Tasted with Xavier Monnot in Meursault, 20 October 2021.
Domaine Xavier Monnot
6 rue Docteur Rolland
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 21 29 32
More reports for Xavier Monnot
Xavier on 2020 & 2021:
“Wines will start to be filtered tomorrow but it’s only the bottom of the vats are filtered. Bottling will begin from the end of November. We started our harvest with a small parcel on the Friday 21st, then waited a couple of days before restarting on the 24th for the rest, which took us about 6 days. In 2021 we ended up with about half a harvest but it was the regionals and villages that did reasonably okay, it was the premiers that really lost their yield. I exited organic treatments after the start of the year to secure the harvest. This was a warm year but we managed to keep the acidity quite well.”
The wines…
Delicious wines this year – just like last!
All the wines here are sealed with cork, Xavier explains, “I’m not a fan of DIAM. I always think that I can sense the closure when I taste the wines.” The bottles have all been sealed with a grey/blue wax since 2017/2018 too:
2020 Bourgogne Chardonnay Les Grandes Coutures
Vines, of course, in the commune of Meursault
A savoury start to this nose. A little rigour, some lime fruit flavour – this needs a bit more time to show – but it has a good shape and fine clarity and a really good, zesty finish.
2020 Monthelie Les Duresses
Villages vines bought in the 1990s and replanted in 1998 – so still young vines. Opposite the lavoir…
A compact nose. Fuller, more concentrated, slightly reductive, even a tannin showing through here. I like the finish here very much. At this stage, there’s still a little barrel showing…
2020 Meursault Chevalier
2.5 ha in one block – 3 different geological sectors and 8 different vine ages – rows of 400m – there’s a barrel for each row!
A little more open, the nose showing some extra freshness at the top. Reductive again but with a juicier freshness – this will be excellent – I love the structural and mouth-watering style of the middle and finishing flavours – simply excellent, delicious wine.
2020 Meursault Limozin
A mix of 50 and 70-year-old vines.
This is the most open yet, with a good weight and granular complexity. Fuller, lots of depth to both the texture and concentration of flavour. Complex finishing, with some herb here. Impressive wine and very complex.
2020 Chassagne-Montrachet
0.24 ha bought in 1999, close to the quarry – so a hillside wine in a single parcel – En Pimont – on the hillside near the 1ers.
Modestly forward but clean and fresh aromas. More grapefruit style of fruit, mouth-filling – that’s complex and very delicious wine – really excellent and highly recommended. Deelish!
2020 Puligny-Montrachet
5 ouvrées (0.215 ha) of nearly 70-year-old vines planted by grandfather.
A little more agrume is visible here. Nice shape in the mouth too – a little less weight but nicely airy and lacking nothing – beautifully balanced wine.
Young vines, near Chevalier-Montrachet. Xavier’s mother rents them from within the family. Father planted these vines in 1975, but this is the third harvest after replanting. Yellow marne here. Enough for 4 barrels normally.
The first nose that’s really on song – complex, pure and completely inviting. Hmm, this is deep and excitingly complex – young vines but great flavour and delivery of that flavour. Long and really attractive. Not the greatest Remilly because of the young vines but still a great wine…
2020 Meursault 1er Les Charmes
1.20 ha – a large producer for here, vines towards the bottom opposite Combettes, Referts and Puligny-Charmes.
Ooh – that’s an invitation – a depth of attractively vibrant, reductive, fruit here – it’s very fetching. Fuller, more concentration but with fine vibration to the mouth-watering flavour – an impressive peak of intensity and finishing with a little tannin. A super wine – really a fine Charmes…
2020 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Folatières
Vines between Chartron and Pernot above the trees, bought by Xavier’s grandmother in 1978 after already working the parcel for 10 years. Made exactly like the previous wines.
A nice vibration of aroma – like the Charmes. Mouth-filling like the Charmes but more open and airy in style. A more lingering line of mouth-watering flavour in style – this more open, the Meursault more round and full.
2020 Corton-Charlemagne
The only contract white in range – starting as 1 barrel as an exchange of grapes with a friend. Now, Xavier, has two friends supplying, so this is a blend of Aloxe and Pernand grapes.
A more composed, tighter nose. Here is a wine that in shape is a blend of the last two but certainly with a more mineral width to the concentration of flavour – subtly tannic – and surprisingly delicious finishing for young Charlemagne.
Les Rouges:
A triage table in the vines then again at the cuverie… “Some places I add a little whole cluster too – usually the warmer places:”
Part on cordon royat – old vines – the rest with a Guyot pruning – the latter more masculine but juicy.
Lots of colour. A big bright, attractively cherry nose – it’s very forward. Energy and freshness – that’s a simply great mouthful of delicious pinot flavour. The finish is really very fine – great Maranges.
2020 Beaune 1er Cent Vignes
Also a very deep colour. Some dried fruit but also a clarity of higher tones too. Wider, more sinewy, a fresher structure. Finer but more ‘different’ than really better wine. Super finishing too. Very tasty wine.
2020 Pommard Les Vignots
South-facing above Les Charmots near Platière – 75% from the 1950s, the rest a recent plantation (2013)
The colour of the domaine/vintage – ie lots. Fresh, spicy deep fruit. More structural but fresh, never heavy – wait 2-3 years – the shape and flavour combination is great. This wth quite a high degree – 13.8°
2019 Beaune 1er Les Toussants
Plenty of young vines in this cuvée, a little whole cluster too. Cent Vignes is the bottom of the slope, this on the slope between Grèves and Bressandes
A fine and airy nose, that’s lovely and offers a certain elegance without being overly airy. Wide, really mouth-watering, almost juicy flavour, tannin but no grain, almost a slight dryness. Penetrating intensity – super again!
2019 Volnay 1er Clos des Chenes
Oldest vines from 1936 here.
Here’s much aromatic interest; dark fruit but with real clarity to the aromas – that’s very nice. Mouth-filling, complex, faintly tannic – but still a wine of energy. Violets and licorice says Xavier – I can go with that. Fine, slowly fading length too – this will be super – give it a couple of years first!