Roulot – 2014

21.10.2015billn

DSC08245Tasted in Meursault with oenologist Annabel followed by Jean-Marc, 13 October, 2015.

Domaine Roulot
1 Rue Charles Giraud
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 21 21 65
www.domaineroulot.fr

Some thoughts on the recent vintages:

2015: 27 August was the starting point, finishing the whites on the 5th, and by the 8th September the reds were also finished. Very happy with this harvest, and the grapes tasted great in the vineyards. The malic acids were of course low, though pHs are okay, in the range of 3.2 to 3.4 and 12.8-13.0° potential alcohols when picked. The grapes had a very nice complexity.

2014: The wines were racked just before the 2015 vintage, but the real assembly will be just before bottling.The malos finished during Feb-April. It is their typical elevage here, with everything in barrel for the first year, before finishing in tank for 6 months. Normally like each year bottling in the Feb-April period. In 2014 a lot of yield was lost to the hail, see the map picture here. Still we have some repercussions for pruning from the previously hailed vintages. Overall the wines have a little less acidity than 2013 but seem more direct. Jean-Marc is keen to stress “You need to remember that these are quite early into their 6 months in tank, they won’t be the same when it comes to bottling…”

The wines…

Always a pleasure to taste here. These 14s have a brilliant clarity and edge – and they will only become more polished as they wait in their tanks for the next 5 months before bottling. Of-course I could have highlighted more wines, but there is no point to highlight everything – all are worthy of your cash, should you find any of them.

2014 Bourgogne Blanc
Part from the Volnay side of Meursault suffered big losses – but overall this was ‘only’ about a 40% down. This wine is still in tank.
Aromatically, here is the classic Meursault impression chez Roulot, with a freshness and attendant modest reductive quality. Ouf! Intense with super acidity and flavour intensity too – not harsh but a great ride in the mouth, with a hint of dry material in the finish too.

2014 Meursault
This assembly has been a cuvée since 2011.
A little more aromatic width here, and aroma goes just a hint deeper than the Bourgogne, but not obviously reductive. Vibrant, fresh, but with weight and texture. Beautiful intensity with again a hint of dry material in the finish. Fine finishing, modestly intense in the finish, but very long.

2014 Meursault Vireuls
Planted by Jean-Marc’s father in 1968…
Back to the reductive style, narrower, more mineral in aspect. Again, joyous intensity, flavour and yet cushioned with a sweetness so you needn’t wince. Heads into the finish with quite some width, it holds well too. 3 out of 3 wines that I’d buy, so far!

2014 Meursault Meix Chavaux
Wide, riper, a hint redux again. Rounder in the mouth but no less mouth-watering or intense. Nice peak of mid-palate flavour too. More obviously Meursault this wine, and really fine…

2014 Meursault Luchets
A deep nose, reductive, with agrumes – the top notes are tight but slowly offer some green herb. Rounder, a hint richer, the acidity is super but more packaged by the texture. After swallowing this suddenly widens and is edges with a hint of salt.

2014 Meursault Tillets
A more intense agrumes note here, fringed by reduction. Also more richness here, it wraps lovely acidity and fine complexity, here is a super length. A wine more for contemplation after the last bottles but there is a base of rock supporting this wine…

2014 Meursault Tessons, Clos de Mon Plaisir
A wide and attractive nose of modest freshness, occasionally just a honey sweetness. A little more forward energy here, but again wrapped in a beautiful silkiness. It bursts with fresh beauty that leads with a suggestion of salt.

2014 Meursault 1er Porusot
Wow! A deep aromatic with reduction, agrumes – and was that petrol? Bigger, rounder, faintly with some gas on the tongue, less tightly bound. Open, superb density of flavour in the finish yum, yum, yum…

2014 Meursault 1er Clos de Bouchères
This 1.3 hectare clos is now monopole of the domaine – 2011 was the first vintage.
Here is a similar intensity of aromatic; vibrant, but more Meursault style after Porusot, then it tightens a little. Again this is lithe and less compact in texture vs the villages wines – less ready in the mid-palate – but has waves of fine flavour in the finish.

2014 Meursault 1er Les Charmes
A wide, silky nose with a strong component of riper yellow fruit. Hmm, this has a beautiful mineral streak, a wide panorama of flavour and super clarity in the mid-palate. Modest intensity of finish, but no modesty of length.

2014 Meursault 1er Les Perrières
Vines from the 1950s.
An aromatic cross between the Charmes and the Bouchères, with just a modest undertow of reduction. A little lift of gas, but a wine that first fills the mouth and then tries to grow even larger. Almost a sparkly firework of a finish with a hint of dry material waiting.

Then a series of blind wines:

2013 Meursault Tessons, Clos de Mon Plaisir
Starts deep, slowly opening and becoming more yellow-fruited and floral. A hint of richness or better say ‘comfort’ to the texture, but there is everything here: beautiful acidity, energy and complexity, yet today it is rather tight and on a lower level of intensity to the 14s. An ingrained intensity.

2010 Meursault Tillets
A little bottle aroma quickly departs, and behind is depth of faintly sugared lemons, perhaps with a mild spice too. Beautiful texture, growing acidity, a growing weight of flavour too, which really lasts in the finish. A gorgeous bottle… With some more of the trademark reductive aroma. By luck I guess the vintage.

2004 Meursault Tillets
Starts with a hint of reduction, almost butterscotch, lots more weight, and richness of aromatic texture. But it glides above the palate with a width of warm flavour yet wedded in minerality. More off a whole wine as you don’t point to the acidity or any other component, you consider only the wine. Sorry not ‘consider’ – enjoy! I guessed 09 from the extra textural richness so was surprised that this seemed hardly any more aged than the 2010!

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