Tasted in Puligny with Jean-Michel Chartron, the 5th November, 2015.
Domaine Jean Chartron
8 Bis Grande Rue
21190 Puligny-Montrachet
Tel: +33 3 80 21 99 19
www.bourgogne-chartron.com
Jean-Michel on 2015:
On paper it is good. I didn’t start too late (28 August) as the acidities were reducing and there was plenty of sugar. In the end it’s not very high acidity but there’s low malic so. I had pH 3.15-20 to start with, so I didn’t press too hard as the last press was more like pH 3.4…
Jean-Michel on 2014:
I’m happy; a little more ample and charming than the 2013s. If I take only the perspective of a buying enthusiast, I’m very, very happy with the quality in 2014.
Jean-Michel on pricing the 2014s:
2014 is essentially sold out – there’s still the allocation for the caveau for private visitors, but only that. Not planning to increase more than inflation – 2-3% – I prefer to keep a long-term view and not have any influence from the négoce pricing.
The wines…
Again, the timing, as far as Jean-Michel was concerned, wasn’t ideal as many of the cuvées were being fined, but this year they showed much more aromatic differentiation than last, and of-course all tasted very different.
Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune and Rully were already in bottle, many are now assembled for bottling (from January onwards) and these are now in tank with fining material. The others remain in barrel.
The best range of wines I ever tasted at this domaine – top class.
2014 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Blanc
26 aug bottled. By lunar calendar.
Wide, luscious, finely textured, a fresh but discreet nose. Fine, mouth-watering flavour and excellent persistence for the label.
From a 3.5 hectare, single parcel. The elevage was in barrels but with a proportion of larger barrels too. Also in bottle
Deep, cooking lemons. Finely mineral, faintly sweet edged, lovely width of mid-palate and finishing flavour. Excellent.
The following tasted from tank:
2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune Champerriers
Bought; looking to expand a little the mid-range of wines, notably for restaurants.
Soft but pretty and welcoming, sweet, fresh nose. Wide, nicely textured and with good weight too. A hint mineral and saline, faintly oaked. Very attractive indeed.
2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Pimontières
Fresh, citrus – very attractive. More direct, a line of fresh flavour, beautifully mouth-watering, again a little saline. Stricter but really super with just a hint more intensity.
2014 Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles
Discrete, precise and attractive. Wide, more mineral, a little less overtly sweet, bursts with lovely mouth-watering flavour from the direct mineral base. Fine clarity. Yum!
A plot bought from Château Pommard in 2008.
A lovely freshness, quite nicely precise too. A little fat to the texture but absolutely mouth-watering and mineral. A beauty – a reprise that suggests a hint of crème patissiere
Modest, faintly herbed nose, with an underpinning of citrus. Another level of minerality, rolling over the tongue with fine acidity and complexity. Perrieres is easier to drink today, but here also a great finish, indeed more distinguished than the perrieres..
2014 Meursault Les Pierres
A blend of parcels on the hill towards Puligny.
A faint but very pretty nose, recognisably Meursault. Bright and fresh, mineral wine, the mid-palate is the point where the flavour starts to expand a little. A very tasty, slightly spicy finish. A really mineral and adorable Meursault…
A deeper, weightier nose that has a good dose chassagne herb – very inviting. Just a hint of gas here but a lusher, wider yet still mineral infused palate. Beautiful lift of finishing flavour. It’s a little oaky today, but faintly sweet and super-tasty.
2014 Puligny-Montrachet
Three parcels with a hint of 1er from the Meursault side.
Fresh aromas, of faintly sweetened lemon. Here is a very mineral expression, beautifully balanced. Really bursts with personality and energy in the mid-palate, lingering finely in the finish, here almost with a hint of Meursault spice…
A width of almost textured aroma here. Lithe, mineral, with just a suggestion of padding. A lovely weight of citrus infused, suggestion of sweetness, flavour. Great finishing flavour too, bravo – such weight and persistence.
2014 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Folatières
Bright fresh and clean, almost a soapy 2010 style nose. Direct and fresh, just marked by a hint of gas, but also a hint of tannin texture too. Then it melts over the tongue releasing mouth-watering joy. Excellent…
Like the Folatières, but with more depth and weight of riper fruit below – citrus as usual this year, edged with flowers. In the mouth here is impressive intensity and minerality, fruit and a little wood flavour before melting over the palate. Special wine, again with a massive finish and a hint of tannin.
A wider, again Folatières style nose, clean and detailed. Big in the mouth, but mineral and with clarity. There is already great weight so it’s hard for the wine to expand further, rather it keeps a measured width of flavour right through the very long finish. Today I’d rather drink the Pucelles for its vivacity, but this has plenty of time on its side. Great wine.
Big and forward, soapy like a 2010 again – i.e. fresh, clean and attractive. Big in the mouth, some sweetness , some padding, but endless weight and length. Brilliant!
Bright, floral, effusive – I would say joyful. Muscular but fresh, not fat, hyper complex – really complex in the finish. Dream wine.
Really floral despite some discretion. In the mouth, this has palate melting flavour, that comes to a bright point in the middle then widens brilliantly again to finish. Class.
A brilliant high note, almost suggesting petrol. Massive, reminds me structure wise of Clos de la Roche – very wide, saline, here with more than just a suggestion of tannin, finely grained. Brilliant.