Tasted in Beaune with Frédéric Barnier & Amandine Brillanceau, 11 December, 2019.
Louis Jadot
21 Rue Eugène Spuller
21200 Beaune
Tel: +33 3 80 22 10 57
www.louisjadot.com
More reports for Maison Louis Jadot
Frédéric on 2018:
“2018 was not an easy vintage. Not really complicated vintage but during elevage it was very important to keep the freshness – the colours are magnificent and the wines concentrated – but the fermentations were fragile, outside of ourselves we did no tastings from barrel to be sure of our precision…. In terms of nature and weather it’s simply special – one of the warmest vintages but not like 2003 – it’s closer to 1947 – warm for 7 months which is completely different to 2003, which was just a couple of months. It was even tropical in Spring – just what the vines wanted – water and warm. So no surprise that we had much mildew to resist. 100% of the potential fruit actually became fruit! Another thing that was unbelievable was that mid-July to harvest it as quite dry – this was good because we had a lot of grapes, and the dry wind of September helped to concentrate and actually decreased the quantity of juice – so this was to our advantage where there was a lot of grapes. For the people with potentially 35 hl/ha it was more problematic as they ended up with 25 – that was the difficulty of 2018. I’ve done wines here since 1999 and I’ve never seen such clean grapes – but as you see there was still much work to do. Paradoxal, concentrated but fragile!”
The wines…
Super-consistent, many excellent wines, with a more modest number of great wines than in recent vintages. The Charlemagne is my wine of the line-up, but in both colours there are great wines for your cellar!
The Chablis had just been bottled 1 week ago – the rest were all in elevage:
I nicely perfumed red fruit nose. Supple, concentrated, depth of flavour with fine texture. Ooh that’s a great Malte!
2018 Prieur-Brunet, Santenay 1er Maladière
Second vintage since Prieur-Brunet purchase, all made in Beaune.
Higher-toned, a hint of spice too. Fresher, more structural plenty of energy, depth of finishing flavour too – Excellent!
2018 Chorey-lès-Beaune, Beaumonts
Domaine Gagey
More colour, a rounder and deeper red fruit nose. Fuller, quite structural – open, mouth-watering, faintly astringent and really energetic – wait a while but it will be lovely.
2018 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Clos de la Croix de Pierre
Domaine des Heritiers. Of-course from En Caradeaux
A deeper, darker fruit on the nose. More driving, more direct, cool fruited, faintly reductive. Again super energy. This has a super finish. Yum!
Domaine Louis Jadot
Not a deep colour. Vibrant and quite mineral. Ooh – that’s fresh, structural, driving, a little astringent, but with brilliant drive and a sleekness to the character today – this will make a great mature bottle!
Domaine Gagey
Modest 2018 colour, but beautifully floral. Similarly beautiful width of fine texture. Growing tension and clarity. Great Beaune!
Domaine des Heritiers.
Similar colour, similar aromatic energy. More scale, more mouth-filling. There is just a little more of everything here – bravo!
2018 Volnay 1er Santenots
Domaine Louis Jadot. A new wine since 2017 via Prieur-Brunet, in Plures
Domaine – A more compact nose, inviting and wide though, slowly augmenting with floral notes. Structural, no hard edges, absolutely deliciously fine-flavoured in the finish – here it’s an absolute honey!
2018 Volnay Clos de la Barre
A fine width of red fruit aroma – a little less energy than the last. Extra clarity, more structure. Not an easy Volnay today, but one that’s beautifully constructed – I think this may be better than the Santenots
More colour than the Beaunes. Floral and deep – that’s an inviting nose. Fresh, sleek, mineral – ultra-Epenots – a wine for the patient, but Bravo!
2018 Corton Pougets
Domaine des Heritiers.
Modest colour for 2018. The nose not quite ready, a little spiced and irregular. Supple, deeper, more concentrated – in the mouth this is showing well but with a suggestion of reduction – which probably perturbed the nose. Fine finishing…
2018 Marsannay Clos du Roi
Domaine Gagey.
A tight, slightly saline nose. Fresh, open, mouth-filling wine. Slightly reductive again, but with a beautiful finishing line of fresh, pure flavour – gorgeous here!
2018 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Boudots
Domaine Gagey.
The similar slightly reductive nose of previous wines. Ooh, that has presence and great texture in the mouth. Compact but promising much.
2018 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
Here’s a nose that’s in place – wide, gorgeously floral. More supple and melts over the palate – a touch of creamy oak in the middle. Delicious finishing. Excellent Suchots!
2017 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Baudes
Domaine Gagey.
A tighter nose, slightly saline, but slowly growing with attractive floral impression – yes! Open, fresh, delicious, slightly modest in the middle but a good burst of finishing flavour
2018 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Fuées
Domaine Louis Jadot.
More colour here. More concentration, the florals not developing to the same extent. More concentrated but still fresh – more structural wine. There is everything here today except delicacy. Maybe that will come – I see no excess…
2018 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Estournelles St.Jacques
Domaine Louis Jadot.
Hmm – that’s a lovely nose – wide, inviting, slightly reductive. Here it’s a cool and sleek wine – but with depth of flavour too. A touch reductive but a wine with everything. Excellent 1er cru with a great finish!
2017 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
Domaine Louis Jadot.
Fresh, deep but rather narrow nose today. Extra sweetness, more layered delivery of flavour too. Extra width in the finish with a little more elegance too. Super – as usual!
2018 Chapelle-Chambertin
Domaine Louis Jadot. 90 yo vines here.
Not too deep colour. A width of deep aroma, tighter above. More power, fuller, very fine texture – no excess. Really wide finishing – that’s impressive.
2018 Clos de Bèze
Domaine Louis Jadot.
Wide and quite complex – open but not yet elegant. Super volume and clarity of structural shape in the mouth. Just a pretty touch of florals in the finishing complexity too. To wait for but with much potential.
Domaine Louis Jadot. At the bottom of the Clos here.
A bigger freshness of aroma. Structural, the characteristic (today) slight reduction. Mouth-filling, melting – ooh that’s a pretty and intense, pure fruit. Wait 20 years – bravo!
Domaine Louis Jadot.
Impressively modest colour again. Not a big nose but one of freshness and subtle but pretty floral dimension. Big – really mouth-filling but also with clarity and nothing oppressive – elegant even. This is very classy indeed. Bravo – second only to DRC this year(?) What a fabulous finish!
2018 Clos de La Roche
Domaine Louis Jadot.
Very fresh, open, but lacking some complexity today – slowly adding some deeper but fine red fruit. Good volume, a different cadence, more layered, always fresh. Excellent Roche with a great finish!
Domaine Louis Jadot.
More colour. A big and deep nose, some reduction though today. Full, but melting over the palate – a big wine, of deep foundations, long. Needs plenty of time to open, but here is everything.
Les blancs…
Lots of malos were blocked in the whites here – ‘there anyway wasn’t much!’ Louis Jadot have a cuverie in Chablis now, in 2019, for the first time, the wines were fermented there, as usual in 2018 that was done in Beaune. For the rest of the whites, they will probably start their bottling in February in the main, a few a little earlier perhaps, just after the Christmas holidays.
2018 Chablis
A forward, big nose, good complexity some herb. Soft, round, lacks a little construction but the wine seems a little warm – the flavours are pretty classic though. It’s okay…
2018 Chablis 1er Fourchaume
Only 3 days in bottle one-third 450-litre barrels for elevage
Hmm – that’s lovely – a floral, pure, and fine-focused nose. There’s some oak, plenty of width, plenty of minerality – wait 2 years for the oak to fade, but this is very classy and shows a lovely depth of flavour in the finish.
2018 Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
Fresher, finer, less bulk to this nose. Plenty of mouth-filling volume, but clearly with an extra dose of minerality. Round, easy to appreciate and here the oak is more subtle. You could drink this much sooner if you’re oak averse in your Chablis.
Towards the bottom of the slope – about 1/3 a hectare.
Ooh – that’s lovely, wide and floral but with beautiful precision of white fruit and flowers below – yes! A wine with more direction and drive vs the width of the Tonnerre. The finishing flavours are complex but a little tighter than the 1ers – the difference is the precision – lovely wine. Bravo!
2018 Santenay Clos de la Malte
Domaine Louis Jadot.
More width, faint spice, modest personality and some oak vs the previous. Nice density in the mouth though – a strong core, a fine, slightly oaky length.
2018 Santenay Clos Faubard
Domaine Louis Jadot.
More volume of aroma – a little more distinction. Mineral, plenty of density – this is rather good. Excellent wine.
2018 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Clos de la Croix de Pierre
Domaine Louis Jadot.
Open, good freshness, slightly floral the standard reductive style to this PV nose. Supple, concentrated, very mineral. Narrow but widening in the finish – it’s very tasty here. Yum!
2018 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Clos des Guettes
Domaine Gagey.
Wide, good freshness. Structural, no hard edges, deliciously juicy finish. That’s a great finish.
2018 Beaune 1er Grèves Clos Blanc
Domaine Gagey.
Ooh more volume, more padding, more citrus complexity too. Mouth-filling. Complex, rich but balanced full of deliciousness. Yum!
Domaine Louis Jadot.
Much less volume but much more class to this nose – fine and elegant. Hmm, considered, not overly energetic, but layered and engrossing. Ooh that’s great!
2018 Meursault 1er Perrières
Third vintage chez Domaine Louis Jadot – from the highest parts of the vineyard.
More mineral width of aroma. More incisive, cooler fruit, very mineral but no rigour. Gorgeous finish but clearly a wine to wait for. Long and excellently finishing.
2018 Puligny-Montrachet 1er les Folatières
Domaine des Héritiers Jadot.
Different again, fine depth but a different style of fruit, perhaps blended with white blossom. Actually rather mineral, complex and long. This is rather nice – certainly more tension than the Charmes, but that was a wine with a little extra. A great finish here though.
2017 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Clos de la Garenne
Domaine Duc de Magenta
A more floral and rounder nose. Full, impressive volume here – energy, complexity – needs a little time to improve focus, but again a beautiful finish – a hallmark not just here, of 2018 whites.
2018 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot Clos de la Chapelle
Domaine Duc de Magenta
That’s a lovely nose, some floral, some Chassane depth. Full, gorgeously textured, no direct incisiveness though because of that soft coating. Layered flavour, finishing with small waves – that’s lovely…
2017 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Embazées
Domaine Louis Jadot
A modest spice over a nice width of freshness, a comforting impression. Volume but with a certain mineral concentration – lots of finishing complexity – it’s absolutely delicious here – only most mildest of barrel references. Super!
Ooh – that’s super – vertical nose – bravo – such an invitation Big, but open – like the Perrieres but with a little more current deliciousness and modest padding. Great for the second year in a row!
2018 Bâtard-Montrachet
Puligny side
Hmm, vibrant – that’s super nose. More width and volume, not really rich but clearly there’s great depth of flavour. Great finishing, excellent Batard
Domaine des Héritiers Jadot.
Here the nose is more compact and less giving. Extra drive – more open, no less volume. Mouth-watering, juicy finishing. That’s a super wine of layers and definition. Bravo!
Domaine des Heritiers.
Not a big nose, but more openly complex and fresh than the Demoiselles today – hyper-attractive. Bigger, more structural. Layers of melting flavour. Ooh – I appreciate this normally but I don’t usually find better – but today this is my favourite. A real charisma – bravo – so brilliant!