(Please read the vintage summary here.)
Géraldine Godot, technical director, showed these wines on the last day prior to her taking maternity leave. She said that the vineyards in Premeaux had three big storms that not all villages got, which alleviated the drought in 2018; but the hail also damaged the vines to some extent.
Malo-lactic fermentations finished by end of October. Some wines are acidified - Gerbottes and Clos de l'Arlot in white, Côtes de Nuits-Villages, Clos de l’Arlot, and Suchots in red.
Hails in July (3 times) kept yields down, having the effect of a green harvest. Overall average yields were 29 hl/ha in 2018 for the domaine; there was no hail damage at Vosne-Romanée.
Suchots and Romanée-Saint-Vivant have 35% whole clusters, all the rest of the red wines have essentially none.
Harvesting began on 1 September at Vosne with Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Suchots. The harvesting finished on 7 September.
The Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits and the Côtes de Nuits-Villages in both colors have been in bottle since late August. The rest are samples closed with Coravin. I, and other colleagues, have found the Coravin closures not to preserve the wine samples very well, and hopefully we will not see them in the future.
For whites, the alcohols are around 13-13.5º natural:
2018 Bourgogne-Hauts Côtes de Nuits Le Mont
Fresh, stony Chardonnay nose. Chardonnay fruit, good freshness, delicious to drink now. Simple but very pleasing. No malo here. Vines 7-8 years old. 88/A
2018 Côte de Nuits-Villages Au Leurey
Moderate acidity, but still shows freshness and some structure. Nice stoniness overall. Rounder than the previous wine. 88/B+
2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges La Gerbotte
This is the second wine from the Clos de l’Arlot. The wine had been in stainless steel for a few months and will be bottled in December. Apples with a bit of peach, some structure, but not standing out as much as a Côte de Nuits white as it usually does. Medium-weight, some sensuality. (89-91)
2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de L’Arlot
Excellent depth, stoniness, good structure, freshness. Apply young Chardonnay fruit. Should be able to age well. More of a Côte de Nuits here than with the previous wines. (90-93)
Reds:
2018 Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits Le Mont
Vines barely 10 years-old. Red currant and dark fruits, dense, good depth. Lacks the complexity of older vines, but quite successful for young vines. Good freshness. A very pleasurable bottle to drink with potential to age. 87/A-
2018 Côtes de Nuits-Villages Clos du Chapeau
Average vine age is 45-50 years old. Good density, nice soy aspect to dark fruits adds freshness. Good tension. Tannins are round but present. 89/A-
2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Mont des Oiseaux
Youngest (10-15 years) vines of Clos de l’Arlot. Floral nose. Medium-weight, not as deep or dense as Clos du Chapeau. Red fruits — pretty wine, but simple and not profound. Good tannins. (87-90)
2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos de l’Arlot
Attractive sour red cherry nose. Very good density, precision to red fruits, nice freshness and structure — quality tannins. (91-94)
2018 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots
Served ahead of Clos des Forêts because Géraldine Godot finds more similarity in tannic structure. Suchots earthiness in nose. Smooth, velvet, medium depth; tannins but not hard give structure. Medium-weight. Good freshness. (91-93)
2018 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Forêts Saint-Georges
Nose is still fairly closed. Medium-weight, smooth, red and dark fruits, not as precise as Clos de l’Arlot. Needs time to develop (for the moment, I prefer the Clos de l’Arlot), but there is good material here. A wine of some power, but not a monster. (91-94)
2018 Romanée-Saint-Vivant
Spicy red fruits. Medium-weight, smooth, red fruits, some RSV sensuality. No great penetration for the moment. A wine that needs time, but not because of its structure, just needs to settle. (93-95)