Tasted in Morey St.Denis with chef de cave Hamza Saoudi, 14 November 2021.
Domaine Arlaud Père et Fils
41 Rue Epernay
21220 Morey St.Denis
Tel: +33 3 80 34 32 65
www.domainearlaud.com
More reports with Domaine Arlaud
Hamza on 2021:
“21 was actually not too bad in the villages vines but we clearly had difficulties with the frost and the maladies that followed – lots of candles, lots of vigilance. The summer was wet and not particularly warm. We certainly lost a lot in some places.”
Hamza on 2020:
“2020 was a much easier year in the vines but, in general, a little less wine produced. Our harvesting began early – 24th August so a full 3-4 weeks earlier than in 2021.”
The wines…
What a cracking set of wines! A great Bourgogne is followed by excellent wine after excellent wine – until you come to the great wines! Bravo to Cyprien and his team!
All barrel samples, the bottling is anticipated for March, racking probably coming at the end of January:
Usually 35k bottles from the more than 5 ha.
Ooh – now that’s a concentrated nose – a forward depth of cassis. Round open – you expect fruit and more fruit but you get subtlety and minerality – I think that’s super wine – too good to be ‘Bourgogne’ – it’s long too!
2020 Chambolle-Musigny
Normally from 5 parcels, all close to Morey.
A bit less colour. Also a concentrated nose – fruit-forward and subtly reductive. Direct, architecturally shaped wine, so mouth-watering – only at the end the full Chambolle flowers and fruit. Elegant but concentrated – that’s a simply super wine again…
2020 Morey St.Denis
From 2 parcels; Les Seuvrées and Clos Solon.
A nose that’s more direct – fully fruited but with vibrancy. With wider, calmer and cooler fruit. The detail in the wine, so far, is just first class. Small waves of finishing flavour radiate from the core. Another super villages!
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin
From Seuvrées and La Justice.
This nose is vibrant like the Morey but much wider today – growing floral accents too. Like the others, mouth-filling and detailed – perhaps an extra sucrosity in this wine, certainly an extra depth to the darkly mineral note in the finish – faintly with finishing bitters too.
2020 Morey St.Denis 1er Millandes
More brilliant clarity of fruit – despite a slight reduction. More textural – there’s some visible tannin here yet with no grain. The width is mouth-watering and pure. Such a weight of finishing extract – slightly saline. Great finishing too – what an excellent wine!
A more vertical nose – less wide – but with a beautiful floral width as a top note. Extra sweetness, less overt tannin – super texture. The most mouth-watering and cool-fruited impression. That’s a great wine – and so minerally long!
So good – almost so decadently perfumed! Very mineral and as all these with such impressive clarity to the flavour. Complex, gorgeous wine – bravo again!
A very small parcel
Much less ethereal – here is a punch to the rounder perfume – impressive stuff. Rounder in the mouth too – again so gorgeously fluid, brilliantly textured too. All the flavour is accented with violets. Bravo – bright, fine finish that bursts over the tastebuds!
2020 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Sentiers
Since 99 this made separately but before that was in the villages.
Pure and perfumed yet almost understated after the previous two! There’s more depth and structure here, though no less freshness and width. The finish is a great one. Excellent wine
One part here is 98-years-old.
The top notes of perfume are more subdued here but the depth of aroma is more than the previous wines. Easy over the palate – that’s just a gorgeously melting, texturally attractive thing – neither heavy nor light. Vibrant and complex finishing. Certainly excellent, potentially great!
2020 Charmes-Chambertin
Starting with a little reduction. A wine that becomes more airy but never fully open. A bit more structure to this wine – ultra-fine-grained tannin. All the flavour in-between is of elegance. Not fully open today but structurally super!
Oh yes! Deep, vibrant, pure and perfumed – a really impressive nose. Structural – it’s CdlR! Gorgeously silky, mineral with floral infusions – I hardly think of fruit. Then a finish of small firework bombs for flavour. Still not quite ready in the finish – I think there’s more to come. This will be a great one.
The register of this aroma is a little deeper – the perfume more cushioned – very different. But this is still a direct CSD, ultra-silky, and completely mouth-watering. Such a brilliant set of wines – and we are not yet finished!
From the Chambolle side, including vines in both terres-blanches and terres-rouges. ‘A climat that struggles more than most when the weather is hot and dry. Here we have the best results from ploughing with a horse – we’ve been doing it here for 15 years – it allows us to capture late August rains much better than before.’
The largest nose of all these – quite open, faintly reductive – less floral but still encompassing. Such super shape in the mouth – a structural wine without any hard edges, a subtle grain to the tannin but still more silk than velour. The best finish – no discussion, the best finish – complex and complete. Great wine!
There are 2 responses to “Arlaud – 2020”
Bill,
I was wondering, chez Arlaud , would you say that the profile is very much to the blac=kish spectrum of flavours and not so much to the reddish ? as well were there elevated alcohol levels ? I seem to have heard about this… just wondering vis a vis my allocation of his wines…
Hi Joost
Cyprien wasn’t at the winery the day of my appointment so I didn’t discuss alcohol levels with him. But in general, the reds of the Côte d’Or have a little more alcohol in 2020 than in 2019 – it was the reverse for the whites.
What I can say, is that if I had an allocation of the domaine’s wines I’d be keeping them. Except for some ‘black wine’ issues in 2018 – not uncommon – this has been consistently one of the best domaines in Burgundy in the last 5-6 years…
All my best…
Hello Bill,
I know it’s a difficult question to answer but which domaines did you enjoy the most since 3-4 years ? Appart from domaine Arlaud which is fantastic !
There are, of course, many 😁 But in no particular order (Arlaud included) Arlot, Patrice Rion, d’Angervile, David Croix, Comtesse de Cherisey…