Albert Bichot – 2015

20.12.2016billn

Tasted in Beaune with Christophe Chauvel, 14 December, 2016.

Albert Bichot
6 Boulevard Jacques Copeau
21200 Beaune
Tel: +33 3 80 24 37 37
www.bourgogne-bichot.com

Christophe on 2016:
The biggest theme is of course the frost which brought great homogeneity because there was a month’s difference between the growth in highly frosted and the not frosted areas. But the frosted caught up a little as there was less fruit to ripen. Of course there were prolific areas – to the level of 1982 – but overall I have a good hope for what we harvested. Actually, 1982 followed a frosted year, though I’m not sure that there is the reserve in the vines for an equivalent ‘big 2017.’ We lost the most in Chablis, the Côte de Nuits was less affected than the Côte de Beaune. Overall 35-40% lower yields.

Christophe on 2015:
“The volume was less appreciated. Whilst there was no hail there was still a marked impact from this in 2015. Low volumes were not so much a problem of flowering, rather a lack of flowers in the Côte de Beaune. The Côte de Nuits was certainly dry, and so harder for the young vines, but it seems that there was less suffering than in 2003. Looking at the wines, there can be more elegance than in 2005.

The wines…

Plenty of whole clusters (25-40%) in many wines in this selection – yet their use has been aromatically transparent.

2015 Moulin-à-Vent, Domaine de Rochegres
Saturated colour, a pretty floral top note, faint spiced. Big in the mouth, but with energy and no fat. Long, faint tannin. Really great wine!
2015 Moulin-à-Vent Rochgres, Domaine de Rochegres
27 august started harvesting
Finer fruit, very pretty and modestly floral too – indeed beautiful. More intense, silky, penetrating fruit, a little tannin here too – a different shape, fresh cool fruit that’s more linear. Bravo!
2015 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Secret de Famille
A deeper register, also a faintly salted nose. If the nose isn’t instantly inviting the palate is really something – real executive texture, layered and delicious flavour. Bright and floral finishing. Bravo! Bottled

2015 Mercurey 1er Champs Martin, Domaine Adelie
A fresher nose, a little floral with sweet red fruits. More structure, but hardly any grain. Open, fresh red fruit and just a faint suggestion of oak in the background. Long with just a hint of dry in its last whisper.

2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Volnay 1er Santenots
Deeper colour. A little reduction bit a lot more fruit and flowers too. A line of flavour, fresh and linear with slowly melting flavour, complex flavour, and just a faint dryness to the texture – but no tannic grain to speak of. Floral and bright finishing.

2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Pommard Clos des Ursulines
A little less reduction. A tight but fine nose of blacker fruited clarity. Fresh and also with a great line, a hint less dryness to the tannin. Complex and exciting in the mid-palate – today it’s delicious and great finishing, really!

2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Pommard 1er Les Rugiens
Almost saturated colour. A deep nose that’s not helped by its reduction, though also spiced, mineral and complex. A big wine, lots of volume, lots of freshness, complexity of herbs, complexity of fruit. Really long. A structured, long-term wine, but a beauty!

2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Aloxe 1er clos des Marechaudes
Also quite deeply coloured. A beautiful, fresh, complex nose of flowers and fruit – ‘drink me!’ it shouts. Supple, muscled, but lithe and mobile – pretty red fruit and lots of finishing flavour and persistence. Excellent!

2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Corton Clos des Marechaudes
Same day harvest, same yields.
Fresh, super aromatic depth – a little fewer top notes but more bass versus the baby brother – a very elegant nose – super. A little fuller, more concentrated, yet still fresh and lithe – no fat, just supple concentration. Great wine in 15 a great, fabulous length too.

A Côte de Nuits Selection:

2015 Fixin 1er Clos de la Perrière
A pretty, slightly less deep colour. Pretty soft fruit, clean red notes that are primary but engaging. A hint of reduction in the flavour, but also lots and lots of complexity and layers of delivery – high-class on the palate with beautiful fruit. More a Chambolle style here without the blacker aspects of that appellation. Very fine.

2015 Domaine du Clos Frantin, Vosne-Romanée
From Damaudes and Maizières.
Deeper colour. A silky nose of depth, less overt today than most. Very silky texture, layered with just a little more power than the Perrières, delivered in slow-moving waves. A little tannin at the start of the finish – very long here. Super.

2015 Morey St.Denis 1er Les Sorbets
Deep-ish colour. Ooh that’s a nice, a possibly coffee inflected nose, wide and interesting. Fresh in the mouth with a good line of cool and very interesting fruit. This is really an excellent wine without excess in any direction. Composed, complex, and delicious!

2015 Nuits St.Georges 1er Chaines–Carteaux
From the Premeaux side…
More modest of colour. A little meaty depth of aroma, slowly adding more floral attributes. Supple, very modest and fine textured tannin. Red fruit, prettier and prettier as you head into the finish, after a more modest start, overall very nice. Yet, the finish is excellent, really great!

2015 Nuits St.Georges 1er Château Gris
Worked by horse.
Much deeper colour. Fresh herbs, dark fruit – a little tighter yet still impressive depth. Very fine on the palate, with fresh openness yet confident muscle too – slowly opening in the finish with detail after detail – again a fabulous finish!

2015 Chambolle-Musigny 1er les Chabiots
Continuity of Musigny above Amoureuses.
Ooh, soft red fruit and lots of complexity to this welcoming nose. A mineral wine, with fine, slowly releasing complexity of pretty fruit. No overt muscle, no overt intensity, just a wine that melts over the palate – really a lovely thing! Gorgeous floral and fruit finish.

2015 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Amoureuses
Relatively modest colour – for a 2015. The nose is not one of power, but is an overt and very pretty thing, soft red fruits and occasional flashes of flowers. Large-scaled in the mouth, very red-fruited with lots of depth to the fruit. A wine to luxuriate in… the finish is very special…

2015 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Malconsorts
1.75 ha from 6 sandier parts and lower down heavier soil – there can be 3 days difference in maturity between these two sectors – ‘clearly different wines too, the lower part more massive less complex.’
Much deeper colour. Saline, fresh and complex, less round and open vs the Amoureuses. Super line, super texture, here is a wine that’s a little tight, yet it takes you on a great long ride, slowly melting with complexity. The finish is once-more excellent. Great wine, but guarding many of its secrets today…

2015 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Lavaux St.Jacques
Not the deepest of colours. But a wide and complex nose that’s really inviting. Fresh in the mouth, a slighter, more mineral wine than I expect. A hint of coffee in the mid-palate perhaps, but has a nice width of mid-palate flavour. A finish that’s rather open-ended and very impressive though.

2015 Clos de la Roche
Deeper colour. A very attractive nose with fresh flowers above, dark mineral fresh complexity below – super! Lots of volume, no real fat, the texture has a little plushness perhaps. Really a sparkly complexity in the finish – little pops of complexity like fireworks. Beautiful wine.

2015 Charmes-Chambertin
Deep colour. Deep red fruit at the base, a more cushioned redness in the middle. Fresher than you expect, lots of popping complexity, like the last, and another brilliant finish that’s part floral, but incredibly long bravo!

2015 Clos Frantin, Chambertin
Fresh and mineral – a mix of red and black fruit, with a little more minerality below. Fresh in the mouth too, yet there is both line and volume – a little more spherical, without fat. Modest energy, but nothing modest amount the complexity. A fine floral first edge to the finish and a slow-moving wave into the horizon thereafter…

2015 Clos Frantin, Clos de Vougeot
Medium, medium-plus colour. Faint herb and freshness for this nose – slowly there’s a floral, violet addition. Structured, fresh, lithe, not linear – there’s plenty of volume, but cool, calculating fruit. Floral too. Great CV!

2015 Clos Frantin, Echézeaux
From Champs-Traversins
A pretty high-toned and floral nose – really fine. Supple, good volume, extra weight of flavour, a growing volume of flavour. As to be expected, long and impressive finishing. A little less perfect clarity after the CV, but no less delicious.

2015 Clos Frantin, Grands-Echézeaux
Grand colour too – almost saturated. A little wider aromatic palate – yet at the same time it seems tighter, there’s the feeling of volume but not the components to isolate. More weight of flavour, fresh, cooler flavour, layers of flavour. The mid-palate is massively constituted, but without fat, just latent power. The finish is as long as any, though with less overt flavour delivery. A tighter finish today, but (again!) no less delicious a wine…

Les blancs
Harvested between 3-6 September the whites.

2015 Macon Lugny Les Charmes
A long-term contract in must. Already bottled.
Ooh, perhaps a little bubblegum, but this is a fresh and sweetly appealing, slightly perfumed nose. Plenty of volume, decent freshness and an obviously mineral base-line of flavour. Riper fruit in the mid-palate but saline and tasty. Good wine!

2015 Bourgogne Secret de Famille
100% Côte d’Or and the same for the barrel elevage, Unlike the red, this is not yet bottled.
A nice nose here, freshness, yellow citrus. A faint gas. Bright and with plenty of relaxed freshness. A fine mineral base with pretty complexity. No fat a fine and drinkable white… an impression of tannin when finishing.

2015 Domaine Adelie, Mercurey les Champs Michaux
A deeper nose, ripe yellow citrus. Wide, some weight also quite enough freshness, a super citrus line through the core here. This is good stuff!

2015 Nuits St.Georges Les Terrasses de Château Gris
Close to the transition with Hautes Côtes here
A nice aromatic freshness, an extra depth too. Hmm, this is fine in the mouth – there’s energy, complexity, citrus fruit, still some oak, but really lots of complex and interesting energy. Very nice!

2015 Beaune 1er Clos des Mouches
A larger nose, freshly encased, fine depth. Ooh – a suggestion of ‘noble reduction’ but mineral and complex – this is beautiful across the palate – still just an accent of distracting oak, but only an accent. This is simply excellent, finishing with a little floral impression too – long, long…
2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Meursault
5 different parcels, none from the hillside. Vines towards Santenots.
Deep with a faint twist of reduction. Good freshness, minerality, line, flavour – really this is a joyous wine. Very silky, not the most energetic yet there’s an intrinsic dynamism – simply excellent!

2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Meursault 1er Charmes
A fine fresh nose here, with an undertow of citrus – lovely. In the mouth there’s a base of minerality and slowly leaching, melting, fresh flavour – again a wine without the highest level of energy yet with innate dynamism – it simply tastes and drinks great!

2015 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Vide Bourse
A deep and attractive mineral nose, a suggestion of reduction here. Fresh and wide, a higher level of energy to match – mouth-watering complexity – really a wine of fresh width. This is super suff – bravo!

2015 Criots Bâtard-Montrachet
A deeper, more concentrated nose – there’s density here. Wide, oh-so wide, concentrated yet bubbling with quite enough energy below. Just a massive yet approachable wine. Brilliant length. This is super, but I’d drink the Vide-Bourse today..

2015 Domaine du Pavillon, Corton-Charlemagne
A nose of large-scaled volume. Fresh and interesting with good transparency. A mineral base. Mouth-watering flavour – the form is not dissimilar to the Criots, but the flavours are different, with mouth-aching, watering flavour. Simply excellent though here I might like a hint more zest! Great wine, all the same. Great finishing too.

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