Tasted in Meursault with Vincent Latour, 26 October 2018.
Domaine Vincent Latour
6 Rue du 8 Mai 1945
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 21 22 49
www.domaine-vincentlatour.com
Vincent on 2018:
“2018 brought lots of work from because from May onwards, everything in the vineyards pushed so fast, the speed of growth was amazing! We had a good ‘sortie’ of grapes from the flowers. We began harvesting 30 August vs 1st September in 2017 – not much difference. The volume of grapes was good, in fact everyone who is organic had a great rendement. I’m not sure anyone made (so little as) 45 hl/ha.”
Vincent on 2017:
“2017 brings a smile to my face, both from the perspective of yields and from the quality. Of-course we had to fight against the frost in the Spring – but this time we won! A vintage that was easier to work than in 2018 as the growth push a little less rapid. We were touched by the frost in St.Aubin, and our Bourgogne too, but the smoke saved the villages. It’s a good vintage, in fact I’d go as far as to say that for us it’s a really good vintage, which I’d compare to 2007 – Yes its fresh and gourmand, but I don’t know that I’d place it behind 2014 as a vintage – it’s alive, with great fruit and integrated wood – I
love the freshness. Logically the reds should go down in price on the bulk market, they are good, tasty wines, but not as concentrated as some other recent vintages – still I think them really good but not a vintage of the century, just a good vintage of tasty wines.”
The wines…
The reds are decent efforts, but today the whites were really singing – I thought the range of 2016 good here, but this wider range of 2017s were on another level today – bravo!
An address that’s definitely worth your time.
2017 Bourgogne Blanc
Hmm. A bright nose, depth and intensity. Depth and weight with good clarity – full, young, weighted. Yum!
Two old vine plots, planted by Vincent’s grandfather at the limit of Meursault villages. Foudre elevage plus new and older demi-muids, slightly less rendement than the first wine.
Hmm, a little more depth and good vibrant citrus notes. Bright, fresh, depth, more oak but this is super wine – villages standard. Bravo.
2017 St.Romain Coeur de Roche
Bought in must, foudre and barrel elevage.
Another fresh and pure nose. More gas on the palate this time, more energy, melting delicious sherbet style of flavour. Excellent.
2017 St.Aubin Cuvée Thomas
Probably bottle this in two to three weeks.
A fresh yet tighter citrus nose. More direct, melting, modestly sweet flavour. Always a lovely line of mouth-watering flavour through the middle of the wine and into the finish.
2017 St.Aubin 1er Les Frionnes
The nose is a little compact, like the last, but a growing shimmering halo of great aroma comes to the fore. More intense, flavour of line – a beautiful wine of fine texture and a little mineral impression. I like this a lot!
Bought grapes, parcel in Les Houlières
A bigger, fresh citrus nose – all these wines are showing so great today. A hint of gas, and there’s more intensity and width in the mid-palate too. A great finish, great villages wine.
2017 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Benoittes
A fine, less dense, more airy nose. Plenty of fresh depth here on the palate though; a hint more structure, weighted mineral mid-palate flavours. Wait a hint longer to harvest your bottles than the Puligny – a great finish!
Near the Abbaye, the 3rd vintage here. To be bottled in January, not yet fined.
Hmm wide, modest depth but like all these wines, vibrantly pure aromatics today. Great drive, proper white wine, energy, complexity, structure to wait for. Layers in the finish, never heavy – this is Ali, not Buster Douglas… Yes!
2017 Meursault St.Jean
A mix of vineyards
There is great drive to this fresh nose. Mouth-filling volume, fine melting flavour, followed by waves of finishing flavour. Certainly excellent, possibly great!
2017 Meursault Clos de Magny
Hmm, wide, fresh, ginger spiced – proper Meursault. A touch of gas on the palate. Fresh, a wine of drive, more depth of flavour, layered fruit of good concentration, depth and a lingering finish. Excellent
2017 Meursault Les Pellans
More line on the nose, narrower, the same purity of all the others, just less aromatic width. Bigger volume in the mouth, there’s certainly no less fresh energy here. Depth of flavour, layered richer notes that are excellent in combination with the freshness – a little oak in the finish so I’d be patient.
2017 Meursault Narvaux
Airy, less aromatic impact though – still very, very nice! More direct and mineral over the palate, with great drive and line. Beautifully ‘chiselled.’
A modest but decently spicy width of aroma. More intense, with freshness and great line – it’s rather mineral too – such great wines here this year.
2017 Meursault 1er Poruzots
A nose with a certain extra depth to the citrus notes. More gas but equally more mineral freshness in evidence. Light spice and then a very fine but young wave of wide, mouth-watering flavour, almost with a touch of tannin in the length. Young, muscular and impressive.
Mix of high and low parcels, harvested at the same time and pressed separately but then all the elevage was together.
A considered width of aroma, but much more depth than the last few wines. A touch of gas again but lovely freshness here – complex pure wine, lychee(!) in the mineral-laden flavours – but I’ll forgive that, because this is a great Charmes!
More width on this nose, a suggestion of reduction, very fine spice – such an invitation. Gas but there’s still more scale here, freshness and such a layered but bubbling wine. Extra dimensions on swallowing – another bravo! Touched with oak right at the end, but only there…
2017 Meursault 1er Gouttes d’Or
More mineral volume on the nose, a touch of firework too. Gas, more, direct, slowly melting flavour – a structural wine, to wait longer for but there’s plenty of direction here. The finish is of power and only slowly fading, still a hint of firework reduction at the end…
Here the nose is not so wide but of considerable and impressive depth. Mouth-filling volume, and there’s a type of clarity in this complexity. A touch of phenolic to the texture, adding a little richness with time, grand!
Les rouges:
That’s right – it’s not yet over!
2017 Bourgogne Rouge
Already bottled, all vines in commune of Meursault
A vibrant nose, fresh and concentrated cordial fruit. Decent volume in the mouth with just a touch of astringency. Saline, and finishing with good fruit. Quite good.
2017 Meursault Vieilles-Vignes
A much more compact nose. Great width in the mouth, slowly melting, nice texture with just a lick of astringence. Very good! And a lovely finish too.
2017 Volnay Cuvée Nathan
More colour, a little extra reduction on the nose today. Fresh, with a hint of gas, more volume, but despite good shape and freshness, the barrel-reduction is king today.
2017 Volnay Cuvée Elegance
In Serpentière just under Mitans
Plenty of colour and reduction today. Finer, more direct shape and texture, less gas, a little less reduction, the name suits the wine, despite some reduction. A lovely finish.
2017 Pommard Vieilles-Vignes
From Les Riottes near the ‘station’ in Pommard. Destem all, vibrating table plus triage table followed by ‘a little’ cold soak, delestage not pigeage for 4-5 days – really separating the juice from the solids for 5-6 hours – a more standard approach after.
The same oaky reduction. Fresh, lots of volume and energy. Hmm, I like the shape and length of this a lot, very fine finishing – this will be super!
2017 Meursault 1er Les Cras
The only red from here that I know – the vines are almost but not quite in Santenots – just 20-30 metres away. Vincent recounts that this was hardly sellable as a white in the 50s, so his grandfather changed the colour! ‘The vines suffer here, planted on the rock, hardly half a harvest usually.’
Hmm this is open complex hardly reductive – it’s a beauty. Volume, layered delivery, gorgeous wine. Yes! Very fine finishing. Excellent!