really rare. I think there should be great wines for the patient. Here we began harvesting our reds on the 5th, and our whites on 6th – we finished on the 13th. Despite even (in the end) 13.2° for our Bourgogne Rouge, I had very regular fermentations.”
Patrick on 2014:
“2014 is really a very good vintage; very concentrated too. The reds and whites were picked into late September (17-25th). Only 22 hl/ha though, hence the concentration. A great year, and the whites are better than the reds. If 2013 is about finesse, then 2014 complex and dense. Reduction and agrume flavours are easy, I want white flowers, that takes care.”
Patrick on pricing 2014s:
Prices will probably go up by about 2-3%. You can’t actually sell for half the price of your neighbours, but I like to try to keep things real.
The wines…
All the wines had already been fined today, so timing was not perfect, yet the wines were on great form….
2014 Bourgogne Chardonnay
From vines with the boundaries of Meursault.
Perfumed modestly high-toned. Big, round, a softness yet a nice energy too. Expands very finely in the mid-palate, followed by a lovely wide, tasty finishing flavour. Yum!
A weight and a very fine width of perfume here. Lithe, concentrated, very good minerality at the base, and with super texture – really excellent!
Fresh if a little closed. Finer acidity more direct shape and delivery of flavour – gorgeous fruit intensity borne on great acidity in the mid-palate – gorgeous. The finish is more subtle than the vieilles vignes but a great wine also.
2014 Chablis 1er Les Lys
No new oak, 14 months elevage, to be bottled in December. These grapes came from very old vines – for Chablis – 60…
Very fine, citrus and rock nose. Wide, a hint of gas, mouth-wrapping texture. The acid- borne minerality comes through halfway through the mp. Super!
More weight of concentrated but still fresh aroma – white flowers. Much more mineral, almost shavings of rock here, intense yet padded, direct and long – excellent – and just beautiful in the finish.
2014 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Romanée
Both aromatic depth and height – really appealingly complex. Just one of the three barrels are new and there is some aroma from this for now, but it’s not excessive. Wide, mineral, ‘wow’ complexity not super concentrated, but doesn’t need to be. Really super wine.
2014 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Caillerets
From in Demoiselle.
Tighter aroma, yet wide. Pretty yet also modest. Fuller yet wider, fresh and complex – again. Mouth-watering in the finish. This should be special.
Here and Pellans wasn’t hailed, so a normal yield. Have finally bought the metayage parcel that they exploited for a number of years.
A silky, wide wall of aroma, yet fresh, not oppressive, almost a clean freshness. Really not so round, rather mineral and beautifully textured, gorgeously minerally complex. Beautifully finishing.
2014 Corton-Charlemagne
Made from Aloxe fruit in Charlemagne. Direct south-facing, close to the cross.
A ripe core of fruit, a growing freshness above too. Very clean aromas – like a 2010. Volume in the mouth, indeed muscle, but beautifully, packaged texture. The finishing flavours are of mineral and faint sweetness. Here with a later reprise of flavour. Yum!
The reds…
From two vines; one Meursault Coutures, and the other Puligny Champans 20% new oak..
Bright open pinot fruit, also of depth. Fresh but with complex energy. Dark but floral fruit here, lovely width. Excellent!
2014 Volnay 1er Les Santenots
The fruit from 70 year-old vines. 30% whole cluster here.
Way more depth and a little more weight. Fresh and intense – no space here for richness or extraneous texture, just a lovely deep flavour that expands and expands. This will be super.
And just to see ourselves into the weekend:
2013 Bourgogne Chardonnay
20% new oak.
Some width, a little more weight. Excellent texture, silky, almost rich but with a supporting acidity that is pretty perfect. Very tasty.
2013 Meursault Vieilles-Vignes
Beautiful, complex not so overt but fine Meursault. Liquid concentrate of Meursault, super finishing, really a modest wine but with finely balanced complexity. Yum!
2013 Meursault 1er Bouches Chères
A little aromatic weight here, yet essentially still a wine of some discretion. Here, a more direct mineral flavour, that’s first linear, then explodes with mouth-mouth-watering acidity.
2012 Chablis Vaudesir
18 month elevage in old wood.
Deep, complex, finely focused. Wide, transparent, wonderfully intense, lovely, fine finishing with a hint of mouth-watering sweetness.
2008 Meursault Tessons
There’s a suggestion of something deep but it’s never in full view. This is a modestly fresh almost minted nose. Silky, lithe, mineral – very mineral – opens wide with fine mouth-watering filigree flavour. I’d say still something of a baby. Excellent and a treat!