Dufouleur Frères – 2013

29.12.2014billn

DSC05649Tasted in Nuits with François-Xavier Dufouleur, 3rd December, 2014.

Dufouleur Frères
1 Route de Dijon
21700 Nuits St.Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 00 26
www.dufouleur-freres.com

I’ve considered this producer as ‘work in progress’ as the two cousins transitioned production from the previous family generation; but from this tasting, at least, they are less far down the path than I might have hoped. They retain a hard to fathom mix of négoce and domaine bottlings, and I think they were a little compromised by the last act of the outgoing generation – the purchase of 60 well-toasted new barrels. I honestly think the result for the 2012s would have been more satisfying if they had sold unused (clearly at a loss…) the majority of those barrels and worked another year with their older ones. The 2013, however, have more to recommend about them…

FX on 2013:
“Long malos here. Pricing stable from 12 to 13.”

The wines…

Of-course I’m speaking only from my taste, but I find the fruit in the 12s delicious but I’m no fan of the dark oak tannin that the wines wear to varying degrees. The 13s were proportionally much more to my taste.

2012 Bourgogne Le Fouleur
A négoce wine made as an ‘early drinking’ pinot from a blend of Burgundy fruit, much of it purchased after the malo finished here.
Warm fruit that’s faintly smoky and toasty. Round, ripe fruit in the mouth with some freshness but also a little oaky hardness – despite that, really rather tasty.

2012 Nuits St.Georges
A domaine wine from a blend of 4 plots, two with young (17+18 year-old) vines. 30% new oak
A pretty nose that’s reminiscent of a Vosne spice – almost! Wide flavours in the mouth with a core of sweetness with hard dark tannin and flavour in the mid-palate to the finish. But a wine that’s easy to drink.

2012 Gevrey-Chambertin Combe-Dessus
Higher toned, faintly barrel spiced. This is wide and has delicious fruit with good acidity but again the structure is hard and dark in the mid-palate.

2012 Chambolle-Musigny
From two plots; Les Herbues and Les Argillières.
A deep and spicy nose. Again delicious fruit – here with more dimension of flavour – the tannin rumbles below but will fade. The structure reminds me of the other wines though to a lower degree. Fine floral impression in the last flavours.

2012 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Chaboeufs
The nose is deep and a little herbal. Wide in the mouth with faint gas and plenty of fruit flavour. Again a little dark and toasted.

And the 2013s…
Some bigger barrels used in 2013, to fit the volumes available e.g. 350 and 380 litre barrels. Up to 10% of whole clusters was also used in the fermentations. This was a relatively hard range to taste today as they are not so far down the elevage road, but they were more to my taste than the 12s…

2013 Nuits St.Georges
A very good nose – deep and interesting with dark fruit. A little gas but good flavour dimension – a very nice line of mouth-watering flavour. The last drops in the glass were more floral.

2013 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles
Deep and a little spicy if not super-wide. The palate is the reverse of the nose – wide but not so deep – with fine fruit that has a good line of flavour into the finish.

2013 Gevrey-Chambertin Combe-Dessus
Very deep colour. Width, hight and lots and lots of aromatic depth. Too much gas but this seems really fine from the mid-palate into the finish – over a base of grainy tannin.

2013 Chambolle-Musigny
Again, an almost saturated colour. The nose is very deep and faintly herbed. Gorgeous depth of flavour here – very impressive for such a baby. Very dark fruit but I loved it.

2013 Nuits St.Georges Les Chaboeufs
More modest colour. An interesting, wide and complex nose with red fruit. Dryer tannin but very good fruit from the mid-palate onwards. This will be good!

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

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