Tasted in Chassagne-Montrachet with Alex Moreau, 24 October, 2019.
Domaine Bernard Moreau et Fils
21 Route de Santenay
21190 Chassagne-Montrachet
Tel: +33 3 80 21 33 70
Alex on 2019:
“This year brought a low volume harvest but of nice things, though it followed a more generous one! In 2019 there was probably more importance on the date of the harvest than in 2018 – but 2018 had practically no triage. We were anxious as it was a warm summer, but it seems our worry was misplaced, as with 12.6-13.1° we are happy. It’s a vintage that seems generous with fruit but not with a really sunny or heavy accent. ”
Alex on 2018:
“2018 – happy! No maladies, such a clean harvest and a full harvest too. We started harvesting 30 August – so the same start date as in 2017 and that’s now 3 times in August in the last 5 years – of course the wines are not the same though! Also in the old vines we made the rendement – 50-52 hl/ha – we haven’t seen that for so long! That was without much water in the growing season, so we didn’t expect so much juice – nature was generous. ”
The wines…
Obviously great reds this year, and the usual suspects – the villages red and white – are also clearly at the top level. Some of the whites needed a little more elevage to bring focus – I give the benefit of the doubt to them. A great source – as usual!
2018 Bourgogne Chardonnay
All from the commune of Chassagne, all barrel but none new. Bottled
Fresh, it seems a concentrated nose but not so wide. Supple, easy a little mineral, nicely textured. Melting over the palate – a super finish, faintly saline. Yum!
2018 St.Aubin 1er Sur Gamay
Also bottled
This has a more open nose, a little more citrus style. Ooh, that’s nicer, fresh, melting but there’s also a little flesh here, texture rather than richness, a great finish – excellent – such a lovely wine.
2018 St.Aubin 1er En Remilly
Also bottled
Here is depth and aromatic width, a fine clarity of citrus fruit here. A little fuller, more saline, almost a touch of tannin. A strong, mouth-watering finish – ooh that’s excellent!
Assembled, fined last week. Fermentations here were longer, certain barrels, didn’t finish until July, normally all is done in January.
A big nose, energetic, textured and inviting. Round, transparent, melting. Ooh, this is very fine over the tongue, melting deliciously over the palate. Full-flavoured finishing – bravo villages!
2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos St.Jean
Racked but not fined.
Wide, airy, citrus and floral. Open, much more mineral, more impact to start too. A finish with fine flashes of complexity. Delicious.
Nice width of aroma, finely complex too – a great invitation. The first with a little gas. Mineral a little more alive than the csj, deliciously playing, indeed dancing over the palate. Great finishing, really great! Bravo!
2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Chenevottes
Ooh, that’s a different nose – deep, mineral but inflected with much attractive fruit. Wider, more chalky minerality, a touch more rigour to the structure. Fine finishing, complex, changing, but holding too – excellent!
2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Maltroie
A vibrant nose that mixes mineral and yellow fruit. More direct, rather mineral, only slowly melting with more citrus-inflected flavour. Little waves of fine finishing flavour, like all here, long, long, excellent wine again!
2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Champs Gain
Ooh – that was so good I had to put the glass down pause and smell it again! The palate has power, a little softness then a mineral fruit blend that’s favouring the fruit today. Absolutely delicious finishing once more!
From 2 parcels in the 60 hectare Morgeot – La Cardeuse and Farendes.
A vibrant and inviting minerality. Gas. This is fresh, growing in intensity, certainly, there’s plenty of energy. Mineral with such a very fine and intense citrus finish – ooh – bravo! Have a little more patience with this one though!
2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Caillerets
Vibrant, fresh chalky – it’s Caillerets! Just a little more cushion to this texture, layered, mineral of-course but also rounded. Super, if less focused today than the others, but the haunting finish is top-level – to wait for.
2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Grandes Ruchottes
75-year-old vines. Barrel sample, not yet racked.
More volume of aroma, perhaps with a faint spice, it tightens in the glass. Unlike the start of the nose, this starts a little compact, slowly relaxing over the palate, in the middle this is really hyper-complex without ever seeming to show all that it’s got. The finish is of modest volume despite the considerable length, like the Caillerets, not fully showing I think.
2018 Bâtard-Montrachet
A different style of aroma, vertical – a wine of high and low tones – less width. Fuller, more clarity, not so overt energy but all is in balance. A fine burst of finishing flavour – here it is hyper impressive and completely delicious and complex – thats a great finish, the rest of the wine will follow with a little more elevage. Great length!
Above La Cabotte on the Chassagne side. Also a barrel sample.
More aromatic impact and width – plenty of mineral freshness here. Mouth-filling, indeed mouth-watering. Juicily finishing, the faintest touch of barrel today. Long. Excellent – even for Chevalier!
Les Rouges:
Racked a couple of weeks ago, with some sulfur one week ago – “They might be a bit serious,” says Alex…
Lots of colour but transparent at the rim. Wide, a mineral-graphite, darker red fruit – it is a super aromatic. Full in the mouth but without heaviness, a base of modest, practically grainless, tannin. Mouth-watering with fruit of clarity. Great villages…
Also very deeply coloured. Here is a much wider depth of dark red fruit – the emphasis of this nose is certainly the fruit. Wider, more concentrated, layered, the tannin more to the fore but very ripe tannin – velvet, hardly astringent. Cool dark fruit. What a wine, but wait at least 5 years!
Lots of colour, though a little less than the Chassagnes. Ooh, a great nose, more open in the higher registers, spiced, so inviting – such a great nose. Full, slightly more overt tannin but no astringencey, redder fruit, less dark, layered, whole cluster style – yes wc here and in the Cardeuse – which I didn’t note. Super Santenots – bravo again!
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