Ric's Wine Journal

If the name Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux has a familiar ring to it, that’s probably because you must have come across its predecessor Domaine Robert Arnoux. Established in 1858 in Vosne-Romanée, the latter made a wide range of wines from the Côte de Nuits without being quite remarkable. Things changed in 1995 when Robert Arnoux (not to be confused with the actor), himself a fourth generation winemaker at the domaine bearing his name, passed the reins over to his son-in-law Pascal Lachaux who began instituting certain changes: 100% de-stemming, lower yields, ploughing and more new oak.

Charles Lachaux

Quality soared, enabling the domaine to expand its holdings to almost 15 hectares of choice parcels, the last addition being Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru in 2008. That same year, the domaine’s name was changed to Arnoux-Lachaux. In 2011, Pascal’s son Charles joined the fray, the 2012 vintage being the first to be vinified under his charge. Interestingly, Charles has reverted to fermentation using 80% whole bunches and restricted the usage of new oak to 15% for village, 25% for premier cru and up to 40% for grand cru, with periods of èlevage ranging between 12 and 18 months. When we visited on the morning of 22 October 2018, Charles Lachaux himself took us through a lengthy tasting of the domaine’s 2017 from barrel, racked just three days prior and ready for bottling in another couple of months. I found the wines to be highly supple, delicate, fresh and elegant, free of heaviness and over-extraction even in the heavyweights of Vosne-Romanée. The visit culminated in a 2016 Vosne-Romanée and a 2015 Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Proces 1er, both blinded, that blew our socks off. Under Charles’ watch, Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux is clearly enjoying a further Renaissance. The wines represent outstanding value (2022 Editor’s note: but sadly no longer so). They are not to be under-estimated in any way. Merci, Charles.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Bourgogne. Lovely rosy hue with a gentle fragrance. Good concentration and presence, layered with gentle earthy tones, subtle in intensity. Very agreeable.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Nuits-Saint-Georges. Correct pinot tint. Lovely floral fragrance. Medium-bodied. Soft, rounded and supple.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Chambolle-Musigny. Gentle rosy hues with further notes of camphor and rose petals. Supple with fine acidity and lovely gentle intensity. Doesn’t quite carry the usual weight of Chambolle.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Beaune. Lovely aromatics. Gentle, clean and delicious. Fine supple presence tinged with earth. Well balanced and proportioned without any of the burliness that sometimes accompanies Beaune.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanée Les Hautes Maizieres. Deeper nose of ripe black berries and dark cherries, most appropriate for Vosne-Romanee. Highly supple with very fine presence and balance, striking a feminine delicacy with gentle rosy characters. Drinking well.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Poisets. Ripe supple rosy notes lit with lithe earthy tones on a clean lean palate, rather delicate.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Proces 1er. Deeper aromas of strawberries and light cherries, showing good weight and density of fruit with good vigour and intensity. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanée Les Chaumes 1er. Shy. Very fine concentration and depth of fruit, displaying very good intensity and layering within a medium-bodied frame. Well-integrated, brimming with quiet vibrancy. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos des Corvées Pagets 1er. Lovely perfumed fragrance, completing well a brighter warmer palate of light red fruits, showing very good levels of ripeness and suppleness.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Clos Vougeot Grand Cru. Glorious color and purity. Rounded and fleshy, displaying excellent presence and integration with very finely detailed tannins. Understated in intensity but vibrant in a feminine way. Attractive.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Échezeaux Grand Cru. Good color. Good purity and expression with excellent sense of depth. Layered with a deeper vein of fruit, showing fine acidity with understated structure and intensity. Vibrant yet delicate. Quite excellent.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru. Opaque pinot tint, exuding lovely fresh floral tones with very fine presence and concentration. More plummy with saline minerals, finishing with racy mouth-tingling acidity. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots 1er. Good color. Deep bouquet of bright red fruits and currants. Excellent in ripeness and concentration with finely nuanced acidity, quite seamless. Vibrant. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanée Aux Reignots 1er. Beautiful deep note of ripe blueberries, red fruits and currants. Very fresh. Highly supple with an unique vein of deeper fruit with seamless integration of fine acidity, displaying subtle intensity with plenty of quiet energy. Quite excellent.

2017 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru. Some attractive early complexity on the nose, predominantly red fruits with the glow of tangerines. Superb in concentration, well-layered with supple intensity, carrying tremendous energy yet imbued with lovely elegance. Excellent.

2016 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Vosne-Romanée. Tasted blind. Glorious color. Tremendous verve, concentration and intensity of ripe red fruits and dark plums. Highly generous, caressing the palate with fabulous purity and elegance, finishing well. Superb.

2015 Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Proces 1er. Tasted blind. Glorious colour with a deep complex bouquet of ripe red fruits and red plums. Cleanly focused with excellent concentration, displaying unprecedented level of richness with well-resolved tannins, finishing with good length. Excellent.

Many domaines in Burgundy are witnessing succession changes where the winemaking is being taken over by a younger generation, just as the incumbent had done so from its predecessor. The key difference is that the current generation of younger winemakers, thanks to a connected world nowadays, are better exposed to new ideas and exchange of knowledge that are likely to lead to better quality. Domaine Philippe Livera, which we visited in the afternoon of 29 October 2018 in the old part of Gevrey, is a classic example. Established in 1920 and known formerly as Domaine des Tilleuls where most of its wines were sold off as bulk, the reins were passed from Philippe Livera to his son Damien (the fourth generation) in 2005, who promptly effected necessary changes that have resulted in a quantum leap in quality. The domaine began bottling under its own name. Yields are low, organic viticulture and plowing are in place, harvesting by hand with 100% de-stemming, grapes are very lightly pressed with minimal lees contact while racking is carried out according to the moon phases. New oak is used a bit more liberally, up to 40% for the village wines while its Chapelle-Chambertin receives even more. Working with his sister Helene, the last four vintages have been made entirely by them without the influence of Philippe. Working on 8 hectares of family-owned vines in Gevrey-Chambertin and the northern Cote-de-Nuits, Damien brings out real quality in his Marsannay and Fixin that would have been quite unimaginable a decade earlier. I was especially struck by its Fixin and Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Village, both beautifully made and gorgeous, the latter planted just right in front of the estate and essentially a quasi-monopole of the domaine as nobody else bottles a Clos Village. Its Chapelle-Chambertin vines are located just below Clos de Beze. This is a really promising domaine, offering great quality for value. One wishes the talented Damien and his sister have access to other prime parcels in Gevrey.

Helene & Damien Livera

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Bourgogne Blanc. From Gevrey. Very pale, closed on the nose though the palate is quite attractive. Very fresh, clean and lively, imbued with supple light green fruits melons laced with excellent acidity, finishing with a glowing minty floral flourish. Quite lovely.

2016 Domaine Philippe Livera Bourgogne Rouge. Deep in colour but shut. Quite pleasant on the palate where dark fruits dominate with some earthiness, showing good acidity supported by a minerally base, just a tad short. No new wood.

2016 Domaine Philippe Livera Fixin. Good colour, exuding aromatic dark fruits with cedary tones. Well extracted, displaying good density and concentration with very fine acidity, structured with very finely-grained tannins, carrying good weight, freshness and intensity, imparting very good mouthfeel.  40% new wood. Very fine.

2016 Domaine Philippe Livera Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Village. From 1.3 ha of rocky terroir. Deep colour. Attractive bouquet of ripe dark plums. Good extraction, producing fine concentration and acidity with a delicious gentle depth of ripe dark berries. Quite seamless. Lovely spicy finish. Quite excellent.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Bourgogne. Good colour. Lovely nose of warm ripe fruit and bright cherries with a firm ferrous minerally tone that carried well onto the medium-full palate. Supple and fleshy with good acidity, showing very fine bourgogne character.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Cote de Nuits-Village. Sourced from Brochon, between Fixin and Gevrey. Deep purple. Somewhat shut and awkward on the nose while a stern minerally tone with woody elements dominate on the palate, threatening to overwhelm the fruit, though there is good power, intensity and acidity. Needs time to sort itself out.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Marsannay. Dark red plums dominate with some degree of earthiness that lend an overall darkish tone, well-extracted with raw power and intensity underscored by clean focused acidity that tapered to an assertive finish.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Fixin. Deep colour. Bright fleshy and supple, showing good concentration of fruit with good integration of minerals and acidity, finishing with a lovely gentle glow. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Gevrey Chambertin En Champs. Good colour. Attractive sultry bouquet of red fruits and dark cherries with a bright lifted tone on the palate, quite excellent in presence and acidity, structured with highly supple tannins. Quite excellent.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles. Deep crimson. Good concentration of bright red fruits structured with firm acidity within tight assertive tannins, showing good linearity but lacking in dimension.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Village. Deep crimson. Lovely deep bouquet of ripe red plums, dark cherries and currants. Good attack and concentration, displaying seamless fine acidity, finishing with dry intensity. Very successful.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru. Deep crimson. Good concentration of dark plums and currants, very lively with exciting acidity that conferred great suppleness and tone, rounded and fleshy, structured with very finely grained tannins supported by understated earthy minerality. Only 4 barrels.

2009 Domaine Philippe Livera Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru. Made then by Philippe. Popped and poured ex-cellars. Very dark. Good lift of light herbal medicinal tones amidst dark cherries and black currants. Medium-full. Rather ripe and well-extracted, displaying lively acidity and vigour with early secondary nuances on a cedary floor, structured with detailed ferrous minerals. A darker than usual Chapelle-Chambertin. Excellent.

As the mainstream wines of Burgundy become more and more exposed with prices set to climb even higher as demand can never be satiated, the smart move would be to source for the “next big thing”. That may jolly well come from way south of Burgundy in the Mâconnais region, and a very strong contender there would be Domaine Thibert Père et Fils, run by Christophe Thibert and his sister Sandrine. From humble beginnings in 1967, this domaine has now expanded to 39 hectares centered around Saint-Veran, Pouilly and Mâcon, all grown and farmed entirely by the domaine. The vines are old, the oldest stretching back to the 1920s while the youngest, planted in 1969, are not young in any way. Combining traditional and modern practices, Christophe prefers the freedom to do things as he deems fit instead of being tied down to any dogma. Nestled within the rustic rolling hills of Fuissé next to an old chapel, Domaine Thibert is a modern and sophisticated set-up with clean and beautiful cellars. When we visited on the morning of 30 October 2018 after a very long drive from Vosne-Romanée, Christophe was busy tending to his various 2017s and the freshly-pressed 2018s sitting in long rows of stainless steel tanks. Running up and down, continually making fine adjustments here and there, one can see that Christophe is gripped by an absolute obsession for his passion. Christophe prefers a longer elevage of 20-22 months and uses up to 50% new oak. After tasting the 2017s, we settled down for lunch within the cellars where a line-up of back vintages had been prepared. Here, the wines truly come into their own after having spent time in bottle. They are plump, elegant and richly layered with outstanding fruit, acidity and minerality. If only we could be drinking this sort of wines every day. Well, you could, before prices start moving. Interestingly, his wine bottles are specially shaped with longer-than-usual necks, another of Christophe’s quirks. This really is an excellent domaine.

2017 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Saint-Verain Champ Rond. Great lifted perfumed floral fragrance of light green fruits, citrus and fig that carried very well onto the finely detailed palate, finishing with lovely freshness and fine intensity.

2017 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Saint-Verain Bois des Fee. Single vineyard. Highly delicate nose filled with lovely fullness and chalkiness coupled with excellent presence of fresh lime and yellow citrus on the palate. Very clean and precise, displaying great detail with very fine acidity and intensity. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé Les Cras. Single vineyard, from 58 year-old vines. Lovely tingling dense perfumed fragrance. Medium-full. Quite delicate and poised with clean understated intensity and structure, finishing well with excellent mouthfeel.

2017 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé Vigne Blanche. Intense lime on the nose with a tinge of bitter lemon. Zesty with plenty of verve, displaying excellent concentration and acidity.

2017 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé Menetrieres. Full bloom of intensely delicate lime and citrus on the nose. Medium-full. Shows tremendous zest, freshness and precision, very fine in acidity and minerality. Delicious with plenty of finesse. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Longeays. From 2 ha of vines. Lifted clean bouquet of delicate lime and citrus with a fresh clean floral bloom. Medium-full, imbued with subdued chalkiness and subtle earthy minerals, exuding lovely elegance and balance, finishing well. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Loché En Chantone. Single vineyard. Highly lifted bouquet of intense yellow citrus. Full presence of warm ripe fruit, poised with lovely elegance and understated acidity, tinged with traces of sweetness. Very lovely.

Christophe Thibert

2016 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Mâcon-Verzé. Rich chalky creamy nose, highly attractive. Rather full and plump with a fresh clean feel on the palate, displaying good delicacy with sublime understated acidity, finishing gently with good linearity. Very pleasurable.

2016 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Longeays. Plump effusive bouquet of intense white citrus and dense minerals, displaying excellent presence, concentration and transparency with fine acidity, layered with complex minerals. Lovely delicate finish. Excellent.

2015 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Saint-Verain Champ Rond. Fabulous deep bouquet of rich creamy minerals that hinted at immense elegance. Medium-full, displaying excellent concentration, depth and intensity of fruit with great definition amidst smoky overtones and oily textures, layered with sublime acidity, finishing well. Superb.

2015 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Longeays. Very unique bouquet of intense citrus, floral and savoury tones. Medium-full. Full, fresh and elegant, imbued with great acidity with further depth of fruit and a hint of gun smoke, showing some early complexity, finishing with great length and linearity. Excellent.

2015 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Saint-Verain Bois des Fee. Superb bouquet. Glorious luminous fruit of wonderful depth, richly layered with ash, immense concentration of citrus and dense chalky minerals that stood out with chiselled presence, complemented by superb acidity and complex minerals. Plump and opulent, finishing with great linearity and persistence. Outstanding.

2015 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Loché En Chantone. Dense chalky minerally nose underscored by crisp acidity with great concentration of intense citrus, showing great vigour and early complexity with overtones of ash. Weighty but well-balanced, finishing with great persistence. Excellent.

2015 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé Vigne Blanche. Rounded bouquet, medium-bodied, elegantly poised with gentle white fruits and understated acidity, finishing with glowing intensity. Lovely.

2013 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé Les Cras. Rich chalky bouquet, rounded with open depth with a firm full minerally tone on the palate marked by lifted citrus, not overwhelming, developing explosive complexity with food. Quite excellent.

2008 Domaine Thibert Père & Fils Pouilly-Fuissé Vigne Blanche. Poured from magnum. Deep enthralling bouquet of complex white fruits and dense minerals that led to a precise delicate palate of chalky minerals on a backdrop of dense oily petroleum textures and sublime acidity, superb in definition, finishing with great length. Outstanding.

Meursault is truly home to some of the best stars of Burgundy still under the radar. One of these is Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet, started in 1981 by the man himself when he took over a fledgling winery from his father with small holdings in Meursault Les Gruyaches and Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts 1er. With a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve and a fastidious work attitude, Jean-Philippe literally worked the ground. He has his own compost-making facility, it is all manual work in the vineyards, ploughing is done by horses, farming is organic, he green-harvests, vine stock is capped at 6-7 grapes and all harvesting and sorting are done by hand. The wines are vinified with minimal new oak, at most 30%. He is truly a very busy man, evident by the fact that our appointment had to be re-scheduled to a later time of 6.00 PM on 26 October 2018. No grand crus here, and only one premier cru (the above-mentioned Referts). As in Coche-Dury and Roulot, Jean-Philippe prefers to concentrate on bringing out the best possible expression of each individual lieu-dit. His efforts have clearly paid off. Tasting through the 2017s, a generous and exceptional vintage for Jean-Philippe, one that he feels fits his vision better than the less-than-ideal 2016 where some alcoholic fermentation was incomplete, the wines of Domaine Fichet consistently exude excellent purity of fruit, balance and layering. In particular, the Meursault villages can all share the same table as Coche-Dury and Roulot, while his other whites from Monthelie, Auxey-Duresses, Rully, Chassagne and Puligny are equally superb. Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet is where the smart money should be. Merci beaucoup, Jean-Philippe.

Jean-Philippe Fichet

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Bourgogne Aliqote. Clean grassy elements with gentle morning dew.  Good concentration and firm, largely fruit driven with well-balanced minerals. Lively with good energy.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Bourgogne Blanc. Clean lifted floral tone tinged with morning dew. Good attack and concentration. Rounded with fine acidity and good purity, finishing with a gentle note of white pepper. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Bourgogne Blanc VV. Lifted nose of white citrus, very cleanly focused. Medium-bodied. Quite ample, displaying very fine acidity and presence with great delicacy and elegance, finishing with quiet intensity. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Beaune. Lifted full bouquet of white floral tone. Fullish with a distinct minerally tone, displaying fine acidity and intensity. Good finish.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Monthelie. Full attractive floral fragrance with ripe citrusy flavors. Medium-full. Superb acidity and balance with tremendous vigour, finishing gently. Plenty of promise. Great value.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Auxey-Duresses. Quite effusive. More of grassy elements amidst delicate tones, displaying clean crisp acidity and white peppery tones with good presence, transparency and structure. Finishing well. Quite excellent.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Rully. Firm white floral tones on a distinct minerally palate, showing good weight and presence with very fine acidity and delicate intensity, tapering to a soft gentle finish. Very fine and attractive.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Chassagne-Montrachet. Lovely balanced bouquet of dense fruit and creamy chalky minerals. Good attack, possessing just the right degree of fullness, weight and balance with an attractive deep minerally streak, rather plump, imbued with excellent power and elegance. Finished with great mouthfeel and persistence. Superb.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault. Mildly reductive earthy nose though nicely nuanced with raw nutmeg and fine white pepper, layered with austere minerality and prominent acidity. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault Les Gruyaches. Lifted white peppery tone. Rather full. Very well-integrated with firm acidity, excellent depth and linearity. From 90 year-old vines. Excellent.

2007 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault Les Chevalieres. With the advantage of significant bottle age, this outstanding lieu-dit of Meursault boasts a rich creamy bouquet of distilled white fruits, beautifully delicate, showing excellent definition, exquisite detail and precision with lingering tones of vanilla, culminating in a complex finish of spicy tangy mouthfeel amidst superb acidity. Outstanding.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault Les Chevalieres. Still in barrel but the same DNA is evident, displaying an expansive white floral tone with excellent depth and concentration of fruit, layered with superb acidity that enhanced its inner precision and detail. Very well-balanced, tapering to a spicy tangy finish. Great potential.

2015 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault Les Tesson. Effusive nose of complex tropical fruits that hinted at a delicate gentle sweetness, superb in acidity and fine intensity, nicely plump and ripe, displaying great verve and wonderful length with a deep vein of fruit. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Meursault Les Tesson. Highly promising bouquet of white flowers with traces of grassy elements amidst gentle chalky tones. Good concentration. Open and highly supple, displaying great inner detail and lovely integration, ending with excellent linearity in a long clear minerally finish. Great potential.

2017 Domaine Jean-Philippe Fichet Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts 1er. Full bouquet of dense white fruits and citrus with clean crisp focused acidity well-balanced against fine minerality and overtones of white pepper, showing good linearity and expression.

Just further down the same road from Domaine Coche-Dury is the other superstar of Meursault, Domaine Roulot, often (and deservedly) mentioned in the same breath as Coche. Founded in 1830 by Guillaume Roulot, its modern history took off with Guy Roulot in the 1960s. Having married Genevieve Coche, which added some prized parcels of vines to the domaine, Guy also began the process of vinifying and bottling each individual lieu-dit separately, which allowed him to understand and bring out the character of each micro-terroir. Following his untimely death in 1982, the winemaking at the domaine was supervised by three caretaker vignerons – Jacques Seysses, Ted Lemon and Franck Grux – before Guy’s son Jean-Marc Roulot was ready to step up to the role in 1989. He has been in charge since and the holdings of the domaine has expanded to 15 hectares. Certified organic since 2015, Jean-Marc likes to bring out the acidity of healthy grapes by crushing first, before pressing. New oak is used sparingly, 20% for village and up to 30% for the crus. It was a pity that Jean-Marc was not available to meet us when we visited the domaine in the late afternoon of 31 October 2018. Nevertheless, the line-up we tasted revealed very well the superb style of Roulot: wines of compelling acidity and intensity coupled with razor-sharp precision and detail without being imposing. If one is to drink them alongside Coche-Dury, I would say the latter is a little more structured, masculine and plump while Roulot possesses a very special delicate intensity and deftness on the palate. The best is to drink a wine of the same vintage from both these domaines side-by-side over a meal, which was what we did during our trip. Buy what you can though, chances are, they are difficult to come by.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault. Very pale. Effusive in white citrus with delicate minerality. Fullish, showing excellent inner detail, with crisp acidity and very fine intensity. Very clean and precise, finishing with a stinging mouthfeel. Refreshing. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Vireuils. Lightly luminous. Good lift of white floral tone, dense lemon and citrus. Full-bodied, displaying clean crisp acidity and definition with more intensity than the preceding village Meursault, finishing on a distinct minerally tone with gentle persistence. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Meix Chavaux. More depth and layering on the nose where delicate floral tones and white citrus dominate. Excellent in concentration and power, displaying razor-sharp precision and definition with a deeper inner note of grassy elements. Finished with excellent linearity. Superb.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Luchets. Great lift of crystalline and ferrous minerals amidst white floral tones. Superb presence and density on the palate. Rounder and more fleshy, layered with sublime acidity, very subtly nuanced, finishing with lovely gentle persistence. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Tesson Clos du Mon Plaisir. Rounded bouquet of lovely floral and minerally tones permeate throughout. Highly integral. Layered with great concentration of fruit that exuded sharp precision and definition with exquisite intensity and depth. Outstanding.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Charmes-Dessous 1er. Even richer on the nose, more dense in fruit and sublime minerality. Superbly layered, rounded with exquisite fullness and intensity. Highly expressive yet subtle in its detailed nuances, culminating in a superb finish of great linearity and glowing persistence with a certain stoniness and white peppery tones, producing superb mouthfeel. Absolutely on song. Outstanding.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Clos des Boucheres 1er. Distinct floral boquet. Rather full. More lean in minerality on the palate, displaying subtle white citrus with sharp definition and crisp cutting acidity. Very clean in feel, tightly coiled with fabulous intensity, showing early complexity with a bit of grassy elements at its finish. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Roulot Meursault Perrieres-Dessous 1er. Full rounded bouquet of creamy minerality with dense floral tones that led to a palate of great concentration and layering, very well-balanced against the exquisite intensity and acidity, imparting a wonderful mouthfeel of delicate intensity amidst subtle grassy elements and green fruits. Outstanding.

2011 Domaine Roulot Meursault Tillets. Tasted blind. Deep layers of lovely fruit on the nose while the palate is superbly layered with a glorious depth of raw nutmeg, savoury tones and sweet white fruits, displaying exquisite intensity and concentration amidst subtle chalky tones, finishing with superb early complexity. Outstanding.

Just when you thought Chassagne is already saturated with great producers of its famous whites, there comes another to chip away at the pie. Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot may trace its origins to Jean-Baptiste Pillot who started the domaine in 1910 which subsequently passed to his sons Henri and Alphonse. The latter’s share was passed on to Jean and, now, his son Jean-Marc has taken over entirely since 1991. Owning 11 hectares mainly in Chassagne, Jean-Marc makes stunning whites as well as gorgeous reds. His methods are not dissimilar to the purist approach: high density plantings (10,000-12,000 vines per ha), de-budding, green harvesting, horse ploughing, de-stemming (for reds) and minimum new oak (only up to 30%). The wines are left on lees for 12 months before being racked into stainless steel tanks for another 6 months. Jean-Marc believes firmly in the value of hard work and extreme precision. When we visited his cellar in the late afternoon of 30 October 2018, his workers were still busy. We also found laser beams trained at the rows of barrels because Jean-Marc wants every single barrel to be positioned in perfect alignment. He insists it makes a difference to the wines. And I believe it must be so, for the wines we tasted displayed effortless precision and elegance in their expression of terroir. This is an excellent domaine. Prices are still within easy reach though I doubt for long.

Note the laser pointer (foreground)

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Bourgogne Blanc. Lovely aromas. Clear crystalline tones with a bit of sweetness, delicate in acidity with fine definition, very tightly structured, displaying good power with white floral tones. Very good!

2017 Maison Jean-Marc Pillot Montagny. A negociant wine. Effusive in dense white floral tones, displaying lovely depth and presence with very controlled basal minerality, not overdone. Nicely rounded with a gentle finish.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Saint-Romain La Perriere 1er. Grassy elements with a generous expanse of clear and yellow citrus. Very fine in acidity with overtones of raw nutmeg, displaying excellent presence and balance, finishing with excellent mouthfeel.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Puligny-Montrachet. Somewhat reserved on the nose but showing ample bloom of white flowers and white peppery tones on the palate. Gently structured with soft elegant tones. Should turn out to be very fine.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet. Gentle bouquet of clear citrus. Good concentration of fruit with overtones of nutmeg and white pepper, displaying clean precision with a fine minerally balance, subtly intense with a taut finish. Very good potential.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers 1er. Gentle notes of icing and grassy elements. Medium-bodied. Fleshy with lovely fragrance and delicacy. Refreshing.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeots 1er. Lifted broad expanse of white flowers. Rounded with good precision, very subtly layered with understated minerals. .

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Les Caillerets 1er. Lovely floral fullness on the nose with a forward fruity balance. Medium-bodied. Open in transparency with good inner definition, subtle in acidity and finish. Exudes feminine elegance. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers 1er Clos Saint Marc. Effusive delicate nose of white floral tones, white fruits and nutmeg. Subtly structured with great concentration and superb detail amidst gentle notes of vanilla and cool icing. Very softly rounded, layered with excellent depth and minerality, finishing with excellent precision. Highly elegant. Superb. A special cuvee produced from a 0.5 ha walled portion of Les Vergers containing vines planted in 1910. Only 6 barrels.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru. Minerally bouquet of white flowers with undertones of white pepper, beautifully nuanced in rich layering of refined minerals and fruit with excellent depth and balanced acidity, superbly integrated. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeots 1er Rouge. Deep note of wonderfully ripe raspberries, dark cherries and licorice on the nose coupled with unusual characters of preserved plums and olives on the palate though very fine in acidity, depth and layering. Very well proportioned and balanced. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet Clos St Jean 1er Rouge. Dark raspberries and dark plums dominate on the nose with a certain raciness, saturated with ripe glossy black fruits and great acidity that conferred superb suppleness. Big but balanced. May not be everyone’s idea of Burgundy but undeniably attractive.

Jean-Marc Pillot

Domaine Seguin-Manuel, located in Savigny-les-Beaune, can trace its roots back to 1824. However, its wines only really took off in 2004 after the domaine was acquired by Thibault Marion, who had cut his teeth in the wine business with Chanson. Its domaine holdings of around 8 hectares in Vosne-Romanée, Pommard and Beaune are augmented by a negociant buy-in from several other choice locations throughout the Cote d’Or such that its entire portfolio is actually quite impressively extensive. Certified for organic viticulture since 2015, Thibault crosses the ‘t’s and dots the ‘i’s: careful vineyard practices, horse ploughing, low yields, avoidance of herbicides and crushing. De-stemming varies widely, particularly in Vosne-Romanée and Pommard where it is only partial. Up to 25% new oak is utilised for its village wines, while new barrels with longer wood drying periods are used for other wines. When we visited him on 25 October 2018, the tasting took place in a conference room where the 2017 barrel samples, most curiously, had been prepared in small clear plastic bottles complete with proper labeling. The wines generally demonstrate a certain freshness and roundness with clean focus and sophistication, well-extracted but far from being over-zealous. They represent great value.

Thibault Marion

2017 Domaine Seguin-Manuel Pommard Petits Noizons. Village. Good aromatics. Fresh and lively, showing good concentration. Cleanly focused, slightly crisp. Intense structured finish.

2017 Domaine Seguin-Manuel Beaune Champimonts 1er. Reticent. Ripe raspberries and wild berries dominate on the palate, taut with austere minerality, displaying good verve and gentle intensity. Quite masculine.

2015 Domaine Seguin-Manuel Vosne Romanée Aux Communes. Lovely ruby. Well developed bouquet of dark plums and red cherries, displaying sharp attack upon its entry. Fleshy with fine definition and lively acidity, showing good power and intensity with excellent integration of fine tannins at its finish. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Seguin-Manuel Vosne Romanée Aux Communes. Bright in color. Shy, just a tinge of earth. Soft, fleshy and open on the palate with distinct minerality, good presence and mouthfeel, quite gentle at its finish. Attractive.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Gevrey-Chambertin VV. From 40-year-old vines. Distant rosy aromas. Rather full. Fleshy and rounded with earthy undertones. Slightly stern.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes 1er. Attractive red fruits. Open with fine depth, elegance and balance with undertones of ash and ember, finishing with juicy sweet tannins.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Gevrey Chambertin Cazetiers 1er. Good colour, exuding aromas of warm ripe red fruits with a suggestion of hot gravel. Good attack on a palate dominated by ripe red fruits tinged with grassy elements, rounded and fleshy, showing good handling of tannins. Good length. Attractive.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Échezeaux Grand Cru. Good color but shut. Clean feel on the palate with textures of dried mushrooms, displaying fine presence of preserved red fruits and incense with a tinge of woody elements. Seamless and fleshy. Good finish.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Chambertin-Clos des Bèze Grand Cru. Only 1 barrel. Good colour. Gentle plummy tones and rose petals on the nose. Fleshy with well-integrated supple acidity that imparted plenty of freshness, very well-layered and textured, producing good mouthfeel. Just slightly short.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Montagny 1er Vigne du Soleil. Sweet bouquet. Medium-full. Softly rounded with good acidity intensity, fleshing out with greater fullness over time, ending with nutmeg and spicy tones. 15% new oak.

2016 Maison Seguin-Manuel Rully VV. Lovely glow of chalky minerals, lifted with excellent freshness. Medium-bodied and open, displaying good presence and transparency but somewhat straightforward and short.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Rully VV. Gentle glow of wild grass and fresh morning dew. Fleshy and medium-bodied, displaying good concentration, focus and layering with understated intensity.

2017 Domaine Seguin-Manuel Savigny-les-Beaune Goudelettes. Soft perfumed fragrance on the nose. Dry with firm minerality, presence and intensity. Very cleanly focused, finishing well.

2017 Maison Seguin-Manuel Puligny-Montrachet VV. Lifted rich gleaming tone of creamy white fruits and sweet floral fragrance. Medium-full with a firm minerally tone underscored with white pepper, displaying good focus, fine acidity and intensity. Excellent.

One’s attention is usually focused on the beautiful Château du Clos Vougeot (also the HQ of the Confrerie des Chevalier du Tastevin) whenever one drives up to take a closer look at this massive Grand Cru (in fact, the largest of the Cote d’Or) such that the other lovely castle within the Clos  du Vougeot is often overlooked. Perhaps that is the reason why the latter building is called Château De La Tour (literally: the other building). Built in 1890 and subsequently passed into the Labet family, Château De La Tour owns the largest share of Clos du Vougeot, some 5.84 hectares which is about 12% of this Grand Cru. It is also the only domaine that harvests, vinifies and bottles its Clos du Vougeot Grand Cru all on-site right within Clos du Vougeot itself. When we arrived on the wet morning of 27 October 2018, we were greeted at the door by the current owner himself, M. Francois Labet, a distinguished-looking gentleman who, in his younger days, would surely have fit the bill perfectly as a swashbuckling chevalier equally at home at the crusade as he would be saving (and charming) damsels in distress. There is also a serious side to Francois Labet in his winemaking, known to be highly fastidious in working the vines: very careful de-pruning, de-budding, and thinning to cap the limit at 6 grapes per stock. Naturally, the work is mostly manual, yields are low, wicker baskets are used to allow juices from the picked grapes to flow out to avoid oxidation, and whole bunches are fermented. Contrary to popular practice, Francois avoids green-harvesting and there is minimal extraction. However, having tasted his wines, I must say such an individualistic approach appears to work very well. His is the best example of Clos du Vougeot Grand Cru that I’ve ever tasted, the vieilles vignes cuvée being most outstanding.

Apart from his own wines, Francois also appears to be involved in promoting the wines of a few other domaines. Naturally, these also share Francois’ vision of making wines with minimal intervention. Domaine Dublère, based in Savigny-lès-Beaune, is run by Blair Pethel, an American (!) who caught the winemaking bug at the turn of the new millenium and who’d cut his teeth at Jean-Marc Pillot. He keeps the élevage longer than most at 18-22 months, resulting in wines of freshness, sensitivity and character. Domaine Pavelot, working out of 12 ha based exclusively in Savigny-lès-Beaune, was started in 1980s by Jean-Marc Pavelot and is now run by his son Hugues. Using only between 15-33% new oak at most, the wines of Pavelot achieve excellent ripeness and structure. Based in Santenay, Domaine Roger Belland is probably a more familiar name, now run by Roger and his daughter Julie, the fifth and sixth generation Bellands, respectively. Producing a range of whites and reds from 23 ha in the Côtes de Beaune, the reds are superbly structured and generous. Thank you very much, Francois, for your time and for introducing us to some of the best-kept secrets of Burgundy.

2016 Domaine Dublère Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Verglesses 1er. Clear light colour, exuding lifted aromas of honeysuckle and fig with good concentration of delicate lime, yellow citrus and minerals on the palate, showing good precision and freshness. Finishing cleanly.

2016 Domaine Dublère Volnay Les Pitures 1er. Beautiful intoxicating ample bouquet. Fleshy. Very well integrated with slightly dryish textures. Subtly structured. Could do with more character.

2016 Domaine Dublère Morey-Saint-Denis Les Blanchards 1er. Generous plume of smoky characters, dense red fruits and minerals. Medium-bodied. Rounded and fleshy, underscored by deeper understated minerals. Distinctly feminine. Very fine.

2015 Domaine Dublère Chorey-lès-Beaune Les Maladerottes. Sharp lifted ample bouquet of deep complex red fruits and floral tones. Rather full and fleshy, marked by abundant tangerines that produce fine acidity and intensity, finishing well. Very successful.

2014 Domaine Dublère Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Planchots Nord. Beautiful complex bouquet of red fruits and tangerines. More minerally with recessed fruit on the medium-bodied palate. Could do with more substance.

2017 Domaine Pavelot Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Guettes 1er. Good colour. Lovely nose of ripe red fruits and cherries. Bright and fleshy, producing excellent tone and suppleness with lovely seamless minerals, displaying good detail. Great finesse here. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Pavelot Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Gravains 1er. Good bouquet, though slightly more subdued and darker, suggesting undergrowth and earthy tones amidst red fruits. Very rounded and juicy, displaying great balance with fine depth and acidity, finishing on a soft minerally note amidst gentle intensity. Very fine.

2017 Domaine Pavelot Savigny-lès-Beaune La Dominode 1er. Beautiful deep ruby. Lifted full bouquet of red fruits, dark roses and currants, carrying over to the palate with a deeper note of incense. Fleshy, rounded and fullish, showing good acidity. Soft finish. Short.

2016 Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot Grand Cru. Full nose, rather minerally with ash and bright raspberries, violets and dark currants. Plump, cloaked in luxurious satiny tannins and layered with excellent ripe fruit. Highly fleshy and delicious, topped with superb acidity, focus and linearity. Aged in 50% new oak. Excellent.

2016 Château De La Tour Clos Vougeot VV Grand Cru. Made from vines older than 80 years, some of which were planted in 1910. Great colour. Distinct palpable difference. More layered in its complex bouquet of ripe dark berries, red fruits, currants, cedar and cinnamon while the palate is impressively ample with generous swathes of succulent warm ripe fruit at just the right level of extraction, superbly balanced and integrated with excellent depth and acidity, tapering to a gentle finish with great linearity. A complete wine. Beautiful. Only 8 barrels.

2016 Domaine Roger Belland Santenay-Commes 1er. Very well-focused effusive bouquet of dense red fruits and camphor tinged with tangerines, carrying good concentration on the palate with a deeper note of twigs and earthy minerals. Seamlessly supple but slightly stern with a tinge of vegetative elements.

2014 Domaine Roger Belland Santenay-Commes 1er. Delicious generous bouquet. Medium-full. Very fleshy within a highly supply pliant tannin structure filled with very finely-detailed minerals, finishing in a gentle lovely glow.

2016 Domaine Roger Belland Santenay-Gravières 1er. Highly effusive dense detailed bouquet of camphor with fragrant red fruits  and preserved red plums. Beautifully ripe, fleshy and full on an elegant cedary floor, highly opulent, nuanced with lovely acidity and minerality, finshing with great linearity and persistence. Outstanding!

2014 Domaine Roger Belland Santenay-Gravières 1er. Generous bouquet of complex red fruits that exuded a delicious seductive fragrance. Rather full and fleshy, structured with supple tannins and fine inner detail that oozed with gentle sweetness. Excellent, but the 2016 simply affirms the superiority of that great vintage for reds.

One of the brightest young stars of Chassagne is Domaine Morey-Coffinet, an estate formed in 1979 through the merger of Marc Morey and Fernand Coffinet. Managed by Marc’s grandson Thibault Morey since 2000, this domaine owns nice small chunks of choice plots of Chassagne totaling about 7 hectares viz Les Caillerets, La Romanée, Dent de Chien, and Blanchots Dessus, the latter both actually bordering on Montrachet Grand Cru. There is a negociant arm now that also buys in grapes from Meursault, Pucelles 1er, Bâtard-Montrachet, Corton and Corton-Charlemagne to augment its range, all for the better as it is clear that Thibault is a really talented young man. Somewhat shy but sufficiently engaging, I found him familiar when we visited the domaine on 31 October 2018. Little wonder…his had been one of the seven domaines featured in the excellent documentary A Year In Burgundy, for which Thibault had also composed some original music for its soundtrack. With such precocious talent, it is hardly surprising that the whites of Domaine Morey-Coffinet display plenty of sparkle, purity and intensity, often structured with fabulous acidity and fruit that will most definitely ensure a long life ahead. As in other domaines, the vines in 2017 compensated for the dismal yield of 2016, as evidenced by the 45 hectolitres produced per hectare compared with 35 hL. Thibault prefers to press his grapes gently and to limit wood exposure to about 11 months in order to preserve freshness. Will it be the next Ramonet? Very likely but, as things stand, the wines of Domaine Morey-Coffinet can already sing about Chassagne in their own voice. Be warned, though…the 2017 whites need plenty of cellaring before they are even ready so don’t waste them.

Thibault Morey

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Chassagne-Montrachet. Dense bouquet of lifted intense floral notes. Medium-full, laced with crisp razor-sharp acidity, firm minerally tone and good linearity, more minerally at the finish.

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Chassagne-Montrachet Les Caillerets 1er. Effusive bouquet of dense earthy chalky minerals coupled with a bright firm minerally palatal tone. Taut with very fine acidity and tension.

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Chassagne-Montrachet La Romanée 1er. Dense minerally nose. Firm and fleshy on the palate, displaying fine body and presence with sharp acidity, excellent definition and intensity. Very full in concentration.

2017 Maison Morey-Coffinet Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er. Negociant wine. Very fine floral and minerally tone. Softer and more rounded than the preceding examples of Chassagne, displaying excellent presence and lift on the palate with fine intensity, producing excellent subtle mouthfeel.

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 1er. From relatively young vines of 21 years. Delicate lift on the nose. Full concentration, quite appropriately minerally on the palate as expected from this premier cru site, showing good integration between fruit and minerals with lovely white floral tones, taut with superb acidity and intensity. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Chassage-Montrachet Dent de Chien 1er. Lovely full nose of icing and vanilla, layered with subtle gravelly and ferrous minerals. Quite open and rounded, showing good integration.

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Chassagne-Montrachet Blanchot Dessus 1er. Only one barrel from a 0.06 ha site. Highly ethereal and poised with lovely deftness and sublime acidity, matches well with white floral tones, very rounded and elegant. Like a mini Montrachet, which is not surprising as this tiny premier cru plot directly abuts the southern end of Le Montrachet Grand Cru.

2017 Maison Morey-Coffinet Meursault Perrieres 1er. Lovely delicate lift of deft minerals with dense white floral tones coming from a great concentration of densely-layered white citrus, coiled with tight tension across the palate. Only 3 barrels.

2017 Maison Morey-Coffinet Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru. Rounded bouquet of dense white floral tones with good inner detail, beautifully accented. Medium-full. Rounded with excellent layering and intensity of fruit with lovely textural transparency. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. Less upfront, more layered on the nose, rather brooding in demeanour now with some early complexity of floral tones amidst earthy saline minerals. Quite full and fresh on the palate, showing good presence, layering and lovely transparency, well integrated and supple, tapering to a gentle finish. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Chassagne-Montrachet Clos Saint Jean 1er. Great lift of dark cherries and rose petals underscored by very subtle minerals. Fleshy and rounded, subtly layered on the delicious full palate. Highly elegant with plenty of detail and power. Very fine.

2017 Maison Morey-Coffinet Corton Grand Cru. Good color. Soft beguiling nose, exuding lovely rosy fragrance and elegance. Gently layered and subtly structured, tinged with raw herbal elements at the finish. A feminine Corton. Very fine.

1993 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. Tasted blind. Specially decanted for us, this wine displayed a glorious luminous gold with a beautifully aged bouquet of almonds, hazelnuts, bit of nectarine, apricot and cinnamon, highly aromatic. It opened up well with an aged chalkiness, still rather full but highly integral in its balance of acidity, fruit and minerals, tapering to a gentle finish. Very lovely.

1993 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

If you have ever come across the wines of Domaine Roblet-Monnot, you would, undoubtedly, have been most impressed by its deep clear vibrant colour, freshness, concentration of fruit and overall sophistication. However, when we visited on 24 October 2018, little did I realise that this domaine is essentially a one-man garagiste operation. When you arrive at its address in Volnay, you’ll find yourself smack in the midst of a residential district with nothing around that remotely resembles a winery. But as you trudge up the short walkway, you’ll begin to see one or two stainless steel tanks at one side, along with a sorting table and several other pieces of wine-making equipment strewn about haphazardly. A little yonder is a rudimentary shelter that looks more like a mechanic’s garage which leads, amazingly, to a modest dual-chamber cellar (sited actually at ground level). The whole place is one huge untidy mess, cramped and not very clean-looking, whilst its cellar probably hasn’t been cleaned for decades and decades, judging from its damp blackened walls with cobwebs of various sizes hanging strategically from very old black wooden beams. To top it off, there is actually a resident bat (yes…eine fledermaus!) that flits between the two chambers.

Yet, as I’d mentioned, the wines are brilliant. In spite of its garagiste setting, this domaine has been in existence since 1865, started by Pascal Roblet’s maternal great-grandfather Victor Delagrange and handed down the generations, until Pascal inherited it from his father in 1990. Based in Volnay with holdings of 6 hectares planted at high density (12,000 vines per ha), Domaine Roblet-Monnot is truly biodynamic with Pascal really doing things by the moon phases and such, along with a highly fastidious work ethic. Grapes are picked only at ideal ripeness and Pascal is prepared to walk several times down his rows of vines if ripening is uneven. Sorting takes place both at the vineyard and, again, at the sorting table. Yields are kept low at 30-35 hectolitres per hectare. To this day, some may still think that the word biodynamic is some sort of sounds-good feels-good hocus-pocus. But if this domaine’s wines are any indication, I’d say that biodynamic methods do work. The Volnays produced by this domaine can be silky and seductive, or robust and masculine. No grand crus here, but the village Saint Francois is beautiful, while the Piture 1er and Taillepieds 1er are quite outstanding. Do give them a try.

2017 Domaine-Roblet Monnot Bourgogne Haute Cotes de Beaune Rouge. Bright red fruits amidst woody elements and twigs, displaying fine acidity and dominant saline minerals on a cleanly focused palate. Entirely from Volnay.

2017 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Pommard Les Chalines Haut 1er. Bright purple. Dominant acidic tones on the palate amidst a generous expanse of raspberries, currants and red fruits, displaying very good levels of ripeness, concentration and tight crisp acidity with plenty of energy.

2017 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Saint Francois. A blend of several Volnay vineyards, some of which are premier cru. Beautiful deep ruby. Excellent in concentration, very cleanly layered with fresh acidity with a forward robust character, showing good sophistication.

2017 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay 1er. Deeply coloured with robust intensity, well extracted, displaying notes of enamel and ripe raspberries with a distinct core of tangerines. Fleshy and structured with very well-managed silky tannins in spite of its massive proportions.

2014 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Brouillards 1er. Tasted blind. Slightly reductive, exuding earthy tones, red fruits and dark currants with an attractive funkiness. Medium-full and highly supple, underscored by strong acidity, finishing on an intense spicy note.

2017 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Brouillards 1er. Ripe dark fruits and wild berries dominate on the nose and palate. Juicy, robust and well-extracted, layered with austere fruit and minerals. Forward in balance, finishing with good intensity.

2017 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Taillepieds 1er. Dark ruby. Ample in dark plums, ripe strawberries and red fruits. Fleshy, well-integrated and lovely in concentration, structured with sweet dark tannins amidst layers of tangerines, open with attractive intensity, just a tad short.

2017 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Piture 1er. Dark in colour and tone, richly layered with delicious dark currants and black fruits. Beautifully ripe, soft and fleshy. Subtly intense with fine acidity, structured with sweet gentle tannins. Highly refined and sophisticated. Excellent.

2014 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Taillepieds 1er. Tasted blind. More evolved in colour, exuding aged apricot, honey, cinnamon and dried peaches. Medium-bodied. Soft and rounded, showing good integration of tangerines and plummy red fruits though it has begun to dry out a little.