Jean-Philippe Fichet – 2016

31.10.2017billn

I tasted in Meursault with Jean-Philippe, the 09 October, 2017.

Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet
2 Rue de la Gare
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 21 69 34
www.domaine-fichet-meursault.com

Jean-Philippe on 2017:
“​Well, if you weren’t happy you should probably change your job! I think that it should be very good quality and the yields were correct, – maybe 15% less yield than average – as a couple of spots were touched by frost. I started harvesting on the 1st September.

Jean-Philippe on 2016:
Much more complicated, less ripeness, more acidity and less evolved at the moment – and not all are open for tasting yet. They are proper and frank but need time for generosity and full enjoyment. Years of frost like that, and 74, 98 are/were like that, they need time to taste well due to their acidity. ​The 2004s had this reductive style here, they took a while before they really opened.

“​Compated to the average it was half a harvest, but it’s mainly down in the smaller labels – Meursault villages was 50% down, but Narvaux and Tessons less but Cras was nothing – it was highly variable. So from a finance perspective it’s less problematic as the more expensive wines were less touched. Still, volume is 50% less.

“It will be a difficult vintage to commercialise, the quantity is low but the quality is high – so possibly with more demand. Our last normal volume for white was 2009.

The wines…

Jean-Philippe ​will probanly do all his the bottling in April 2017.

As, seemingly, every year, this will surely be a top 5 domaine this year – lets see – but there’s nothing here that I couldn’t see in my own cellar…

2016 Bourgogne Blanc
Vines in the commune of Meursault. Elevage in a mix of 500 and 600 litre barrels – here the soils have the most clay of the domaine – ‘I’m looking for something easy to appreciate – a tasty wine.’
This really does smell like Meursault with a width and fineness of faint spice. Fresh, bright, taught, with delicious finishing flavour. Theres still a hint of rigour here, but a direct purchase for sure – bravo.
2016 Bourgogne Blanc Vieilles-Vignes
From Pellans and Millerandes. No new oak – all in 500 and 600 l barrels. Frosted less here – only 50-55%!
​A bigger aromatic, A hint of citrus and reduction. Broad, bright, changing over the palate. Simply excellent. Bravo again – touched with salinity and less rigour today, despite more wine in the glass.

2016 Hautes Côtes de Beaune
Usually 65% domaine grapes, in Auxey and Nantoux (bought) a big restaurant clientelle for this in north-west France to go with their fruit de mer dishes… ​A very small harvest as was overwhelmingly frosted. 9 hl/h – even in a normal year the harvest here is only about 25 hl/ha.
Fine, fresh, super width. Super attack but without sharpness or pain. Almost a Chablis style and salinity to this wine. Really excellent, pure and achingly good.

2016 Monthelie
White clay here – it’s a hot and sunny place. An aperitif wine for Jean-Philippe, made from young 9-year-old vines; ‘They need more time, maybe another 5-10 years. ​was frosted here, a part of the bottom of the vines was lost, but there was less and less frost the higher you went up the parcel.
Here the aroma is completely different, more floral and with an extra twist of ripeness to the fruit. Wide, more open though equally mouth-watering. Quite a mineral component in the mid to finish. Excellent.

2016 Auxey-Duresses
The side of Auxey towards St.Romain. Here the soil is more limestone and schist. One of last vines to be harvested, tasted directly after one of the first to be harvested. ​70% frosted it was ravaged in this sector.
Just a fabulous nose wide, a hint of lemon. Hmm, a flavour that you melt into. Beautiful energy but no sharp intensity to the flavour and acidity. Younger in the finish – you wont find better Auxey!

2016 Rully
From bought grapes – started with this in 2014, from a good grower who accepted to sell some – ‘I much prefer to buy some villages from someone good, as to buy from someone less good who has 1er crus.’ ​No frost in this sector.
A vibration of reduction to this nose. Fresh, vibrant energy, a burst of finishing flavour too.

2015 Chassagne
Also bought grapes from a ‘good worker, not so interested in making wines.’
Fewer top notes but a fine depth of aroma, subtly herbed. More depth of flavour, a little more flesh on these bones, a little rigour from the mid-palate minerality, but modestly-so. A fine depth of flavour and in the not too distant future, deliciousness for sure! A little reprise of finishing flavour too. This has all you could reasonably wish for in a villages chassagne.
2016 Meursault
​From Les Clous, Chaumes de Narvaux, Limozin and others – 2-thirds hillside, one-third from the plain.
A fine meursault nose of freshness and very faint reduction. Lithe muscle, melting flavour, less overt flesh than the Chassagne and a little more line. It looks like a big mixed case from this domaine this year – no big change then!
2016 Meursault Meix sous Château
From a Clos in the middle of Meursault village. Limestone on high, clay below, ‘the most buttery of the domaine.’ ​Maybe 35% yields here.
A bigger, much more overt nose, with a faint oak accent. Direct like most here, vibrant energy, an extra mid-palate complexity – here some of it is oak too. Brilliant.
2015 Meursault Gruyache
Now 89-year-old vines, that sit under Les Charmes.
​A vibrant nose of agrume fruit, faint reduction and sherbet. Supple, mouth-watering, deliciousness almost seduction. More harmonious than the last today. Bravo.
2016 Meursault Chevaliers
​Hmm this is less wide but it has a strikingly attractive depth of aroma. Bright, bubbly, proper Meursault with faintly spiced flavour – like a modest Genevrières with more energy. Waves if finishing deliciousness. Great!
2016 Meursault Tessons
Almost a toasty accent to the reduction, clearing and adding a spiced bread component. Supple, a fine flesh but no fat, layers of delicious flavour again. Just endlessly mouth-watering, lip-smacking flavour.

2015 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Referts
‘Always hard to drink after the Meursaults…’
​Ooh, an extra depth here. Deeply inviting nose. This is almost bulky after the Tessons but with an elegance of melting flavours, indeed the flavours melting into a minerality too. A hint of caramel on the finish – the only wine with that. Super wine always with super impressive length…

Les rouges:

​2016 Bourgogne Rouge
Vines in Meursault towards Volnay.s
A super inviting pinot nose – it promises pleasure. Fresh, a little tannin, layers of important finishing flavour. It needs 12 months but it will be a beauty.

2016 Auxey-Duresses
Modest colour, but far from a modest nose – a little extra width and complexity though not the frank pinot-ness of the bourgogne. More structure, more intensity, to wait longer for, a nice salinity too here. Long, a suggestion of the metallic/mineral. Will without doubt still be good!

2016 Monthelie 1er Les Clous
Classified as 1er cru in 2006
Ooh, more depth of finer aromas – a complex and brilliant invitation – already bravo! Direct, some fine intensity here, finishing bitters, but open and fresh and simply delicious.

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