Tasted in Santenay with Jade & Antoine Olivier, 07 December 2023.
Domaine Antoine Olivier
5 rue Gaudin
21590 Santenay, France
Tel: +33 (0)3 80 20 61 35
www.antoineolivier.wine
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More reports for Domaine Antoine Olivier
One of Antoine’s daughters – Jade – since 2022, has been working with her dad so this year we tasted altogether.
Antoine on 2023:
“In 2023 the whites were a bit complicated for us, because the juice came in quite warm so the ferments started very quickly!”
From 2022, Antoine & Jade have another nearly 6 hectares, 5.6 hectares in the southern Côte Chalonnaise, all Bourgogne level in just one plot. Plus there’s another one-third of a hectare of vines in Bouzeron.
Antoine on 2022:
“2022 was a vintage that was quite easy in the vines – but to balance that we also added 5 hectares to the domaine this year, not far from Montagny – all white including aligoté. I had been buying the grapes before – and it’s now under conversion to organic. There’s also a new parcel in Bouzeron of about a third of a hectare. Anyway, it’s not a vintage of big sugars – we were 12-12.5° very often – so we used a bit of sugar in the cuverie but the ferments were quite hard, we needed to be vigilant – also for the malos. Bret was an important question in 2022 too – but more and more these are the problems we face with the current climate.”
The wines…
Another fine range from Antoine and now Jade too. Delicious reds – and some of the whites not simply delicious – they are great for their labels!
A couple of weeks to ferment but then 12 months barrels for elevage – was bottled at the end of August. A contract for grapes… Next year it will Morgon Charmes.
A warm width of spicy notes. Round supple, this is a cushioned Morgon but a delicious one too. Bravo!
2022 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
80% from purchases. Santeny, Pommard, Maranges, Hautes Côtes – ‘it’s quite a blend’
Hmm – a modest width of aroma but there’s more depth and width than you expect. Easy, very pretty red fruit flavours and enough generosity to have you looking for the second glass – very tasty – and chalky finishing too.
2022 Santenay Les Temps de C(e)rises
Exclusively from bought grapes from 5-6 parcels from the usual producers.
Extra width of red, more direct, fruit. Direct but silky, nice, almost explosive finishing intensity. Yum!
The previous were bottled wines – the following were all samples:
2022 Santenay Origine
Started with this label in 2020 with 5-6 cuvées – 100% selected domaine grapes with a little more elevage and all whole-cluster. Wax-topped bottles
A nicely large width of aroma. Cushioned, mouth-filling wine – really broad and concentrated but still balanced finishing. Plenty of finishing tannin but almost no grain and hardly any dryness. Beautiful fruit – keep this 2 years before attacking.
2022 Santenay 1er Beaurepaire
The highest 1er cru in the village
Modest colour like the last – again with 100% whole cluster. More silken width of fresh aroma. Open, more mouth-filling and fresh – these are more direct flavours with a hit of oaky structure but not too much of the flavour. Silky with waves of intense finishing flavour. Super – and like the last be patient for 2-3 years before opening.
2022 Pommard Noizons
Fermentation and elevage like the others.
A little more colour for this. Extra floral and beautifully precise. Broad, concentrated flavour – wrapped with a faint tannic grain but no dryness – no overt Pommard structure here. Long and almost elegantly finishing – that’s a Beauty!
Les Blancs…
All DIAM for whites from the 2021 vintage:
First vintage – all barrel (228-l) elevage but old barrels. This still in tank.
Hmm – that’s broad and has a small cushion to the precise fresh fruit – quite floral too. Large in the mouth – but fresh, juicy, deliciously flavoured wine – simply a top Bouzeron – bravo!
2022 Bourgogne
First vintage from the new Chalonnaise parcels – also tasted from barrel.
Extra impact and width to this zesty nose. Large and energetic in the mouth with a suggestion of reduction in the depth – but complex, large-scaled and energetically flavoured with a lovely finishing intensity. Yum!
Also wide but with a more energetic depth to this flavour. In the mouth too, the energy is next level here – juicy, a wine that rolls over the palate – the finish is just so good – vin dangereux!
2022 Santenay Blanc Clos des Champs Carafe
A calmer width of finely focused fruit – that’s very inviting. In the mouth a different energy but it’s bubbling with interest. More open and impressive structure – silky wine – that’s very classy. I love this wine!
Fuller and deeper – a little reduction and a little less ready to taste. Larger in the mouth, again with good structure and this time framed with a tiny grain of tannin. The flavours accented by the barrel. Today less ready to taste than the previous wines – but still a delicious wine – it will certainly be excellent. possibly great Santenay Blanc – it’s clearly the longest finishing of these!
*esprit de group – a small part of the three previous cuvées – very different terroirs – mainly with elevage in larger barrels and foudre. Still in barrel right now. They only made this cuvée in 21 because they had only 8 hl/ha on average!
Concentrated but offering some faintly floral top notes. The most fluid and silky of all these wines. Slowly growing in juicy width and then a beam of focused finishing flavour. Very slowly fading into the distance – the most sophisticated and also the most elegant of these wines – top!