Tasted in Bligny with Christophe Jolivet, 27 September 2018.

SAS Christophe Jolivet
14 Grande rue
Le Chateau
21200 Bligny-lès-Beaune
Tél: +33 6 64 02 81 30

From the blind tastings I did earlier in 2019, there were some great wines from names that I didn’t know – here’s one of them:

Christophe Jolivet has been making wine here in Bligny since 2016 – so he’s already vinifying his 4th vintage. Christophe had a life in pharma before he decided to give it up for wine, to enable that he took courses in Beaune’s Lycee and also in Dijon. He makes wine in the same facility used by a number of wine-makers, including Pierre Murgey, Dominique Lafon (for his négoce label), Mark O’Connell and Jane Eyre.

I asked Christophe what he thought about 2018:
“My 2018 whites have been bottled for a month but the reds not yet. It is too easy a vintage, but I like it very much. I didn’t need to do very much extraction, there were 5-6 days of cool maceration and only one punch-down. That was it! The 2017s are mainly gone now, but I don’t think that the 2018s are tasting that great since they have just been bottled…”

The wines:

2018 Côte de Nuits Villages Aux Montagnes
‘Organic grapes’
That’s a big nose, touched lightly by the barrels. A lick of grain. A wide, vibrant impression in the mouth. The flavour growing bigger and bigger until it fills all your mouth. Some bitters but fine-textured finishing. This keeps getting better and better in the mouth. Very good!

2018 Marsannay Longeroies
Flighty, fresher, slightly floral nose – that’s super! More vibrant, more concentrated, but with lovely, fresh, energy. Ooh that’s really a good one in the mouth. Excellent wine.

2018 Savigny-lès-Beaune Bas Liards
Fine, wide, redder – what a lovely, lower impact, nose. More energy here, more elegance, a roundness to the shape if less mouth-filling than the Marsannay. This is intense, floral and persistent.

2018 Beaune 1er Tuvillains
The same grower as the Savigny
An extra width and intensity to this ripe red fruit nose. Intense, the texture with a modest tannin, a tightly wound wine of concentration but not fat. This needs a little time – drink the Savy first, but there’s lots of wine to wait for here.

2018 Nuits St.Georges
From two parcels from north of Nuits just under Roncières
Ooh a beautiful nose – very floral and inviting. Hmm, open, mobile, no excess in any direction, melting, complex. Excellent Nuits!

2018 Nuits St.Georges 1er Roncière
Deep, fantly reduced. More direct on the palate with plenty of concentration, yet tighter. A wine that needs to unwind but it’s anyway not showing the open charm of the Nuits Villages today – fine balanced wine now.

And one white:

2017 St.Romain La Perriere
A big and fresh nose – some oak in the mix. Mouth-filling volume, complex, mobile, ooh that’s got a fine blanance and energy. Long, super finishing. Bravo – not a direct St.Romain but such an enjoyable one!