Tasted with Amandine Terrier in Nuits, 8th December 2014
Unfortunately Pascal was under the weather, but Amandine stepped into the breach.
There are no significant price increases for 2013s, after the 2012s, despite much less yield in 2013. Yileds here were particularly low in Gevrey due to the poor flowering, and that includes Domaine Maume, where the average yield was only 18 hl/ha. “2014 is much better!” notes Amandine with a big smile.
The wines…
Absolutely striking aromatic clarity in many of these wines. There are many, many here that I would covet. A really great result for Pascal and the team…
This to be bottled at the start of 2014.
Bright and floral with red cherry – quite an engaging nose. Very good and quite intense cherry fruit flavour and really silky tannin for the label. Excellent BPN!
2013 Marsannay
There’s reduction, but a little concerted swirling gets rid of most of it – displaying (once more) fine red cherry but a little rounder and deeper than the BPN. Larger in the mouth and with more flavour dimension and freshness. Bright and intense finishing. A little harder than the BPN too.
Bright, dark-fruited and mineral, showing lovely clean fruit. Lithe and intense with a narrow flavour impression but still with complexity. Beautiful direct flavour. I might drink this young, but it’s certainly a real beauty.
2013 Vosne-Romanée
Also a nose that’s deep, transparent, fresh and mineral. A little more structure at the base and some tannin texture – though virtually without grain. A more complex and spiced flavour versus the NSG with just a little more flavour width.
A little more depth of aroma and a more floral component too – with some whole cluster elements(?) Gorgeous and lithe in the mouth with super clarity of flavour – similar to the NGS but with more intensity and a different fruit character. Another winner!
2013 Morey St.Denis En Pierre Virant
More aromatic depth again, with some roses and implied texture. Wide, energetic and with fine freshness. Here’s a different intensity of fruit – ouf! i.e. more! Super and with a faint tannic texture. This is also very yum but just a little less delicious than the Chambolle.
2013 Morey St.Denis En la Rue de Vergy
Deeper colour. Fresh with a little coconut oak and flowers – again with an implied texture. The palate has more muscle but remains lithe and direct. Really super mid-palate dimension. Excellent.
2013 Gevrey-Chambertin
A faint reduction lifts from the glass to show a good depth of darker fruit (that’s the effect of reduction). Again with lovely clarity and intensity too. There’s just a hint more weight here with a super freshness and length.
A mix of domaine (Maume) and some purchased fruit, fermented with 100% whole clusters.
A fine floral nose – almost with no weight, but plenty of intensity. Wide and elegant with growing intensity and faint padding from the whole cluster tannins. Lovely length. Excellent.
2013 Beaune 1er Tuvilains
Vines bought in 2011 – have seen a nice development since then.
This is a little tight. Bigger in the mouth and just a little padded texture too. Super mid-palate weight and a slowly fading density of flavour in the finish. Very good!
2013 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Perrières
Tight – only a small core of ripe fruit. In the mouth it’s a bit like the nose, an intense core of fruit, but ouf! – lots of power. Tight but tasty.
This nose is more open and fresh – really beautiful depth of dark fruit. Narrower and more direct shape but with really lovely, intense flavour. Excellent fruit and fine finishing intensity – super!
2013 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Pruliers
Beautiful perfume – gorgeous – medium red fruit and flowers. Wide, with growing intensity. Really super mid-palate with a faint tannic texture – but no grain. Excellent!
2013 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Corvées Pagets
Again a lovely perfume but here with a a little more depth. Intense, lithe and little more ‘Premeaux-like’ style with more structure but still almost no grain to the tannins.
Beautiful aroma with not just violets but roses too – really super. Bigger, but not fat – fresh, clear, really complex and with ever-mounting mid-palate flavour. Really quite something. More of a grand cru than any other Nuits I’ve tasted this year 😉
2013 Morey St.Denis 1er Clos des Ormes
Some reduction here, much of which lifts from the glass to expose some higher tones. Rounder with a hint of padding and lots of complexity and a hint of tasty (in this case) oak. Hard to taste but lots to recommend – this seems extra-long…
Racked today.
Fresh but enveloping high tones. Simply gorgeous detail and freshness with a growing intensity of flavour. The finish is more modest but again extra-long. Contemplative but brilliant wine.
2013 Morey St.Denis 1er Aux Charmes
Darker colour (destemmed) and showing a bit of reduction. Again it mainly fades but the nose is still quite tight. Big and muscled in the mouth but with very goof flavour dimension.
2013 Morey St.Denis 1er Genavrières
Some reduction again, but a floral/rose/whole cluster impression too. Reductive flavours too but clearly a large proportioned wine with lots of energy and complexity. Less formed today but should be very good.
There’s a little oak in here but also gorgeous complexity mixing notes of fruit and flowers. Plenty of structure but with a beautiful line of flavour that last brilliantly on the palate. An absolute winner!
2013 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Feuselottes
Part elevage in demi-miuds.
Finer and a little mineral character to the nose – very transparent – different but not better. Again, big in the mouth and again with plenty of structure – maybe more energy, definitely more minerality. The Chatelots is just a little fresher today. This is still excellent.
2013 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cazetiers
Fresh, vibrant yet slightly cushioned red fruit on the nose. Muscled and with no fat but growing, growing intensity. Super mouth-watering finish with just a little tannic drag. Very good length – super!
2013 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
Deep colour. A deep nose too with whole clusters, dark fruit and… bacon(!) Fills the mouth with lots of flavour and quite some concentration. Good freshness and plenty of complexity – there seems everything but the kitchen sink in here. Ouf! very impressive – yet, today I’d rather drink the Cazetiers.
Pretty and floral with whole cluster overtones – even a little coconut oak (I know I shouldn’t like it, but…). Really an elegantly complex aromatic. Lovely and intense with detailed flavours and nothing hard despite plenty of concentration. Simply lovely. Tannin arrives very late – almost as a surprise!
2013 Echézeaux
From 2 parcels.
Much higher-toned fruit and much more primary too. Wide and complex in the mouth with good energy and no fat. Brilliant mid-palate intensity. Really super.
A high-toned, super complex and mineral. Ouf! – what intensity, no fat and then a little whole cluster complexity. Brilliantly long – this isn’t the easiest to taste today but it’s brilliant. Modestly but exceptionally long.
2013 Clos St.Denis
This needs a little swirling as it’s only 10°C, but the lumpen aromas slowly improve in the glass, and to such an extent that thing of beauty and elegant complexity emerges. A wine of elegance in the mouth too. Very good intensity but never anything too overt. Just a little finishing bravado!
Faint reduction – but also much minerality in the depth. Energy and detailed complexity. Certainly a wine to wait for but definitely one to buy. A brilliant complex finish too. Rare that I prefer CdR over CSD!
A brute! Deep colour. The nose is also deep, complex and with dark-red fruit with a faint mineral base. Lithe, concentrated and also with growing intensity – ouf! – big wine. Tasty even though so completely massive and with unexpected complexity in the mid-palate. I probably haven’t tasted a more impressive Charmes!
The nose is less open but has complex dark fruit. This is a more direct version of the Charmes – similarly intense, less round but really just a different personality with a hint more tannin – the quality is on the same level.
2013 Clos de Bèze
A more open nose, again complex if a little less inviting at first – slowly it begins to smile in the glass though. The flavour is a little reductive but über-complex and detailed. The structure almost passes by unnoticed. Really super, perhaps just a little performance edge removed by the reduction…
Deeper colour. A perfection of detail and complexity. More weight with a strong, growing intensity. This seems to get bigger and bigger in the mouth. Class. Rounder and somehow more impressive versus those that came before.
2013 Bonnes-Mares
A deeper and rounder nose, but also faintly reduced. More lithe and linear but again with very fine intensity. This wine is most distinguished in the finish today – extra, extra long – super!
2013 Musigny
From 2 tiny parcels that normally produce one barrel – in 13 it’s a bespoke barrel of 180 litres – in 2014 it’s a bespoke 300 litre barrel.
A modest nose, but one that’s round and floral. Big but not textured, complex and faintly salty. Not the same bravado or overt complexity of many here – but the finish is close to un-ending. I need a bit of a Bourgogne Chardonnay mouthwash to reduce its impact. Finally!- the last drops in the glass start to put on more od a show!
Les Blancs…
2013 Bourgogne Chardonnay
To be bottled ‘soon’!
Wide and deep with a little pineapple. Silky and intense with plenty of ripe fruit but plenty of acidity too. Quite long – good bourgogne.
2013 Pouilly-Fuissé
There was some oak elevage here, but no new barrels. Also to be bottled soon…
A fresher nose. MOre direct flavour and indeed, more interesting than the Bourgogne. Long and tasty.
2013 Meursault-Blagny
There’s not much soil here – the person that ploughs here (with his horse) is always complaining!
High-toned but also a good Meursault nose. Concentrated and wide flavours that are insinuating and fresh. Very good!
2013 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Caillerets
The only white that’s not yet assembled into tank.
A wider, fresher and more intense aromatic. Gorgeous in the mouth, both intense and detailed but also transparent. Very fine, and that’s before the classic 2013 reboot of intensity after swallowing. Excellent!
2013 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Abbaye de Morgeot
Own vines.
Fine and fresh – if less intense – yet more complex and with more ‘Chassagne herb.’ Grows in intensity and has fine acidity coupled to quite some weight. Another burst of flavour in the mid-palate. Lovely…
Own vines again.
Big, fresh and aromatic. Much more direct and mouth-wateringly fresh. There’s super intensity here, but also deliciousness. This is such a honey – irresistible!
A selection from bottle:
2012 Maranges
Bright pretty and intense red berry fruit. Plenty of acidity and intensity – just a little mouth-puckering but nice mp fruit – tasty.
2011 Côte de Nuits
Paler colour. A reasonably strong pyrazine aroma but pretty red fruit behind. Silkier and softer than the Maranges. Good mid-palate complexity too. A good wine.
2010 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Poulettes
A rather tight nose, maybe a faint orange fruit. Lovely energy and plenty of bright fruit. A little underlay of tannin but very modest. Long finishing. A good wine.
2008 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Damodes
Fresh, transparent, pretty slightly roast red fruit notes, perhaps a faint oak. Fine acidity and weight – high-toned spicy fruit in the mid-palate. Good wine with a great finish.
2008 Charmes-Chambertin
A deeper nose, with sweeter fruit – grows a lovely aromatic that’s complex and slightly textured. A bigger wine, of-course, lots of flavour dimension here though the acidity is that of the vintage. I find this very tasty and of-course quite fresh. Lovely…
Depth of aroma, maybe with a hint of toasty bread but becomes more and more complex. Round, quite large scaled but with fine texture and minerality. Wide in the mouth-watering finish. Fine Chablis!