Tasted with Erwan Faiveley in Nuits St.Georges, 24 November 2022.
Domaine Faiveley
8 Rue du Tribourg
21700 Nuits-Saint-Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 04 55
www.domaine-faiveley.com
More reports for Domaine Faiveley
Erwan on the 2022 vintage chez Faiveley:
“I think it’s a good thing. It’s far too easy to talk of the wines – I really don’t know how the wines will turn out. We don’t have the volumes that we had in 2018 – it was good in the whites but the reds seem the sweetspot in terms of volume to produce great wines. Not the excesses of 18 or even that we saw in 2009.”
Erwan on the 2021 vintage:
“The Côte Chalonnaise was really the same as in the Côte d’Or – terrible volumes – there’s not a big water reserve in the soil there – and we didn’t have enough. The big surprise was the quality – Serious but still with the depth of Côte Chalonnaise – they will never be Mazis-Chambertin but they are the style of Chalonnaise that we like. In the Côte d’Or, it’s a vintage without much tannin and reminds me of 2007 – though 21 has more concentration – our Mazis is one of the rare wines with an extra level of tannin. For the whites we have no Garenne, Champs Gains had almost nothing and it was the same with Referts. We bought some must from Meursault and Puligny to have something to sell. For the Bâtard and the Bienvenues we used lots and lots of candles – 3 nights in a row – and this is the only place where we had something close to a normal harvest volume and, fortunately, the wines don’t give the impression that the vines suffered. We are not planning to commercialise large-format bottles in this vintage.”
The wines…
Excellent wines sprinkled with a few properly great ones for their labels – the elevage, evidently, not yet complete for a number so some of my notes maybe conservative.
2021 Mercurey 1er Les Myglands
‘Only 100m from the plot of Framboisière but a different world.’
That’s very pretty, very red fruited and with a nice padding. Silky, direct – that’s got a beautiful shape in the mouth – calm, silky but with fine, fine purity – it’s simply excellent!
2021 Mercurey 1er Clos du Roi
Much whiter soil here. This and the last about 6 weeks in bottle.
Bigger, spicier, still red-fruited. A wine with more architecture – more structure. Direct and silky again but with a bit more flavour austerity. This for waiting a couple of years, finishing with some faint chalky tannins on the tip of the tongue. Very good today but it will be excellent.
The following are tank samples:
2021 Beaune 1er Clos de l’Ecu
All you could wish to know here.
Fine red fruit, plenty of width too – there’s purity here that’s framed with a little smoky oak. Great in the mouth – lots of scale, framed with a modest, grainless tannin – A big step up here – this should be an excellent Beaune.
2021 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les St.Georges
A more compact nose but with no less fine clarity of fruit – only smaller – no smoke this time. Mouth-filling, vibrant – there’s a more chiselled style to the shape – and extra complexity – like the Clos du Roi a wine more evidently for waiting. The finish has lots of complexity – plenty of salinity too. Excellent!
2021 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Lavaux St.Jacques
Silk, rose Petals and there’s a deeper bass to these aromas. Also a wine of construction and clarity – almost a Clos de Vougeot style to this architecture – silky, muscular middle flavour then a broad, modestly spiced width of finishing flavour – like the St.Georges it’s impressively tenacious flavour too.
2021 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cazetiers
4 hectares – ‘a richer more sunny location but tons of old vines in this vineyard but it was one of the least productive of our great vineyards – we decided to replace some of the vines after the 2021 frost and then decided to do even more in 2022. So for the next 5-10 years we will be rationing this cuvée…’
A nose with more overt depth, slowly widening and opening with air. Mouth-filling – super energy and a little darker red fruit here, slightly more generous than the Lavaux and with a super line of finishing flavour – this could be excellent wine.
3 parcels – of the 2 gates, one is right in the middle
A hint less colour. Bright, pure red fruit of many dimensions – simply a gorgeous clarity here. Direct but pure – again the clarity is evident and then the width and complexity of flavour. A base-line of über-fine tannin but no dry ness. Great wine!
2021 Echézeaux En Orveaux
“Starting with 2015 emphasising 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! Usually, a wine with a bit of WC here at Faiveley – about 20%.
Broader more floral-infused aromas – that’s also a beauty. Width here, growing slowly in intensity – this wine has a width instead of the more architectural volume of the CV – I slightly prefer the CV to this but it’s still a very lovely wine – and super-wide finishing too – plenty of freshness here.
2021 Latricières-Chambertin
All you could wish to know here.
A finer, less forward, version of the Echézeaux – floral and delicate. Wide-screen flavours – a shape that’s in between the Echézeaux and the Clos de Vougeot– beautiful over the palate with just enough structure to say – be patient – but this is a simply excellent wine!
2021 Mazis-Chambertin
Broad and floral again – but with a little extra depth and shape to the aromas. Supple, extra power in the middle flavours – this being nicely mouth-watering. A punchier wine but like the Latricières, never a hard wine – more finesse in the Latricières, more depth to this – this will benefit even more from keeping I think.
Three parcels, the old vines for the Rodin, and the two parcels that are assembled – a part is being replanted – old vines but not great vines so goodbye to them. ‘There’s an extra richness here that I think comes from the elimination of these vines.’
A broad and floral nose once more – lots of roses and pretty red fruit complexity. Extra – structure, intensity and energy – that’s the great one – but also for keeping longer – framed with some tannin. Great wine with a long, rolling length of finishing flavour – super persistent – bravo!
2021 Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley
All you could wish to know here.
Note quite so high toned as the Bèze but still with some attractive width of florals. Vibrant, pure red-fruited, stony and mineral in the finish – it’s hard to follow the scale of the Bèze but the clarity and delivery of the flavour is super here – but a small wine in comparison – but a simply excellent Corton.
50% whole cluster but the largest part, the middle of the stem, is cut out. Racked today – maybe to bottle in 3 weeks…
Less forward than the Bèze – but not by a lot – such impressive aromatic complexity. The most supple of these – and such silk to the width. Faintly smoky in the middle flavours but just as part of the impressive complexity. Brilliant finishing
Les Blancs
Only 5 entry wines are in DIAM, all the rest are cork. They continue with tests – since 2009 – but are not convinced when they compare to cork. They have no faults but we seem to ‘lack harmony…’ These wines not yet bottled:
2021 Rully Les Villeranges
A village aoc near the Clos Rochette.
A generous nose of ripe, not quite exotic citrus. Large scaled and full of energy – no lack of concentration here but also full of delicious flavour energy – it’s excellent.
2021 Mercurey Clos Rochette Blanc
The same hillside as the last, elevage with a little more barrel. Monopole, also neighbouring Framboisière. The bottom of the slope is a little richer soil and it’s this part that mainly sees some barrel elevage.
A deeper nose – still with freshness – a little more generosity to this ripe citrus. Fuller, silky, a more mineral width and beautifully mouth-watering – a wine of calm but still almost juicy finishing. That’s another simply delicious thing!
All domaine – 3 ha – 2 lieu-dits, vines now 9 years old. All barrel elevage. Have added a new cuvée name to this domaine wine – assembly of Blanchardes and Les Marnes
Hmm – a beautiful width – complex, hyper-attractive perfume here – bravo! Mineral, and mouthwatering, slightly saline – a wine that should improve with 2-3 years in the cellar – but it’s a great villages – bravo – and 75% of this cuvée is from vines under 10 years old!
2021 Bâtard-Montrachet
Planted at the same time as the Bienvenues – long rows, one half is Bâtard the other half of the rows are Bienvenues.
Beautifully broad and fine – not the forward energy of the Ladoix but beautiful. Supple, layered wine – there is generosity without fat – slowly mouth-watering then following a sinuous line of finishing flavour long, long into the distance. Not quite ready this one – but it will be a beautiful thing.
From Rognets just above Clos des Cortons, 4 parcels of different ages. Almost a hectare, but each parcel is quite different to the others. ‘It’s almost bizarre, right in the middle we have sand.’
A calm nose – a little tighter than the previous wines – fine citrus notes but not so forward. Fuller, more structured, more demonstrative today than the Batard – ooh – that’s silky and growing in all dimensions of flavour – that’s going to be a great wine – but, obviously, the nose has to open a little more…