Tasted in Beaune with Dimitri Bazas, 02 December 2015.
Maison Champy
3 Rue du Grenier À Sel
21200 Beaune
Tel: +33 3 80 25 09 99
www.champy.com
Dimitri on 2015:
“I was blown away by the quality of 2015 – it’s very rare to see such quality – I remain very positive. 1999, 2009 and this vintage seem similar in terms of the grapes, but the yields in 2015 were very much smaller. 2015 is also like 2003 but I don’t see the negatives that also surround that vintage. I also see some of the positives of 2002, 2005 and 2010 due to the concentration of those vintages – good freshness, no pruney grapes – but I’m also amazed by the mediocrity of some open-contract wines.
“1999 was the record for amount of phenolics in pinot, 2015 is higher in anthocyanins and tannin – how much will everyone extract?”
Dimitri on 2014:
“I was a little disappointed at the start, but through the elevage I was more impressed; the wines are juicy, fruity and drinkable, they are definitely superior to 2011 and 2007 with more obvious fruit than 2010, 2012, 2013. Côte de Beaune did a little better with some very concentrated wines after the early hail.”
The wines…
A good range here, and these Côte de Beaune reds belie any suggestion that 2014 is early, easy-drinking. Here is depth and structure too.
2014 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Signature
Still in barrel has had 1 racking. From the bottom of Volnay and bottom of Ladoix with a little new oak, after the racking only in old oak. Second racking will be January for bottling Feb/March.
Good colour. Big, bright, red fruit and flowers. A big mouthful of wine that has bright flavours and a fine pinot aspect. Intense fruit flavour from mid-palate. Boisterous but very, very tasty wine. Excellent bourgogne.
2014 Pernand-Vergelesses Clos de Bully (Lalure-Piot)
A deeper, more serious nose but that’s because there a subtle reduction. Big, fresh and very tasty indeed in the mouth. A better defined and delineated flavour after the Signature – very nice wine!
These Lalure-Piots bottled just before harvest.
Fresh, faint herbs, pretty fruit – quite a more modest, tighter aromatic. Lovely lift, sweetness of very fresh fruit – a slowly growing weight in the mid-palate. Bravo, a bright beacon of flavour in the finish. Really super!
2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune (Lalure-Piot)
From Pimentiers, Planchots and Fourneaux
Deeper, dark, a suggestion of reduction, and faintly salted. Silky, fresh wine, very modest tannin, the texture is only slightly modified by that. Bright, fresh and intense in the finish. Very tasty wine again!
Lalure-Piot have a style-change since 2013 with a more open, less tannic approach.
2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune
From Balliards, vin biologique, bottled before the vintage.
Just a little reduction which makes for dark fruit. Wide, intense, a little tannin and a lot of intensity. Herby fruit in the mid-palate but long and interesting. I like…
2014 Volnay
Domaine, agriculture bio, from Famines and Sur Roche. To be racked in Jan/Feb for bottling March/April.
Deeply coloured, dark, herby very deep. Again, intense, very wide and complex too – much more obvious tannin, bright and precise finish. Far from easy 2014s here, more like wines from 12 or 13…
2014 Pommard
Les Cras, Les Lambots, still in barrel like the Volnay
Again, deeply coloured. A little less herb, more floral. Round, mouth-filling. Lots of flavour – some tannin too, dry edged, really mouth-watering long finish. Again, more classic, direct wine.
AB, Les Levées et Pirolles and Prevolles. Assembled before harvest, bottling today, vines from the late 1940s.
Another deep colour. Fresh and wide, almost silky nose. Silky in the mouth too, with depth of flavour, and a growing size. The intensity of fruit is fine and impressively so in the finish. Lots of finishing flavour here – yum! Just wait 6 months for the tannin to settle.
2014 Marsannay
AB again. Was bottled in June.
Wide, sweet dark red fruit. Silky, fresh and with plenty of dark-fruited flavour. Some tannin here but modestly so. Bright and intense finishing. Tasty wine.
2014 Chambolle-Musigny
Ready to bottle, 4 barrels.
Good colour if a little lighter than many Côte de Beaune. The nose is detailed and very prettily cliché Chambolle. In the mouth too this is supple and airy with very pretty sweet fruit. It does exactly what it says on the label – lovely wine…
2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Vergelesses
Still in barrel, a little whole cluster. Next to Pernand’s Ile des Vergelesses
Deep colour again. A little mineral and faintly reduced. Faint gas too, but here is complexity, weight but a fine airy impression too. The complexity is further complicated by the gas, but it delivers very lovely finishing flavour. Long finishing too. Really a lot of potential here.
2014 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Ile des Vergelesses (Lalure-Piot)
Not yet bottled.
Deep, faintly herby. A nice width here, herby still, but with bright, intense dark fruit. Pretty complexity in the mid-palate and into the finish where it slowly fades. A bright and interesting thing but I remain unsure about the depth – still the finish has and impressive if subtle reprise – yum!
A blend of Champimonts, Cras and Reversées – normally 24 barrels in total, made just 6 of the blend… 10 hl/ha.
Deep, guarded but it’s a silkily dark-fruited nose. A little weight, almost but not quite fat, lots of concentration and quite some growing flavour. Waves of flavour in this case, particularly in the finish. Will be super and it will keep too.
2014 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cazetiers
Prepared and assembled for bottling.
A depth of aroma and fine aroma too – dark fruit with a hint of florals – a beauty. Lithe, linear but with growing width too. Good structure, nicely padded tannin. Long finishing line of flavour. Super wine….
From bas. Prepared for bottling.
Quite deep colour. Deep, sweet oak-inflected, but really a large aromatic. Here is everything; big scale, good texture, not so much fat but rather a presence of concentration, very good and wide complexity. Bright floral but deep and fruity – everything in the finish. Always a great wine here, even when there’s still a little oak to absorb…
2014 Clos de Vougeot
From near the Chateau, bought grapes.
A fresh top level of flavour with faint herb and plenty of complexity. The depth remains tight. A bit of reductive flavour here, more structure lots of concentration. Plenty to look forward to here, but a wine that needs more elevage. The finish is really an excellent thing, of vigour, energy and complexity. This should be excellent.
Les blancs…
Bought as must, full malo, all in tank.
Here is a bright, fresh, pretty nose of modest yellow citrus fruit. Nice on the palate – there’s a little fat but also a very nicely judged and completely balancing acidity. Bravo – super for the label!
2014 Bourgogne Chardonnay
A mix of old barrels and tank elevage.
Deeper, some riper aspects but also some pretty fresh fruit too. Wide, lithe, lovely fresh wine – direct flavour with some oak references too – coconut. Very tasty… lovely finish of freshly sweet fruit.
Like the previous Mâcon
Really bright and appealing herby/citrus personality. Direct, some minerality but also sweetness. A good mouth-watering mid-palate. A super wine again.
Half tank, half barrel elevage – the barrel part 25% new oak.
A really attractive fresh yellow citrus nose. Just a little plushness of texture, but gorgeous mouth-watering flavour of fresh, citrussy flavour Really a head-turner. Lovely, and with a really great finish too.
2014 Pouilly-Fuissé
One third in-barrel elevage, none new, the rest in tank.
More aromatic width, less intensity – a soapy-clean 2010 style nose. Again, lithe, mouth-watering, complex – perhaps more direct than the St.Veran, slowly lingering. excellent but today behind the Saint-Veran.
Some from Les Chaumes but various parcels bought in must.
A hint more savoury and more than a hint more mineral. Lovely. Mouth-filling, joy-bringing flavour. Did I already say lovely? Mouth-etching fresh complexity. Yum!
2014 Pernand-Vergelesses
A broad, fresh nose, bright and clean. Big, grows in the mouth but with energy rather than shape – lots of intensity and great flavour dimension in the mid-palate and onwards. Excellent.
From Combottes, barrel elevage, 20% new. In bottle one month.
A nose that’s a big, bright energetic puppy – but also showing clarity and precision. Fine growing flavour in the mid-palate and finish. Just lovely… A deep, composed perhaps faintly reduced but excellent wine.
Bright, wide, fresh and clean, attractive nose. More intensity a little tighter and more concentrated core of riper yet totally fresh fruit. Bravo. Lovely intensity of finishing flavour. Just a beauty, once more…
2014 Meursault
Just one parcel.
A more compose aromatic after the Pernands; wide and with a faint spice. A little padding to the texture but the mouth-watering flavour is super. Faintly salted, faintly spiced. Really lovely wine.
2014 Puligny-Montrachet
Also a single parcel.
Wide, clean and fresh nose, trying to add to a tight depth. Bright, more mineral, mouth-watering, like a river, some agrume fruit here, faintly reduced. The combination is very attractive. Long – really lovely!
2014 Chassagne-Montrachet
A very similar nose to the last but with just a little extra herby reference. A width of flavour that becomes ever-more intense and direct, particularly fine mid-palate flavour running into the finish – even after the Puligny this is excellent!
2014 St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents du Chien
Deep, clean and fresh nose. Bright, wide and rather intense flavour the acidity demands that you swallow or spit – and I’ve got to drive! Really a cooler impression yet the finishing flavour is absolutely lovely….
2014 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Chenevottes
Here for the first time in a while is a rather different aromatic – deep, padded with a fresh citrus top layer. Intense and complex, faint barrel in the background, really an exceptional wine with lots of flavours to find. A super finish.
2014 Puligny-Montrachet 1er les Folatières
More like the previous wines with a high-toned, clean and fresh impression. Fine width, more concentration less overt energy, some mineral references, really fine finishing flavour. Excellent…
2014 Corton-Charlemagne (Lalure-Piot)
From the high part of En Charlemagne for two of the three parcels, the last also En Charlemagne but lower on the hill. This like all the whites, was bottled just before the harvest…
Deep, some width, some oak. There is a tighter fruit in the middle. Good width but a really intense padded fruit flavour in the middle. Then a fresh wave of flavour is set free that rolls beautifully over the palate. Very good Corton-Charlemagne. And tasty wine to boot!