Tasted with Jean-Philippe Bret in Hurigny, 12 November 2023.
Domaine de la Soufrandière
125 Rue aux Bourgeois
71680 Vinzelles
Tel: +33 3 85 35 67 72
www.bretbrothers.com
Jean-Philippe’s Instagram
More reports on La Soufrandière
Jean-Philippe on 2023:
“Who can’t be happy with this year? Some small exception but yes! A year that started with a lot of water and worry of maladies – almost tropical in many mornings – a lot of dew – the hills were much cleaner than the base of the hills. We didn’t have hot weather until the 14th August – this was a first wave of heat. Flowering was a quite normal timing so we didn’t expect to be harvesting the 4 September.”
Jean-Philippe on 2022:
*More consistently hot – almost interminable – early flowering too. We had no hail, luckily, but a lot of rain in June – and that saved us as there was almost no more rain afterwards before harvesting. We started harvesting 26 August – 6-7 September finishing – we have quite geographically diverse vines so it wasn’t a particularly long harvest for us. We will taste only bottled wines – but there are a bunch not yet done – those with longer elevage.”
The wines…
Always outstanding wines from here – as often as not, their contract wines as good as those from the domaine!
Soufrandière is domaine, ‘Bret’ are their Maison wines – there are almost 12 hectares of vines in the domaine and they buy the equivalent of another 8 hectares for the ‘Bret Brothers’ label:
2022 Bret Brothers, Mâcon-Chardonnay Les Crays
A contract harvested 31 August – mainly tank but 10% barrel elevage too.
A little diffuse but good volume of aroma. Hmm – that’s beautifully mouth-filling then mouth-watering – just delicious – only a nose short of being a great wine today – long and a hint chalky too – yes! ‘Not the red limestone of Vinzelles that has some iron in it – this is very white terroir‘
2022 Mâcon-Vinzelles Clos de Grand-Père
Mainly tank elevage again.
A more focused and very mineral width of aroma – that’s lovely. Actually fuller but a hint less focused than the last – the inverse of the last. Larger scaled in the finish. This is for keeping while you are drinking the previous! Really persistent finishing too – delicious wine here!
2022 Saint-Veran La Combes Des Roches
North-facing vines in Prissé. 80% tank, 20% barrel elevage.
A calmer nose, fine ripe yellow – almost gold – citrus. Lots of gas but what a mounting energy and juiciness. That’s a wine that I would calm with a carafe today – great, great finishing – I love it!
‘Les Quarts should be 1er cru in 2024’ – these are 45-56 year-old vines.
More focus to this width of fruit again – slightly golden citrus fruit. Really mouth-filling and this is the wine that despite its energy is the one with the most focus. That’s a great wine!
These grapes on contract since 2002 – this normally a longer elevage wine but given the volume of the 2023 harvest they needed space – it was this that was chosen to bottle early to make some space. Kept a bit more lees for this.
A less wide nose but still very involving. Hmm – a bundle of energy but concentrated – more a ball – a sphere of energy – I really like the shape of this in the mouth – it really is round and concentrated – so great!
Vines at the foot of Vergisson on the rock surrounded by St.Veran – 35 year-old vines on the hillside. Like the last elevage without sulfur and 10mg or so added for the bottling.
This is very calm but very fine. Wide, complex, vibrant. Almost always my favourite Aligoté of the year – though last year Boris Champy just pipped them – a change for 1st position again with this – bravo!!!