Tasted in Monthelie with Cataldina Lippo, 08 November 2019.
Domaine Monthelie Douhairet Porcheret
1 Rue Cadette
21190 Monthelie
Tel: +33 6 26 05 33 65
www.domainemontheliedouhairet.com
Cataldina on 2019:
“It was a good vintage – of-course we were worried by frost, and maybe we lost a little of the white at the top of the valley but only that. Just one period of poor weather, unfortunately that was during flowering so we had lots of coulure – so about minus 20% in whites but correct in red.”
Cataldina on 2018:
“2018 resembles 2019 in some ways, different grapes and more, no maturity blocks, unlike a little in 2019. It was a perfect year – such a lot of rain at the start of the year so it wasn’t easy to treat and prune during that time of the year but afterwards, it was very easy, right up to the harvest. In the end, it was the harvest date that was the hardest thing to choose – we began 1st September vs 3rd September in 2017 – we have lots of old vines here, and they suffered less in the drought.”
The wines…
A good range in 2018 with some great wines included.
The whites were bottled in August most of the reds not yet.
2018 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Here’s a nice berry fruit – fresh – good! Lovely line, pretty, open – that’s a little non-standard for 2018 with this open freshness. Perhaps a little smoky oak in the middle but very nice – there’s a certain rare elegance here. Yum!
2018 Monthelie ‘Miss Armande’
Armande Duhairet was an early owner of the domaine. There is also for white with the same name. All destemmed. Vines in a combe, a colder place here. Bottled same time as the whites
Medium colour. Nicely perfumed and open nose. Round, lovely depth of texture but with an airy freshness, almost perfumed. Long. Delicious finishing, excellent.
2018 Monthelie Monopole Clos Meix Garnier
A 1.5 ha clos. ‘Normally a more structured wine’ Racked, normally bottled in Feb, but maybe earlier as all fermentations were done quite early
A little more colour. Deeper, riper but still very red fruit. Fresh, more mouth-filling but still open in style – not too opulent and really very pretty red fruit through the core into the finish, a little sweet oak in the finish and extra complexity too. Long. Super.
Good colour. Brighter more purity of red berries. Fresher, driving a little tannin in the middle but this is melting, pure and quite mineral too. The structure suggests waiting for a little but it’s a beauty – bravo!
2018 Maranges 1er Fussière
Contract fruit but make decisions what is done and when, they also choose the date of harvest and make harvest themselves…
A narrower but fresh, fine, almost mineral nose. Fresh, driving, direct, very aromatic, floral, fruit. Long, mineral, saline but always sweet too. Super Maranges of fine purity.
2018 Volnay 1er En Champans
One parcel but long rows from the bottom to the top – about 300m – in the middle, the neighbours are Hospices de Beaune, one of the Bouzereau and d’Angerville
A little more colour. Ooh, that’s an open and perfumed nose – it has my attention! Layered, cool fruited, lovely very fine texture, a little contemplative but that’s down to the extra concentration. A beautiful wine – mouth-watering in the long, delicious finish – excellent, perhaps with even more potential!
On the Volnay side, a ‘softer’ Pommard vs the Beaune side. ‘The core of Pommard but with the elegance of Volnay’
A deeper, perhaps faintly reductive nose. More driving and more freshness than Champans, open, melting, more than a little mineral, ooh that’s beautiful – yum – Bravo!
2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles
A little lighter, redder colour. Broader, deeper, very faintly reductive. Supple, wide, really a nice concentration – airy in the middle. The tannin is completely different, a creamier fruit too – or perhaps that’s the oak – though red!
2017 Clos de Vougeot
This was bottled in May.
There’s oak here but this is complex, open, floral – super-inviting. Softer structure but still with plenty of structure. Oak behind but well-managed. Very long, very long…
Les blancs:
DIAM for the Bourgogne all the rest use cork.
2018 Bourgogne Chardonnay
Bright, intense and inviting. Open, easy over the palate but quite mineral and with a lovely easy complexity – very easy to drink – and enjoy!
2018 Monthelie Blanc
30 yo vines – this the young vine cuvée
A little reductive touch here. Open, easy over the palate lovely grain of tannin in the middle. Only really opens in the finish, but here it’s delicious and quite moreish!
The old vines – but 80 years old. Same work in the vines but very different wines.
Also a slightly reductive nose – perhaps a little more airy. Ooh – more mineral and driving, perfectly silky, reductive in the middle flavours too, deliciously finishing. Great Monthelie.
2018 Monthelie 1er Les Duresses
Planted in red and white here.
This more open, more agrume fruit in style. Wider, more concentrated but also with a lovely base of minerality. More complex finishing, here showing a few oak notes, but long and satisfying – excellent!
2018 Meursault Le Pre de Manche
Villages, Between Clos du Cromin and Santenots
A tighter nose. Supple, open structure, slowly the flavour starts to leach from the rocks here, Meursault flavour. This is easy and open but particularly delicious finishing. Yum!
2018 Meursault 1er Santenots
About 5 producers here now after Roy replanted some red.
That’s a bigger, very open nose. Full, but open in style despite plenty of concentration. This slowly offers-up a growing complexity – delicious but would even more interesting with a little more energy. So long though.
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