Tasted in Givry with Jean-Baptiste Bordeaux Montrieux, 02 November 2015.
Domaine Thénard
7 Rue de L’Hôtel de ville
71640 Givry
Tel: +33 3 85 44 31 36
A branch of the Thénard family owned land in Givry since at least 1760, but the estate was actually founded in 1842 by the Baron Paul Thénard and it was he who purchased the domaine’s two parcels of Montrachet – both on the Chassagne-side of the appellation – bringing together a whopping 1.83 hectares. Thénard remain the second largest owner in Montrachet after the Laguiche family.
Although Jean-Baptiste (and his wife Dominique) have been responsible at the domaine since the early 1980s and continues the family interest in this 23 hectare domaine, he actually hails from the départment of the Loire.
For many years, Thénard had a close relationship with the Beaune house of Remoissenet – much of their production was sold through them, but a proportion was always bottled locally with their own label. Today they work more with Louis Jadot.
France remains the main sales market. Their main selling agent is Diva.
Jean-Baptiste on the 2015 vintage:
“The rain in the first week of August was a total blessing in 2015 as the maturity was blocked, but it wasn’t as bad as 2003. The last real catastrophe was 1984 – the vintage was late, blocked and hardly ripe – that was terrible. 1983 had a lot of rot but was still better than 1984. The last vintages have been ‘années fatigués’ after the hail. In 2015 we have some extraordinary things, but, again, not lots…”
Jean-Baptiste on the 2014 vintage:
“Well, there’s not a lot, but what there is, is good. Half a harvest in Montrachet, though there’s more in 2015 but not lots; we’ve lots of old vines, so… we’re not miracle workers.”
The wines…
Long elevage is the norm here, it almost seems out-of-place to be tasting their 2014s, because the majority of their 2013s are not yet bottled! “We are very happy to do that in this cold cellar,” says Jean-Baptiste. The only really long wait for malolactics was for the Grands-Echézeaux which didn’t finish until late in the summer.
In 2014 these (often cheaper!) red Givrys will outperform many, many a Bourgogne Rouge. I’m usually less of a fan of the white Givrys but the 2014 ‘Cellier aux Moines’ is really excellent!
2014 Givry Blanc
Blanc accounts for two of Thénard’s 18 hectares of Givry.
Quite perfumed, fresh, lithe and direct, just a hint of salty minerality. Tasty!
Now assembled.
Bright fresh but with weight too, wow this is deep and long, peppery too. Very impressed. That’s the advantage of the small yields 😉
Deeper aromas, more herby and almost textured – this smells great. Wide, with an intense core and good complexity. Long too. Excellent wine…
Only 16 barrels from 1.8 ha, about 50% new oak from a melange of coopers.
A deeper, tighter nose. Narrow entry, big, opening wider and wider and with lovely intensity. Here is a really incredible width and depth of finishing flavour. I remembered it for the whole day…
Les rouges…
Slowly growing pretty red notes. Direct, quite acidic in attack but then it opens out beautifully with more padding and surprising complexity – really lovely finishing.
The nose has some floral elements. Bigger in the mouth, the peak of spicy flavour coming in the mid-palate – again very impressively finishing. Yum!
A little deeper colour. A fresher nose with herbs and high-toned red fruit. Full of energy and good intensity – more direct to start, finally opens out in the finish with layers of flavour – super!
2014 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Ile des Vergellesses
A new barrel, so a hint of spice from that, similar in the mouth too. An older barrel is more silky, also in the mouth. Here is width and an almost almond note – very much wider in the mouth, finishing with some tannin texture – lots of dry material in the finish here. Lots of potential.
2014 Corton Clos du Roi
Deep, with a growing aromatic width too. Very inviting. Direct, silky, intense, really more complexity in the mid-palate versus the Pernand.
A narrow line of aroma. But beautiful high and low tones, in fact really beautiful. A weight of flavour in the middle that melts over the tongue; such a baby but with excellent potential!