Despite their lofty reputation, and the undeniable brilliance of their wines when tasting from barrel, I’d yet to have a ‘wow’ moment with bottles from this domaine. That’s not to say that I haven’t drunk many very good bottles! Well, here’s a ‘wow’, indeed, in-fact here’s the best wine I’ve drunk this year, and that’s despite the Matrot 72 Santenots…

1993 Michel Lafarge, Volnay 1er Clos des Chênes
Still with a deep colour. The nose is dark, mineral and full of energy, some leaves and some blood – it’s so precise it seems to have been cut with a knife. The dark flavours are wide, fresh and they grow in intensity – super-focused again. This silky wine leaves a beautiful mouth-watering finish. Short and sweet (the note) but brilliant wine!
Rebuy – Yes

I was hunting around the cellar for some bottles for this weekend – a blind tasting with friends of ‘old stuff’ – at least I will be opening old stuff! I found the bottles I wanted under others. As I was replacing the ‘others’, this wine was in my hands, and I simply thought – why not? If my weekend wines are anything near as good, I’ll be very happy…

The cork had remained a faithful seal, but it was a pig to remove, indeed it ultimately disintegrated despite my best efforts, efforts that aimed to combine a screw-pull worm and an Ah-So. So this was filtered into a decanter through an un-perfumed kitchen towel.

1972 Joseph Matrot, Volnay-Santenots 1er Cru
Medium-pale colour, but bright and shiny. The nose is simply brilliant; powerful, deep, and with roast fruit notes blended with faint bacon and not so faint earth. Wait (at least) 90 minutes and there’s a big smoky whole-cluster element with a finer, more acid-raspberry note too. Fat-textured, round, yet swirling around your mouth shows freshness. The acidity peaks in the mid-palate but without ever becoming spiky, slowly mouth-watering into the sweet finish. The fruit, like the nose, is a little baked but tasty. I can’t get over how impressive and powerful the aromas are here – it’s a rare wine from the Côte de Nuits that could compare – a brilliant performance, chapeau!
Rebuy – No Chance

Actually, I drank this last week, but only now got around to typing the note. We started with two bottles, but the first showed a mild corkiness that was enough to spoil our enjoyment, particularly so, when we realised how good the second bottle was!

1999 Jean-Noël Gagnard, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er les Caillerets
Lemon yellow. The nose is open and fresh though seems to close a little – for just a short time. The flavours are wide and mineral and there is a lovely energy to this wine. The flavour just grows more and more intense as you head into the mid-palate. This is very ‘Caillerets’ in that it is mainly about energy, texture and intensity – there is little fruit to comment on. Super wine!
Rebuy – Yes

2008 Leflaive, Chevalier-Montrachet
Wow – this is showing its wares: Beautiful aromas of fresh citrus fruit, and there’s a really gorgeous depth too – this is just so ‘open’. Intense – I’ll say that again – intense, beautiful flavours and again it’s just so open. A core of agrume fruit – it’s like summer dish of grapefruit and mandarin oranges – oof! Given how sullen, massive, and basically ‘not very tasty’ the 2005 was at the same age, I’m simply amazed. Beautiful, beautiful wine!
Rebuy – Yes

You may remember, that I was more than just pleasantly surprised how good the wines from this ‘maison’ could be. I don’t hold out the same level of hope for some of the grander wines, as clearly Clavelier will have less and less input into the final product, but this is a simply brilliant villages. I think I may have given the ‘Villages Nuits of the Year’ to Potel’s Domaine de Bellene in 2010 and 2011, but this wine would be an interesting competitor for that 2010. It’s excellent.

2010 Maison Clavelier et Fils, Nuits St.Georges
Medium, medium-plus colour. Fresh, mineral width with a more modest but glossy dark-red fruit is also in attendance. Hmmm, this is really silky and fresh, and shows a brilliant depth of dark-fruited flavour – slowly becoming higher-toned and ever-more impressive. There are a few added barrel flavours for complexity too – they take about 30 minutes to fade into the background – long, long, long. This wine is more pleasurable and interesting than about 50% of all the Nuits 1er Crus I’ve tasted in the vintage – and you know how good a vintage it is! Still, at about €30, it is not much cheaper than some of those – you sometimes get what you pay for. Class!
Rebuy – Yes

I guess this could have turned out to be a faux-pas: I know that I consider the winemaking here to be very good, but I should probably have drunk this one before the excellent wine of Nico Rossignol – but c’est la vie! Mind-you, it’s good test!

2010 Louis Max, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Fourneaux
Here the colour is a shade paler than the Rossignol, but still medium, medium-plus. The nose is higher toned at the outset but has a beautiful and clean dark-red fruit note – this is very pretty wine too! Less padded that the last wine and perhaps with just a hint more acidity and a similar hint less tannin, but I also find real depth and concentration to the flavour. Here lies the travesty of points for wines: I would probably have to score this wine one point less than the Rossignol, but there is no gap in pleasure. Another great Fourneaux in 2010!
Rebuy – Yes

2010 Nicolas Rossignol, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Fourneaux
Medium-plus colour. The nose starts and ends with faintly toasted bread, but in the middle is dark-red fruit with a faint spice element – it begs you to take a sip. Here is an uncommon density and padded texture for a Savigny, but with quite enough freshness. There is tannin, it brings a slightly velvet-texture, but you will have to search it out. Mouth-watering and red-fruited, perhaps faintly plummy flavours. Just a very, very, very tasty wine. Excellent Savigny…
Rebuy – Yes