Tasted with Jérôme Castagnier in Morey St.Denis, 30 November 2023.
Domaine Castagnier
20 Rue des Jardins
21220 Morey St.Denis
Tel: +33 3 80 34 31 62
Jérôme’s Instagram
More reports with Domaine Castagnier
Jérôme on 2023:
“2023 was a very good vintage but not for large volumes – it was just the same as 2022 for me – but I’ll happily keep being 95% full! The 3 harvests before ie 2019-2021 I lost 1.5 harvests…”
Jérôme on 2022:
“This vintage gave us some breathing space. You could compare 2022 and 2020 – until the 22nd of June 22 when there was a little hail and up to 150mm of rain in less than 2 hours. We had just 5cm of water in our cellars here in Morey – but it’s still 5cm more than we want! But this rain was enough to get us through to the harvest without blockage – the grapes were super – but with more juice vs 2020. I think 2020 is very good but there’s a few more ‘southern’ notes and spices in those wines.”
The wines…
Such has been Jérôme’s performance over previous vintages that I arrive to taste expecting great wines at this address. I found some too!
‘The 2022s will probably be bottling towards the end of February – let’s see.’ The regionals and whites have recently been done though:
2020 Bourgogne Passetoutgrains
A single co-planted parcel done by Jérôme’s great-grandfather – it’s the end of each row that’s planted with pinot. One-third gamay.
Fresh entry. Soft but mouth-filling. Large width, faintly mineral and long. Delicious wine.
2022 Gevrey-Chambertin
From Les Seuvrées – ‘It seems all the Morey domaines are in the same place in Gevrey – they are also the closest to Morey!’
Higher toned and floral – a fine invitation. There’s concentration here but with juicy middle and finishing flavours too. Very fine-grained tannin supports impressively persistent flavours. This is beautifully tasty.
Vines from 1934 in Aux Echanges, but only the villages part. Grandfather also had vines in the 1er cru part of Aux Echanges but sold them as he thought this superior – next to Beau Bruns
Higher toned, appealing, almost a slightly Vosne-style complexity. Wider, a little more fluid but still a wine of concentration – there’s certainly extra elegance here without diminishing the concentration – that’s a really a top villages!
2022 Morey St.Denis 1er Aux Chezeaux
Next to Charmes-Chambertin – just 1m separates these vines from Gevrey.
More direct aromas – slightly higher toned vs the Chambolle, some graphite depth to this red fruit. Broad, more obvious structure here than the cushioned CHambolle. Juicy finishing – and really broad finishing too – that’s delicious – just try to keep it 2 years before opening.
2022 Clos de la Roche
66-year-old vines…
Extra power; darker, deeper fruit. Sweeping, direct, beautifully cushioned texture – here is a very classic rendition of Clos de la Roche for this domaine – and I’ve a bunch of older vintages that I keep enjoying! I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest at least 10 years of patience with this – but I could enjoy its direct personality today too – there’s no austerity.
2022 Clos de Vougeot
In Grands Maupertuis
Extra width with fine airy top notes – it’s a little contemplative but also very inviting. Sweeping flavour that’s also a little direct, the tannin more visible – but ripe. Versus the CdR there is extra freshness and energy in tandem with the structure. Tons of wine here – this is going to be an excellent Clos de Vougeot.
A more floral almost silky textured nose – with fine clarity of fruit. Hmm, gorgeous texture and fluidity of flavour. The most complex finishing too – both the CdR and CV are a little larger but this is simply beautiful and clearly the most complete package today. Bravo.