Louis Max – 2015

5.12.2016billn

dsc01735Tasted in Nuits St.Georges with Jean Francois Joliette, cellar-master Sophie Doche and David Duband, 18 November 2016.

Maison Louis Max
6 Rue de Chaux
21700 Nuits-Saint-Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 62 43 01
www.louismax.com

David Duband on 2016:
It wasn’t worth treating the Bourgogne to lose the bio label for the rest of the production!

The wines…

“Typically we use 50% whole clusters, with no cold maceration and pigeage by foot – to respect the stems.”

Really great wines here – gusto, energy, structure – and always 50% whole clusters is the way! I always liked the wines from here even before David Duband was brought in, but today they have that special extra asset – character!

2015 Côteaux Bourguognone
A cuvée of 300 hectolitres, all gamay, declassified Beaujolais Villages.
Deep, nicely spicy. Fresh, a little mineral and a nice texture too. A burst of fine finishing flavour. Tasty.

2015 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
If you though the last was a big cuvée, here is 700 hectolitres worth!
A pretty nose – this is really attractive. Fresh, floral flavour, bright, fine acid finishing. Tasty violets too – excellent for what it is!

2015 Mercurey Clos de la Marche (monopole)
Domaine – a bright redcurrant style fruit. A little more supple, still silky and fresh with more weight of finishing flavour. Nice finishing again – very good!

2015 Mercurey 1er Les Vazées
From 3.5 hectares of domaine vines, in bottle for 2 days.
Much higher toned fruit. Silky, with even more depth, again a high-toned fruit. With a hearty, dense floral finish.

2015 Côte de Nuits Villages
From Corgoloin
Bright red fruit here, with a beautiful depth – they have really captured the vintage flowers here. Fresh and silky, great lines of flavour, simply, gorgeously tasty.

2015 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Au Forneaux
Bio since 2007
A deep nose, nice fruit but plenty of creamy oak too. Today there’s too much vanilla here, but there’s also fine texture and mouth-watering flavour – potentially lots to see.

2015 Chambolle-Musigny
From Les Chardannes
Deep but it’s a fine and floral nose. Big, slightly structured, faintly salty but despite a little austere structure, the flavours are really very fine and show a good line.

2015 Gevrey-Chambertin
A part from Brochon another from Gevrey.
A deep and vibrant line of fruit. Some oak, a little larger scale, really mouth-watering and melting flavour through the core into the finish. Very good wine with a super finish.

2015 Vosne-Romanée
From Les Ormes at the bottom of the hillside.
Ooh – dark and highly attractive nose. Big, some silk before a little more tannin. But really high quality here and a great density of well delivered flavour. Excellent!

2015 Nuits St.Georges
From Aux Pruliers
A pretty nose of flowers and fruit. Here is a little more richness of texture – with a weight of tannins to match too – but also a real depth of interesting flavour. Excellent wine with a hint less energy but more of everything else! Long, long…

2015 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos Prieur
A silky dark well of fruit, more floral above. A little hint of astringence, but great texture and cool line of flavour to match. Slowly releasing waves of flavour. Simply excellent.

2015 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Damodes
Bright and fresh fruit, a little tighter depth. Structured but lithe and fresh – very floral-inflected fruit that’s both cool and long. A fine line of flavour here. Long, with some tannin texture. Super.

2015 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Vaucrains
Faint reduction, so because of that, a deeper fruit impression. A super fresh line. Big, and intense, tons of structure but the line and length is great – clearly requires a little patience, but lovely, lovely finishing flavour. Excellent!

2015 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
A knockout nose of whole-clusters and spicy red fruits – it’s super inviting. Plenty of structure again – the whole-clusters – certainly some austerity here in the middle, but simply beautiful flavours behind. Again, be patient, but it will be worth it!

2015 Clos de Vougeot
Deep, some freshness, no reduction. Oof, now that has a super fruit flavour – and good structure too. Bright, intense flavours, complex too. Much less overt structure than the Suchots. Really lovely.

Les blancs…
The produce about 30% white, mainly with elevage in 350 litre barrels.

2015 Rully
Bright, fresh, attractive ripe lemon aroma. Fresh with a certain core of sweet ripe fruit – but almost wrapped in a little minerality and fine texture. Bravo!

2015 Mercurey Les Coudroyes
Bright and fresh – a more mineral nose. Bright, nicely textured, with a growing weight of good length, more ripeness, almost a tannin in the finish.

2015 Mercurey les Rochelles
All these in barrel with 25% new.
A nicer, wide nose, almost a little Meursault note. Silky, mineral wine. Not the biggest energy but very nicely textured. Excellent!

2015 Ladoix 1er les Grechons
A bright and large-scaled nose. Big, silky, ripe and very tasty, slightly mineral too. I’d like a hint more energy but this is tasty none-the-less.

2015 Bourgogne Cuvée Reserve
Another large cuvée.
Wide and fresh. A hint of gas here but the wine is still bright and mineral, long and mouth-watering with some agrumes in the finish. Very tasty wine with some ripeness but not at all heavy.
2014 Mâcon-Milly Lamartime
A fresh, vibrant nose. Bright, mineral, really lovely depth, and a layered delivery. A hint of salinity and very long. Delicious wine!

2015 Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru
Still in barrel.
Beautiful fresh, a little ginger spice – classic and gorgeous. Mouth-filling, ripe fruit, and a weight of fruit too – perhaps a little too weighty, but a growing freshness. Super tasty anyway.

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