Tasted in Nuits St.Georges with winemaker Jerome Flous, 13 December 2017.
Domaine Faiveley
8 Rue du Tribourg
21700 Nuits-Saint-Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 04 55
www.domaine-faiveley.com
Jerome on 2017:
“2017 was a renewal! It’s a nice vintage for volume, the frosted vines certainly compensated, we had to do some green harvesting to keep control, though still quite limited. We made less than in 2011 or 2009 though. Nice clean fruit, very little triage, just a little rot was removed – a little like 2007 – but there was no botrytis. A charming vintage so far, it seems, not much tannin but very elegant and perfumed are the first impressions, but some show a little like 2016 – they have taken up the wood very easily. It could be a great vintage for whites though, a certain richness but with fine balance – richness in the vein of 2006.”
Jerome on 2016:
“The Côte de Beaune was terrible. We harvested 15 days later than we first expected but with great phenolic maturity in the end – the frost delayed everything – in the end we had not 100 but maybe 110-115 days from flowering. Some sugars were higher than in 2015 as that was a little blocked – the acidity like 2014 with more sugars. I think a great millesimé to keep. Concentrated and juicy with great colours. Côte d’Or lost 25-30% of volumes, we actually lost more in CdN than CdB – it was so complicated.”
The wines…
Red grand crus to die for, the Nuits 1ers too – not forgetting the fabulous Issarts – such a great set of wines here in 2016.
Nothing here is in bottle yet – “We prefer a long elevage, so February to April is expected for bottling the 1er and grands crus.”
2016 Nuits St.Georges 1er Chaignots
A little wc here – 20%. 1960s vines, a massale selection with small grapes.
Lots of depth of rich but fresh fruit. Tons of volume, the tannin is squeeky-fine. Long, dark flavoured – a fabulous start!
‘More a wine of altitude towards Malconsorts, with cooler tannins.’
A lovely nose, less volume than the Chaignots but with a nod towards Vosne with a hint of spice. Again squeeky-fine tannins, more freshness, higher tones – ooh – this gorgeous. Bravo! A hint saline – super complex but always composed – love!
2016 Nuits St.Georges 1er Porrets St.Georges
Oh, a nice and complex freshness, just a little more intensity again. Lots of volume and freshness, similar to the last wine with a cooler fruit, less overt complexity but also super tasty wine – Excellent!
Plenty of frost here.
Really a much tighter aroma. Fresher, more energy – hard to contain in the mouth – plenty of tannin but ultra-fine – melting flavour. Really to wait longer for than all the preceeding wines, but a great wine – saline and concentrated in the finish.
2016 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Combe d’Orveau
Also quite some suffering here from the frost.
Lots of aromatic volume but plenty of reduction too. In the mouth this fine, fresh, always with reductive flavours but with a fine and impressive width of flavour. Really intense and quite tannic in the finish. Fumé wine as much as it is reductive. Impressive just 1 new barrel.
20% wc, 350 litres – a single barrel.
Really deep – though not due to reduction – growing in floral top notes too. Really fresh, some wc flavour, a little dryness if no overt grain from the tannin. Really super mid-palate favour here. To wait for but there’s much to wait for!
2016 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Amoureuses
The first purchased wine tasted – the rest have all been domaine.
Not so wide but quite some depth of aroma – growing quite floral at the top. Silky, fresher, more direct and mouth-watering – still a narrower flavour profile. More modest tannin than the Fuées. A more delicate and elegant wine – super – though in this case I’d take the Fuées.
2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Combe aux Moines
Moving to Gevrey the volumes are now normal, before it was one or two barrels of each wine…
Modest intensity after the previous wines, slightly smoky, growing some fine dark fruited notes. Nice volume, more modest concentration. Fresh, a nice complexity. Good, complex, tasty wine though more modest wine than the previous series.
More fine, more pure – just a great nose! Freshness, transparency – beautiful fruit, faintly floral, melting and so long. Super delicious wine – a reprise in the finish too – bravo!
2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Lavaux St.Jacques
It’s starting to open but it’s still hard to put a finger on the aromas – but slowly a fine floral-inflected fruit comes centre-stage. A hint of gas, wide fresh, complex, not the ‘profoundness’ of some wines but such a width of flavour. Long, long, long. And getting better, only in the finish do I note the tannin – a super and complex wine that starts modestly but keeps getting better and better! Excellent…
2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cazetiers
Needs a little more elevage, I sense reductive malo here. Fresh, full, lots of volume and complexity, but I’m tasting too early…
“Starting with 2015 we’ll begin to follow the trend to emphasise the name of the plot. I think we have one of the best plots, touching Prieur’s Musigny.” Here in the valley it’s like a half-pipe!
This has a wonderfully deep and mobile nose – a little oak but this is very attractive. Fuller than all before, good freshness, so complex – yes some oak here too, but not over-riding the fine complexity. A great wine – you will find denser Echézeaux but you will be hard pressed to find such an elegantly complex – a wine to pair with Comte Liger-Belair’s…
2016 Clos de Vougeot
Impressive depth of aroma – a little vibrant excitement here. Lots of volume – fresh flavoured, growing in tannin and dryness but also with super width. The structure is a little ahead today – but wait 10 years and you really won’t notice that. Excellent CV!!
From Dupont-Tisserandot, nearly 1 ha, at the border near where Latricières meets Chambertin – a great corner! There are three parcels and about 15% is from Mazoyères
Ooh – that’s quite a big and a very attractive nose of fresh dark-red fruit. Really deep in the mouth too – lots of volume a hint of minerality and really layers and layers of flavour. There are not so many Charmes that I highly recommend, but here’s one – and for two years running! – bravo!
2016 Mazis-Chambertin
Really deep but some reduction. Fresh, wide, great energy and freshness. Really an exciting wine but there’s a barrel smokiness and some reduction – like the Combe d’Orveau… super wine though…
Tighter top notes but quite some depth of aroma – where it’s transparent and beautiful. A hint of gas – direct, fresh, fabulous volume, great flavour here. To wait for but great mouth-watering wine. Bravo and fabulously long too!
Plenty of volume and whilst there are high-tones, it’s the depth of aroma that draws me in… A hint of gas – really an extra concentration vs Latricières but a width of freshness not weight. So complex, here in the middle it’s very composed despite the complexity and slowly melting additional flavours. I like the more open style of the Latricières more today – but that will change because this is also great and there’s even more here!
Always the same parcel selection since 2009.
Really a finer and more floral width – less overtly deep. So fresh and direct, some tannin at the base, but this is a wine of fresh concentration and finesse. Really it keeps delivering another flavour every few moments into the finish. A beautiful floral aspect to this fabulous wine.
A normal harvest
A big nose and with a vibrant depth of dark-red fruit. Big but fresh, and really showing very fine melting flavour – there is an underpinning of tannin but there is nothing scary about the structure of this wine – unlike 10+ years ago. Great Corton that shows brilliantly despite what has gone before!
2016 Musigny
The first vintage to include the new parcel from the Dufouleur acquisition. You’d hardly notice the volume increase after the frost though – and always very small grapes.
A super deep nose, fumé from the barrel like two others. Ooh, really mouth-filling, a depth of concentrate – tannin too – deep flavour, lots of barrel, smoke tending to caramel. Mega impressive but I don’t know how long you have to wait for the barrel to fade – I think I can get by drinking the Latricières!
Les Blancs…
The second wine in the tasting that’s not from the domaine
Ooh – wow – what an inviting nose, pure, floral, saline and sweet. Nicely direct, fresh, a palate that’s less sweet than the nose suggested but anyway great. Long, relaxed yet at the same time fresh – great wine!
Narrower but deeper – really pure crystalline citrus at the base. Ooh – lovely freshness, and purity, melting, beautiful flavour – the volume in the mouth is less than the Meursault-Blagny but who would care – great mouth-watering wine.
2016 Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet
Not the widest but such a deep yet still fresh nose. Hmm, this starts less gourmand but opens and opens until it is wide and again beautifully detailed and fresh. Such a great finish, some modest mandarin style fruit here, though I’m unsure of the starting flavour!
2015 Bâtard-Montrachet
Planted at same time as last, long rows, one half is Bâtard the other half of the rows are Bienvenues. Lost 30-40%
Really deep, though the Bienvenues was a prettier nose. Bigger volume, a hint of gas I think, salinity, really amazing complexity – not all is in place here – like the last, but there is the possibility of more of everything. Let’s see but this could also be great – today the last finishes much more tastily.
A transparency and freshness – purity of citrus and agrume – top! Supple, growing in freshness, melting crystalline flavour over the palate. Slowly suggesting extra flavours. This is great wine by any standard. Modest in the finish but such a tenacious finish. Grand vin!!! The start and middle are amazing the finish is great, but will get better – beware!