Tasted in Premeaux with Géraldine Godot, 23 November, 2017.
Domaine de L’Arlot
Premeaux
21700 Nuits-Saint-Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 01 92
www.arlot.com
Géraldine on 2017:
“Probably everyone will say that it was like a present, because we have the quality and volume together. It was a tranquil vintage, a touch of hail but not frost – serene compared to 2016 and it looks good so far. We had good surprises in some parcels – it’s really more than interesting and not with much extra volume. The reds are currently a little discreet but they look nice. Already a number have finished their malos, and now I think it’s less lite than my first impression. Calm and serene!”
A word from Géraldine on 2016:
“It was a hard touch by the frost here. We lost 70% in Ormeaux. It was also such a hard vintage not just because of frost and mildew, the fermentations were stressy too, because the tanks were often not full – how to attack the fermentations? But we were rather positive after seeing the grapes – the tannins were very supple, the wines rich and structured. There’s really some great wine here that came out of something so difficult – we suffered, but not for nothing. All that said, the harvest was still a little sad – certainly not festive.”
The wines…
Super, simply super wines at this estate in 2016!
2016 Hautes Côtes de Nuits Blanc
Young vines, this the first commercialisation. Just enough gapes left to make something! From just above the Clos des Forêts. This in tank.
Ooh, a nice deep, almost golden nose – not unlike a great aligote. Mouth-filling, sucrosity and freshness then a stricter mineral middle but all the while sweetly flavoured. Energy and enthusiasm here – very tasty.
2016 Nuits St.Georges La Gerbotte Blanc
Now 20 years-old, forming the southern part of the Clos l’Arlot – next to the Clos Marechale. 30cm of soil here over a ‘huge plate of limestone.’
Also quite some volume of aroma. More lithe, similar freshness, more composed and more intense. Again with some sucrosity of flavour. More delicious in the finish. This is more defined and more structural but delicious all the same.
Actually a mix of La Gerbotte and others in the Clos l’Arlot – Gerbotte being the coolest location – temperature-wise!
A different style of fruit, almost a 2014 lime style. Big volume but fresh and lithe, not monolithic. Melting flavour, half mineral half-ripe but fresh citrus. Really this is quite a finish – the second half of this wine is already to die for! Have patience for the first half!
Les rouges:
There was less volume of grapes, so plenty of stems were used – as much as anything to have the volume in the tank. No late malos here, all done mainly in January.
The same parcel as for the whites.
Delicious, vibrant pure red fruit, supporting a rose perfume from the whole clusters. Fine volume, transparent, never heavy but really a great texture and complexity of flavour long too. Bravo!
2016 Côte de Nuits Villages Clos du Chapeau
A 1.6 hectare plot in Comblanchien. All wc like the last, this is also in tank since last month.
A deeper and darker fruited nose – no obvious reduction – flashes of crystalline fruit, no overt stem notes. Some whole-cluster flavour, more depth of tannin here, and a denser darker presentation of flavour. Long. The density suggests waiting some time. All is in place, but I’ve a small preference for the first wine.
2016 Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos de l’Arlot
The vines now average over 70 years – marl is a characteristic of the clos. Still in barrel with 50% wc in the fermentation.
Really deep, edged with a little reduction. Extra energy, extra sweetness, plenty of very fine tannin, but almost zero astringence. Long, super wine.
From 0.85 hectares at the border of Richebourg, vines planted in 45, 50 and 87.
Ooh, that’s got a wonderful depth, a really a gorgeous depth and almost texture aroma – Yes! Big, mouth-filling, quite forward tannin – Premeaux-style tannin – but the depth of flavour and its complexity are super-classic Vosne. This will be a great wine, but begs plenty of patience.
A relatively massive vineyard monopoly of 7.2 hectares – it’s half of the domaine – with three distinct soil types, all harvested and vinified separately.
Hmm, this has volume, depth, and an almost richness of smooth aroma. Hmm, I’m surprised, structurally this is finer, sleeker and deeper than the Suchots – the flavours are as you would expect, but it’s like the structures and textures of these two wines have been switched! Great wine and easier to drink young than either of the last two.
From 24 rows of vines that face Romanée-Conti and run only half-way to the village.
Ooh – that’s the best RSV nose that I’ve smelled this year, wide, complex, lure fruit, depth – frankly all that I could wish for – it was bettered only by the DRC wine. Really a width of flavour complexity too. The structure is a little tannic but ripe tannin, velvet of grain, just a little complicating reduction in the middle. But this is great wine that will be wonderful from 15+ years of age, and for many, many more years thereafter.