Domaine de l'ARLOT (Prémeaux) -- 2021 Tasted from Bottle

 

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2021 was a disastrously small vintage for white wines in the Côte d’Or, and Domaine de l’Arlot was no exception. Overall volume was down 65% from a full year. As a result, only two white wines were produced. 

All wines below, including the reds, excepting the Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits which is bottled with DIAM, are bottled with cork. Alcohols are in the 13 to 13.5% range. (Continue reading here.)

Maison MARCHAND-TAWSE and Domaine TAWSE (Nuits-Saint-Georges) Part II -- 2022 Côte de Nuits Wines Tasted from Barrel

 

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As I stated in my previous post, this is a producer to consider if you don’t already know it — they provide quality wines, especially at the premier and grand cru level at a time when other sources are drying up in the market.

All wines below négociant wines vinified by Marchand-Tawse and will be sold under the Marchand-Tawse label. (Continue reading here.)

Domaine TRAPET Père & Fils (Gevrey-Chambertin) -- 2018 Tasted from Barrel and Bottle

(Please see my overview of the 2018 vintage here.) 

Jean-Louis Trapet said that harvesting began on Thursday, 6 September. There was heavy use of whole clusters in this vintage, ranging from about 40-50% all the way up to 100%. Malolactic fermentations took place over the winter.

Most of these wines bear a strong signature of the vintage, lacking in many cases the tension and nervosity that appear in most vintages, yet they are successful nonetheless. (Continue reading here.)

Jean-Jacques CONFURON (Premeaux) -- 2017 Tasted from Bottle

My notes from tasting these wines from barrel the previous year are here.

These wines across the board are a fine demonstration of the excellent quality that the 2017 vintage can deliver. (Continue reading here.)

Domaine de l'ARLOT (Premeaux-Prissey) -- 2018 Tasted from Bottle and Barrel Sample

(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. (Continue reading here)

Domaine de l'ARLOT (Prémeaux-Prissey) -- 2016 Tasted from Barrel and Tank Samples

(Originally published November 2017)

Géraldine Godot, the technical director of this biodynamic estate, said that losses in 2016 represented 70% of a normal crop. For the estate as a whole, the yield was 11 hl/ha.

Harvesting in 2016 began on 27 September and lasted six days. Malolactic fermentations were quite quick, finishing by the end of December. The percentages of whole clusters were quite high — not just because that is common practice here, but also because the stems were necessary to fill up the fermenting tanks. As a consequence, except for Clos de l’Arlot and Clos des Forêts Saint-Georges, the reds are entirely whole cluster. All the reds have 50% or less new oak.

There was some acidification for the Hautes Côtes de Nuits in red and white and also for the Côte de Nuits-Villages, Nuits-Clos de l'Arlot, and Vosne-Suchots.

The white wines were already in tank, the reds still in barrel. The whites and the red Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits will be bottled in December, the other wines in April of next year.

Here, we start with the white wines: (Continue reading here.)

Domaine Emmanuel ROUGET (Flagey-Echézeaux) -- 2016 Tasted from Barrel

(Originally published December 2017)

Overall, Emmanuel Rouget said, he only has 20% of a normal crop, although the Cros Parantoux and Beaumonts vineyards did escape the frost.

Harvesting began on 1 October. There was very little triage, and as usual here, all grapes were destemmed. There was no chaptalization and alcohols are almost the same as in 2015.

Malolactic fermentations are a little on the late side — the Bourgogne-Passetoutgrains had not even started when I visited on the last day of October, and the Bourgogne-Hautes Côtes de Nuits was still in full malo. (It’s not unusual for Rouget to still have wines in malo when I visit in October-November.)

Bottling will take place in July, as usual.

As usual, this is an excellent set of wines. Emmanuel says that the acidity of the vintage gives the wines energy and finesse. (Continue reading here.)

Domaine Louis BOILLOT et Fils (Chambolle-Musigny) -- 2016 Part II: Côte de Nuits Tasted from Barrel

(Originally published January 2018)

Background on the harvest at Boillot is here.

This remarkable selection of wines shows wines potentially at the level of the an appellation above; that is, the Bourgogne at the level of a good village wine, the village wines at the level of good premiers crus, and the premiers crus at the level of grands crus. With high prices due to low stocks and high demand for Burgundy, it is wines such as this that most Burgundy fans need to focus on. (Continue reading here.)

Joseph DROUHIN (Beaune) -- 2016 Part IV: Côte de Nuits Village and Premier Cru Reds Tasted from Barrel Samples

(Originally published February 2018)

Drouhin has put together here an attractive set of reds that should drink well young, yet also have the capacity for at least medium-term aging. (Continue reading here.)

Louis BOILLOT et Fils (Chambolle-Musigny) -- 2017 Part II: Côte de Nuits Tasted from Barrel

Boillot is an excellent and very consistent producer who gets nowhere near the recognition that he deserves. As with his Côte de Beaune 2017s, the quality of each of these wines is substantially above what the appellation would lead one to expect. Don’t miss them, if you get the chance. (Continue reading here.)

Domaine Jean-Jacques CONFURON (Prémeaux-Prissey) -- 2017 Tasted from Barrel

Alain Meunier said that he began harvesting 5 or 6 September. Over the summer, he had performed a green harvest. Resulting overall yields were about 40 hl/ha, which he described as “generous,” but that’s not surprising given the frost losses in 2016 and the tendency of vines to come back very vigorously the year following such a frost. There was a 2% bleeding of the vats (saigner) for all wines.

All wines that I tasted below were from destemmed grapes; there were some whole clusters in the Bourgogne, but I did not taste that wine, as it was being prepared for bottling or was already in bottle. 

Now working with his children, Alain said that there was more maceration and less punching down (pigeage) than in the past, less new oak, and as a result, less use of SO₂. The amount of new oak is 20% for village wines, 30% for 1er crus, and 50% for grands crus.

Malo-lactic fermentations took place at various times, some finishing in the January 2018, others finishing not long before I visited in November 2018.  (Continue reading here.)

Domaine de l'ARLOT (Prémeaux-Prissey) -- 2017 Tasted from Bottle and Tank and Barrel Samples

Harvesting began on 7 September, said technical director Géraldine Godot. Yields for this estate overall were 28.5 hl/ha, which she characterized as the lower part of normal.

Following my preference, we begin with the reds. (Continue reading here.)

Louis JADOT (Beaune) -- 2017 Part III: Côte de Nuits Village and Premier Cru Wines

Harvesting in 2017 took place at Jadot between 2 and 28(!) September. (Continue reading here.)

Domaine Jean-Marc MILLOT (Nuits-Saint-Georges) -- 2015 Tasted from Bottle

(Originally published 27 July 2018.)

This is a very good collection, worth seriously considering should you come across the wines. (Continue reading here.)

Domaine Gérard JULIEN & Fils (Comblanchien) -- 2015 Tasted from Bottle

(Originally published 31 July 2018.)

I have no previous experience with this estate, although I have seen the wines in some Paris stores that generally have very good Burgundy selections.

My understanding is that this estate comprises 10 hectares, mostly in Nuits and Côtes de Nuits-Villages, cared for in lutte raisonnée (i.e., organic except as a last resort). Son Étienne has recently taken control and is perceived as upgrading the quality. The cellars are located in Comblanchien.

My response on tasting through this set of wines is that they were good, not great, and this is an estate I would want to see more of. (Continue reading here.)

Louis JADOT (Beaune) 2015 from Barrel Part II -- Regional and Côte de Nuits Village and Premier Cru Reds

(Originally published 12 February 2017.)

Here is the second part of Jadot’s very strong line up of 2015 reds. Particularly notable is that the wines show terroir well, not something that can be said for all wines in 2015. (Continue reading here.)