Tasted in Meursault at Château Gaunoux, 14 December 2021, with Claudine Gaunoux and Jean-Pierre Tournier.

Domaine François Gaunoux / Château Gaunoux
23 Rue du 11 Novembre
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 21 22 40
www.gaunoux.com (flash)
More reports with Domaine François Gaunoux

Jean-Pierre and Claudine on 2020:
“The bottling for these 2020s is planned for March. The vintage went well, we didn’t achieve 100% of the rendement but it was good, and, of course, it was a much less complicated year than in 2021!”

The wines…

II always enjoy my visits here – the style is so different – but always impressive when tasted at home with a little age on the wines.

Everything tasted from tank:

2020 Meursault Clos Meix Chavaux
A 5 hectare south-east facing plot
Bright fresh, with good aromatic attack. Mouth-filling, steely, great structure. That’s a super finish too – long and mouth-filling.

2020 Meursault Clos de Tavaux
1ha monopole next-door to the domaine – 50-year-old vines
More broad, if only slightly richer, but this seems much more classically Meursault. Extra energy, only slightly more mouth-filling. With extra finishing layers, another super finish. Almost a little licorice.

2020 Meursault 1er Gouttes d’Or
Broader again, fine yellow citrus fruit. More direct and intense, some tannin framing the flavours. Super energy with fine, never aggressive, intensity. Vibrant finishing too. That’s simply excellent – still quite structured but delicious finishing.

Les Reds:

2020 Beaune 1er Clos des Mouches
From 2 parcels at the bottom near Boucherottes.
Vibrantly dark fruit. In the mouth this is fresh, frank and vibrantly flavoured. Dark fruit of course – like the colour – but still juicy finishing with a modest tannin. Waves of finishing flavour!

2019 Volnay 1er Clos des Chênes
2 parcels again
Once more a broad nose, of freshness and perhaps a faint roast-fruit character. Direct, incisive, fuller, mire tannic – but there’s no grain here. Again ultra-dark and vibrant finishing but with a width of fine flavour.

2020 Pommard les Tavannes
Also a saturated colour. Dark and deep, yes vibrantly fresh – that’s a great balancing act. Here an intensity and even a very fine texture despite a faintly drying tannin – once more, grainless. Thats a very tasty depth of finishing flavour too…

2020 Pommard 1er Les Epenots
Also two parcels – one above Comte Armand and the other next to de Courcel. – One has vines of 120-year-old vines.
Hyper-concentrated wine – this nose has everything even a little roast fruit but so impressive freshness too. Direct, mouth-watering, juicy even, such long-lasting wines here today.

2020 Pommard 1er Grands Epenots
The most complete of these aromas – of course, dark and deep but also a fine airy quality too. Faint gas – but like the nose, this is the most open and assimilable of the reds and the fruit here has a little more red about it – excellent…