Tasted in Meursault with Alexandre Brault, 24 September 2020

Maison Alexandre Brault
23 Rue Citeaux
21190 Meursault

You may remember Alexandre from his time, and the tastings, he made for me at Maison Alex Gambal. Since Maison Gambal was sold/broken up, Alexandre has, no surprise, decided to set up on his own.

Alexandre on his current set-up:
“I’ve a nice new cuverie in Monthelie but it’s easier to taste here at the house in Meursault – at least for the first time. I have 3 hectares of vines today, my first vintage being 2018 – but technically all that I produced was ‘maison’ at that time – and is practically sold out. In 2019 I had 2 hectares and in 2020 3 – all organic. A similar amount was bought in grapes or must with the final aim to do 25-30k bottles – which will be a nice size for me alone. In terms of area under vines, about half is white but in terms of finished wine, I’m producing about 60% white. The first vintage was principally sold in France, Italy and Denmark.

“One one hand I’ve been lucky to get this start and sell all that I’m producing, on the other hand, I think that, anyway, fewer people buy wines only from a certain domaine because it’s ‘better’ as there is, overall, a much higher standard of winemaking today…”

The wines…

I visited a little early in the elevage for some of these wines, but overall, and there should be no surprise given Alexandre’s experience, this is a fine selection of wines. The villages Meursault is a great one!

‘The first few wines to be bottled by the end of the year, the last will certainly be later than this…‘

2019 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Plenty of colour. Hmm, ripe and deep – but not long racked – there’s more elevage needed here. All is destemmed. Plenty of fresh intensity but real concentration too. Mineral finishing – that’s a broad and interesting finish – I like it.

2019 Savigny-lès-Beaune
Two domaine parcels – but racked only yesterday – the sample is ‘difficult’ – not yet bright and paler too. The nose, however, is attractively, sweetly, fruited and floral – that’s a nice invitation. Intense – some attack here – fresh but slightly dried fruit style that reflects the nose – intense, mineral and a little saline finishing – like the Bourgogne it’s holding a very impressive length of finish. Fine.

2019 Auxey-Duresses
Domaine, the vines in Mélin, old vines pinot-fin with a little sandiness in the soil.
Medium-plus colour. A narrower aromatic but there’s impressive depth to balance that, slowly showing more precise berry fruit. Intense again, super acidity and a little tannic drag to the texture but no grain. I like this very much and the flavour is accented with a fine floral character too.

2019 Volnay
A mix of parcels in here, mainly but not exclusively from the bottom slopes.
Hmm – much more width but less depth than the Auxey – very elegant and poised this nose – very classy! More energy, more mouth-filling. The aromas and flavours cut from the same cloth – a fine structural side to this wine too – and soooo mouth-watering. Really excellent villages.

2019 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Bousselots
Good depth of colour here. The nose has depth but starts a little more muted than those that went before, only slowly coming from a soft-focus to more interesting clarity – but it’s there. Hmm, but that’s super – bright, energetic and intense flavour. Very faintly accented by the barrel – where it’s still living – lots of depth to the flavour here – a very worthy 1er cru that keeps getting better with aeration.

2019 Charmes-Chambertin
From Mazoyères with about 80% whole cluster.
The nose has a little spice and clearly some wc but it’s a wide and attractive perfume. Fuller, more presence in the mouth, the tannin showing more than for the Bousselots. I like the structure here – not an easy, jammy Charmes – rather one that has a nicely intellectual side…

Les Blancs
DIAM10 Origine used for the 2018s and there were no problems. For 1er and GC wines 2019 will probably use NDTech cork.

2019 Bourgogne Aligoté
Part domaine.
A good freshness of aroma – a little weight behind it too – this is a sweetly attractive invitation. Bright attack, plenty of intensity and such a mouth-watering flavour profile. Plenty – but not too much – acidity. Very tasty and I like the energy very much here.

2019 Bourgogne Chardonnay
Racked only 4-5 days so still cloudy. Could be Côte d’Or labelled.
A tighter nose – presumably following the racking. More depth to this texture, more muscle but this is far from hard; slowly insinuating its flavour over the palate. This is really delicious wine with just enough depth of minerality to keep things interesting. Lovely!

2019 Pernand-Vergelesses
From more than one location in Pernand
Hmm – a silken width of modestly oaked aroma. Energetic, again a little oaked, but a mineral, almost reductive agrume style that bodes well – I wouldn’t touch one before it’s a couple of years old, as the oak is distracting to me just now.

2019 St.Romain
A wine clearly in elevage from the nose with some fermentation aromas. The same in the flavours – but the shape freshness and energy are in a really great place – lots of potential here.

2019 Montagny 1er
Grapes from more than one climat
A wide and fresh nose – sweetly sherbet which is classic Montagny for me. Impact, depth and density but without losing balance as the acidity is super here. Today showing its mineral side – a super medium-term wine here.

2019 Meursault Narvaux
In the same stage of elevage as the last.
Again a certain aromatic tightness, just a little more clarity of fruit. More mouth-filling – but similar freshness – a little less overt energy but that’s because there’s also more finely-divided complexity here. More melting, mouth-wateringly, and long with just a touch more visible oak. This is more delicious than the last but also just a little less exciting than the last – excellent all the same.

2019 Corton-Charlemagne
From Pernand side.
Not a large aromatic but one of depth and impressive clarity – super. Wide, mineral-laden flavour, that grows in intensity but never with harshness. Slowly bubbling with complexity. The first wine with an additional peak of flavour followed by a long diminuendo of that flavour. Composed, not hyper-energetic. But engrossing wine. Simply excellent – even for Charlemagne!