Tasted in Vosne-Romanée with Mathilde Grivot, 26 November 2021.
Domaine Jean Grivot
6 Rue de la Croix Rameau
21700 Vosne-Romanée
Tel: +33 3 80 61 05 95
More reports with Domaine Jean Grivot
Mathilde on 2020:
“40% less for the domaine in 2020 and that was all down to the dryness. Still, the wines are remarkable – we have the chance to have vines and vineyards where we have the luxury of waiting for the right moment to pick without worry of the alcohols getting too high – we had 13-13.8° in the end. In the wines, I find lots of freshness, juiciness, and even drinkability too – saline wines and the super definition of the terroirs.”
The wines…
What an impressive set of wines in 2020; there’s not a lot, but what there is, is first class – well done to the team here.
Older vines in the commune of Vosne – Luitinières
Ooh – a freshness of lovely berry fruit – really super. Wide but fresh, mouth-watering too. A dynamic wine which gives a lovely mouth-watering style to the finish – impressively long too. Bravo!
2020 Vosne-Romanée
10 different vines…
Deep and fresh with a subtle reduction. More saline and wide – very mouth-watering. The Bourgogne is the easier wine to taste today, yet here is a super purity and intensity of fruit flavour – for keeping for sure – drink your Bourgogne while waiting.
2020 Nuits St.Georges Les Lavières
More aromatic width and no reduction. Even brighter acidity – a direct wine, only a subtle tannin but here’s a wine that’s a cascade of mouth-watering flavours; finishing saline and growing wider – this is a great ride!
Mathilde comments “We’ve worked on the suavity of the tannins since my brother and I came to join our father.”
A broader fruit, darker too – but fine and precise – growing a beautiful clarity. Sweeping freshness again but here is a small cushion to the texture that makes this wine so more approachable. Finishing wide – resplendent – what a great villages – Bravo!
2020 Chambolle-Musigny Combe d’Orveaux
Exactly as it should be – wider, more open, more elegantly attractive aroma – a great invitation. But here is an incisive and strong start, a little saline and of course really mouth-watering. Fuller – more dimension in shape and finishing complexity – super wine – really excellent.
2020 Vosne-Romanée Bossières
A little more vertical nose with lovely top notes – really very perfumed – that’s lovely. (I must pull out some of my 95s of this!) More mouth-filling, a trace of tannin similar to the Nuits Lavières – but there is a little more apparent concentration to balance too. Here there’s a bit more structure in the finish vs the Chambolle but plenty of flavour in that finish too – keep this a little longer while drinking the Chambolle.
2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Chaumes
A small parcel here – not much more than 3 barrels usually.
Here’s a lovely elegance of aroma – not lacking any concentration and even becoming more floral. Nicely direct, cool fruit, growing more mouth-watering too. This is a more mineral wine, saline accented, with a super texture too – a wine that will improve as your patience allows but the finish is long and really very complex. A super finish.
2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Rouges
Like the name, despite a faint reduction – very red-fruited. Much more direct and showing the acidity more but then slowly growing a softer coating to aid balance but this has a seriously great and structural finish with lots of minerality – that’s really something – simply excellent wine and easily the best ‘Rouges’ I’ve tasted – though it’s not a long list!
2020 Nuits St.Georges 1er Roncières
A broader nose, fruit of a deeper and darker register and colour – slowly adding some florals too – lovely. Wider, still very mouth-watering, a little less clarity to the fruit here but more density and still a nicely mobile, almost fluid style to the flavour. A good, vibrant finishing flavour – here with more clarity and a faint lick of tannin – this is very good (another note to self – I’ve some 95s of this too!)
2020 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Pruliers
A little more open and vibrant fruit – extra higher-toned freshness. Really a wine of dynamic energy. Mouth-filling, tons of complexity too – wait a bit for the clarity to become more apparent – but you will soon find it. The finish slowly leaching pure, darker fruit notes over the tongue – there’s a little tannin but it’s almost as an afterthought. Excellent!
2020 Nuits St.Georges 1er Aux Boudots
That’s an impressive nose – more compact in the higher-tones but the depth and layers of perfume are nearly grand cru. The shape of this wine too – almost a relaxed style but with concentration and fine texture – this is a top-level premier cru – less energetic than most that came before – the finish starting tighter but bursting with flavour at the end and with plenty of energy too. At least excellent wine, possibly a great 1er if it finds a bit more energy!
These wines are becoming ever more impressive – also a brilliant depth of aroma here – with just a few more higher-tones than the Boudots too. Gorgeous texture, energy and cool fruit – another wine that I might call dynamic – and like the best of 2020 there’s such a fluidity to the flavour – Gorgeously textured with just 1 or 2 mm of cushioning. Grand Vin
2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Beaux Monts
Aromatically, that’s also of the same quality – perhaps a little darker impression to the fruit but also such a fine and layered nose. More direct, again cool fruit, a vibration of energy here, growing intensity too – this wine wants to go somewhere. Piercing pure line of finishing fruit – ooh that’s good – simply excellent! The Brulees has just a bit more glamour!
Only one barrel – a new one but ‘washed’ – vs about 30% new for all the others.
More high tones, faint spice – ultra-complex, smoky, coffee then adding flowers – quite the kaleidoscope of aromas. Ultrafine texture slowly adding an über-fine grain of tannin but with no dryness. Developing a width of flavour, then expanding, seemingly endlessly, from the core into the finish – simply a great wine!
2020 Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
A much more airy nose – fine and elegant. More direct and saline, slowly mouth-watering – intense redcurrant and growing more complex after that – this is really super. Very slowly fading. More direct – a completely different beast – as they all are, fortunately!
2020 Clos de Vougeot
1.86 ha from the road right up the the vines of Family Labet 3 different sol types
Wider – fuller nose – again with fine purity of slightly darker-red fruit and becoming more floral too. Structural, faintly reductive, saline too. No hard edges to this wine and a really super intensity too. Waves of fine and pure finishing flavour – only at the very end a little tannin. It’s a fine Clos…
2020 Echezeaux
Darker, narrower but very pure – hiding much I’m sure. Beautifully textured again – another wine that’s more direct than wide – subtly tannic but again with no dryness. Growing much wider and more mobile flavoured from the middle into the finish. Only here touched by a faint dryness but this is something that seems to hold onto the flavour for even longer. Simply excellent Echézeaux…
A nose that starts pure and airy – only hinting at an extra depth – very red-fruited – but what fruit! Extra mineral – vibrant without being excessive. Always a purity of beautiful red fruit – there is everything here – but despite the concentration of the vintage, this is a wine that is beautifully elegant – but bursts forward with a fine and floral extra level of finishing complexity – what a finish! It’s rare that a young Richbourg is so easy to taste and appreciate – it has everything!