Arlaud – 2013

Update 27.12.2014(26.12.2014)billn

DSC05548Tasted in Morey St.Denis with Cyprien Arlaud, 26 November, 2014.

Domaine Arlaud Père et Fils
41 Rue Epernay
21220 Morey St.Denis
Tel: +33 3 80 34 32 65+33 3 80 34 32 65
www.domainearlaud.com

This was my first visit chez Arlaud. I was met by Beatrice and placed in the ‘waiting area’ – there’s a nice photo of there of horse-plougher extraordinaire, Berthille, doing her thing. Then came Cyprien Arlaud; he’s clearly very knowledgable and committed, I’m just not sure if he’s also very shy or suspicious of people with notebooks – people like me! I’m sure if I hadn’t kept asking questions, the whole tasting could have been conducted in silence 😉

Cyprien on 2013:
“We last 5-6% through triage, but overall I find 2013 much better than 2012. The wines are less alcohol-rich than 2012 but show very good phenolic ripeness, so have very fine tannins. Together with 2010, 2013 is one of the vintages that really highlight the differences in terroir the most.”

The wines…

There seems a house-style today (ignoring the almost ever-present reductive aromas) and that is for lithe wines with lots of of energy and great acidity. A style that I like very much.

2013 Bourgogne Roncevie
Faint reduction but this is clearly deep and fruity. Wide, fresh and concentrated – intense in the middle and with fine energy. Lovely flavour – yum!

2013 Morey St.Denis
From 2 parcels; Les Seuvrey and Clos Solon.
Faint oak and faint reduction – but there’s lots of fruit here. I find the combination of weight and texture, lovely. Wide but without fat and with super energy and just a hint of minerality. Yum again.

2013 Chambolle-Musigny
From close to the parcels of Morey.
Another wine with plenty of reduction but swirly gets rid of the majority. Again there is intensity, here with a floral aspect to the fruit. Just a little bitter-chocolate oak in the finish. This will be lovely.

2013 Gevrey-Chambertin
No reduction, just a silky and ripe nose of red fruit and good depth. Once more, fresh and showing fine energy. Excellent length!

2013 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Sentiers
Here is both depth and texture of aroma – whole-cluster? – apparently not! Fresh and detailed with a hint of salinity and a different texture to the tannin versus the Gevrey. Lovely!

2013 Morey St.Denis 1er Les Millandes
The reduction is back, but with slowly evolving high tones and some minerality. Wide, great depth of flavour and here, again, there’s some dark-chocolate in the finish.

2013 Morey St.Denis 1er Cheseaux
A vineyard that touches on Mazoyères.
A deep nose that shows a little oak-spice and a hint of chocolate. More tannin, with depth and intensity to the fruit and again a very dark-shaded length.

2013 Morey St.Denis 1er Les Ruchots
20% whole-cluster, here.
An airy nose with some floral references. More acidity and more (extra!) intensity too. Extra texture from tannin too but with virtually no grain. Excellent!

2013 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Combottes
A silky nose and of quite some depth too. Lithe, and with super minerality. Long finishing but on a much more modest note versus the Ruchots.

2013 Clos de la Roche
Here, 25% whole-clusters in the fermentation.
A mix of reduction and many minerals. In the mouth a wine that’s loaded with energy but supported by tannin – there’s no fat here. Direct wine with really excellent length!

2013 Charmes-Chambertin
These vines are sited just below Latricières.
Concentrated, high-toned aromas with some herbs. Very silky and with growing intensity too. Your mouth slowly fills with tannin but it’s completely ripe, showing no grain.

2013 Clos St.Denis
A high-toned and faintly fizzy nose. The palate is more rounded after the Clos de la Roche – faintly padded too. There’s a little saltiness to the flavour – which is really super – the last drops in the glass offering some whole-cluster aromas.

2013 Bonnes-Mares
Deep, dark and mineral nose – no reduction here. There’s some faint gas on the tongue but the difference between this and the CSD remains massive – not fat at all, just lots of lithe, muscular flavour of fine clarity, if seemingly modest intensity. Very, very long. Really super!

The following 2013s are classed as négoce, as the grapes are purchased, but the domaine do all the vineyard work:

2013 Vosne-Romanée
A blend of fruit from Commune and Aux Réas.
Here is a very modest nose. But here is also a wine of very good flavour intensity and interest…

2013 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Porrets St.Georges
A deep nose, accented with reduction, yet a very pretty floral note grows from the glass. Again, direct and with plenty of acidity and energy – lovely mouth-watering finish too. I like this very much!

2013 Echézeaux
Deep – a nose that welcomes you with open arms – despite reduction in the background there’s lots of complexity too. Another lithe and dynamic wine – super – very tasty!

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

There is one response to “Arlaud – 2013”

  1. Mark de Morey4th January 2015 at 10:12 amPermalinkReply

    Many thanks for all the individual reports Bill, but particularly (for me – for obvious reasons) this long awaited one. Am naturally pleased you (finally !) made it to Arlaud, if not relieved how you found the wines 😉 . A pity for me Cyprien seemingly did not show you the Vosne 1er P-M but that aside you’ve missed only a few. I can appreciate the Nuits PSG showing well as I can still recall the fruit from that site being good (in 2013 context) – as indeed it was in 2014. That Bonnes-Mares sounds pretty special – a wine I’ve always struggled (largely unsuccessfully) to obtain despite groveling etc 🙂

    Hope now you’ve made it across the threshold you’ll return more regularly ! .

    • billn4th January 2015 at 12:43 pmPermalinkReply

      Hi Mark
      I remember seeing the (multiple) barrels of 14 Petits Monts in the cellar – but wasn’t offered, nor did see 13…

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