Tasted in Beaune with Véronique Drouhin, 12 November 2015.
Maison Joseph Drouhin
7 Rue d’Enfer
21200 Beaune
Tel: +33 3 80 24 68 88
www.drouhin.com
Véronique on 2014:
“To sum up: summer weather in spring, autumn in summer and then back to summer in September which brought marvelous and ideal weather conditions, decisive for the quality of the vintage. Light, warm, northerly winds, warm days, cool nights; all the most favourable elements. The vinifications were carried out gently. The manual and optical sorting was very useful for eliminating those berries affected by hail or acid rot.
“2014 is a very pleasing vintage, with yields globally corresponding to the average of the last ten years, and in any case higher than the last three small crops.”
The wines…
The format was the same as last year – a ‘walk-around’ tasting of cuvées, before a sit-down tasting with some commentary from Véronique.
Last year there was a brilliant crescendo from the 2013 reds, really outpointing the whites. We tasted the reds first this year (not last like last year) but, good as those reds were, they seemed significantly behind their whites in 2014. But what whites!
NB We were using small tasting glasses – they could have been ISO glasses – they did the wines no favours. I really don’t understand the use of such glasses when wishing to show your wines to best effect…
Walk around wines…
2014 Cote de Beaune Villages
Warm, attractive red fruit. A nice burst of flavour, nicely fresh faintly metallic flavour. Lovely length. Good wine.
2014 Santenay
A maison wine.
More diffuse. Wider, less focus but more ample. Good red fruit flavour, nothing metallic here. Tasty finishing. A good fresh wine.
2014 Maranges 1er Cru
A maison wine.
Medium colour. Very modest nose again (probably the small tasting glass). Higher toned almost floral-inflected red fruit. Not a wine of depth, but there’s a very lovely finishing width of attractive flavour.
2014 Savigny-lès-Beaune Clos des Godeaux
‘Domaine, in bio, villages monopole, with a lovely photogenic cabotte.’
A deeper, darker nose, faintly reductive. Bright, fresh but with a slightly reductive depth. Good finishing depth and complexity – all fruit.
Same vines every year, not an easy label to commercialise.
High toned, very attractive blend of fresh dark fruit and flowers. Lithe, wide, open, lovely mouth-watering and more intense finish than the entry. Detailed and excellent.
Also not an easy label to commercialise.
High tones, roses, and a little implied texture below. Gorgeous, fills the mouth but without fat. Complex ingrainig flavour. Very yum!
2014 Chambolle-Musigny
Not domaine but have bought the grapes for 40 years.
Pretty splice/herb over a more perfumed red fruit. Just a hint more plushness to the firm, cushioned (if you like), just a little tannin at the base but beautiful flavour above…
2014 Vosne-Romanée
Three growers, bought for a long time.
Ooh – that’s pretty! Very faintly spiced but simply gorgeously inviting fruit. Less overtly bright, round, concentrated. Gorgeous, but would be even better if there was a hint more energy.
2014 Gevrey-Chambertin
A part that’s from 1er La Romanée – interesting.
Some higher tones here. A depth of dark notes, pretty if a little discreet. Bright, open, a hint spicy and quite complex – lovely. The finishing depth is even better.
2014 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru
All domaine.
Here the nose is tight – a shame! More structured, but also much more complex, the tannin is a little forward from the mid-palate, but slowly fades. Very good.
2014 Chambolle-Musugny 1er Baudes
Small parcel near Bonne-Mares, just 4 barrels.
A weight of hard to distinguish, slightly tight aroma. Slowly opening with a little toasted bread. Larger scaled in the mouth, some depth, of flavour, even a little barrel cream here. Just when I thought it needed a little more energy, there’s a brightness of finishing flavour.
Contract for 3 years
Wide and primarily high-toned. A growing floral note too. Hmm, lovely combination of faintly cushioned mouth-filling texture. Bright, super complex mid-palate. And a finish that melts its way through a little tannin. Bravo!!
2014 Nuits St.Georges 1er Procès
Hard to sell Nuits. This plot in bio, was bought in 96.
An up and down aromas, not a wide nose, with some oak spice and flowers. Good structure, nothing scary here, the flavour discreetly cushioning the bones of this wine. A really super, if oak inflected finish today.
2014 Beaune 1er Grèves
Very small yield.
Super depth of aroma, narrower up top, even with some oak spice. Big, lots of mouth-curling tannin and a faintly reductive element. The tannin slowly fades leaving a floral expression of fruit. Real vin de garde…!
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Les Blancs
Partner with the grower, classic vinification in tank.
Bright and fresh, faintly pineapple. Some silk, a little minerality, a fine texture and lovely long fruit flavour – a great vintage for Mâcon!
‘Long time classic for Drouhin’ a part in 500 litre barrels. From 17 partners.
Tighter, more precise notes, almost white flower. Yum, a mineral base, growing, mouth-watering flavour developing. Lovely finishing – yum!
2014 Chablis Reserve de Vaudon
Fresh with lime fruit and lovely clarity. Supple, precise but after the entry a little loose. Really a very fine and focused finish though – yum.
2014 Chablis 1er Sécher
More depth on the nose, a slightly sweeter, deeper impression of lime. Much more mineral, more precision – wide, a hint saline. Very yum!
Deep, salty, mineral, rocky – seashore! Super minerality, precise and with great definition. Lovely avidity. Super finish!
2014 Chablis 1er Montmains
A more discreet nose, faintly salted. Lovely texture, cool flavour rolling over the palate. Really distinguishes itself in the finish here – there is power.
2014 Chablis Vaudesir
In bio, no new wood for any wine at this level.
A little green herb, coated with sweetness. Intense, faintly cushioned, bright, intense finishing – ooh that’s good! A little floral in complexion.
2014 Rully
Assembly of domaine and bought grapes, not hailed since 2011. Vinified same as other villages wines with 15-20% new oak.
Bigger, riper. Bright and intense, some textural weight too – lovely mouth-watering fruit – big as opposed to the precision of the chablis. But very tasty!
2014 Meursault
Deep, fresh, slightly oaky but typically Meursault. Despite the nose here is steely minerality and good freshness. The finishing flavour is oak inflected too, but in 2-3 years this should be a point! Great finish!
2014 Puligny-Montrachet
Higher toned, with an implied tight core of something riper and yellow in the middle. Lovely, fresh, seemingly mineral, but concentrated and with silky energy to the flavour too – lovely.
Deeply aromatic, with a typical chassagne herb – I am loving the typicité of appellation. Wide, steely, fresh, cool fruit, with a little mineral too. Sweetening in the mid-palate, nicely textured. Super wine, gorgeously finishing.
All whites with 100% malo this year.
Normally declassified into the villages as young, but this year it’s 25 years.
Super! Meursault ginger spice and a discreet reduction that makes you think to agrume. Textured, concentrated, rather solid until the mid-palate when there is a burst of fresh energy. This will be stunning in 6-10 years…
Not domaine but always bought the same parcel, and always one of the first to be harvested.
Not perfectly together this nose, a faint reduction and a little yellow fruit. In the mouth, however, this is a gorgeous wine, that infuses the palates with bright, beautiful notes of complexity – bravo. This will surely become super in a few months…
2014 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Clos de Garenne
Wide, open and inviting. Big in the mouth but lots of detail and freshness. Here is a wine with layers of flavour. More contemplative than bright – but most are showing that way today… Yum
2014 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Embazées
A larger scaled wine with depth and a warm, faint salt. Again concentrated and mouth-wrapping. A bright mid-palate of concentrated flavour plus excellent, bright, lemon-citrus length. Very tasty!
Sitting…
2014 – not easy during the growing season, an early start, very nice weather until June, nice flowering too. Afterwards quite rainy and then there was hail too. Until mid-September when the weather was super, allowing the chance to harvest with good maturity. In the Côte de Nuits, less problematic, except for the arrival of the suzukii, mainly around Vosne and Vougeot, a little in Gevrey too.
2014 Coteaux Bourguignons
A new wine. Principally but not all gamay. Classic fermentation, i.e. not carbonic.
Deep, cherry, faint wood spice. Very sweet, good intensity. A good gamay… Quite good in the finish.
2014 Hospices de Belleville, Fleurie
Partly destemmed
Spicy, a little pyrazine. Wide, fresh-flavoured, also hinting towards pyrazine but wide and complex and fresh. Lots of wine here…
Bottled in October. Part domaine, part purchases.
Deeper, a hint reduced, quite vibrant darker red fruit. Quite lovely , complexity, freshness and detail. Excellent
2014 Côte de Beaune
Always possible to declassify 1er cru Beaunes into this appellation.
Rounder, more cushioned with a fine complexity of aroma above – very inviting. Wide and fresh, but with a growing depth of darkly complex fruit. Lovely finishing burst of flavour. Really very good. Finished very impressively
2014 Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches
A little more yield this year – almost 10 hl/ha!
A clear reductive note at the moment. Big, a little mouth-pinching tannin, really large-scaled wine here, drying texture coupled with mouth-watering flavour – but what a finish – bravo!
2014 Charmes-Chambertin
Changed supplier as ‘hard to deal with.’
Quite high-toned. Intense, the fruit flavour just about staying ahead of the structure. Direct flavour, really beautifully unfolding into the finish – ouf that’s a great finish!
Only 1 barrel
Very floral, redcurrant tart – beautiful. Perhaps a little gooseberry, but fresh fruit that’s red, rather than dark red, maraschino cherry, a hint of gas above the tannin. But he is a really special wine. A beauty.
10 ouvrées, hard to access so work done by horse.
Pretty spiciness, aided by a little barrel spice, not massive but engrossing. Big, wide, complex and here a fine Vosne spice, the balance is perfect. Great finishing, really something.
2014 Clos de Vougeot
Spicy, some surely from barrel but a clean, clear fruit in the middle too. Big structure but it slowly melts under the very fine dark red fruit flavour. Yum…!
Ooh – that’s nice. Wide and inviting, gorgeously floral top notes, like the Clos de Vougeot there’s plenty of structure here, but really gorgeous fruit that winds its way through the tannin. Simply beautiful finishing…
Quiet a modest nose for BM, floral but mineral too. Large scaled in the mouth, but not aggressively so, the tannin is more cushioned than the last two wines, super packaged. Wonderful, floral-inflected fruit in the finish.
2014 Musigny
Floral, some whole-cluster impression but from the rose perfume. Clean, lithe direct flavour super-wide cool fruit, here is a much more subtle wine this year than the BM, super complex but always remaining discreet.
Les blancs
2014 Mâcon-Bussières Les Clos
Lieu-dit in Milly-Lamartine, part vinified (80%) in 500 l barrels.
Some nice saline mineral notes. Big, intense, direct and rather impressively flavoured. Good length – really a super wine
Always bought from the Chateau de Vinzelles, since 2011, vinified locally.
Fresh, more herby, with a deep mineral, perhaps reductive base. Fresh, bright, energetic, lovely intense, bright but never aggressive fruit. I slightly prefer this to the Bussières, but not by much.
Right bank, domaine, zero oak on the villages and 1ers.
Fresh saline but with a deep ripe fruit at the core, fresh citrus. Super wide, intense, and then intense again after you swallow. A wow!
2014 Chablis Les Clos
3 small parcels assembled.
High tones, maybe a hint of lime and some herb. Rather more ample and concentrated, considered too, but the balance is excellent just like the intensity. Great finishing.
2014 Meursault 1er Genevrières
Purchased in must.
Oak inflected, but clearly ginger-spiced Meursault. Rather more direct and fresh than the nose firsts suggests – here is width and fresh, very tasty, flavour. Lovely wine with super length…
Fresh, floral, some ripe yellow but fresh fruit too – nicely complex. Bright, wide, deep, complex fresh, energetic. Did I miss something? Oh yes, the finish – excellent!
Deep, faintly herbed, some sweetness on the nose. Wow in the mouth! Crystalline complexity, what a wine – great wine!
2014 Beaune 1er Clos des Mouches Blanc
Deep, faintly oaked, and spicy. Lithe, muscled, with a darker complexity of fruit, big and impressive wine – always a ‘buy’ but today, really the flavour and grandeur of the Laguiche is ahead, maybe that of the Folatieres too.
Domaine from Languettes, the first vines in bio for Drouhin.
Super, higher-toned fruit, intense and very nicely textured – brilliant wine if not many words.
Big, wide, textured aromatic – growing high-toned intensity. Beautiful in the mouth, almost explosive. Super energetic, really super complex, simply a beautiful wine, gorgeously beautiful…