Today looks set to be an exciting day’s tasting with some star names from the Côte de Nuits. The first stop was Domaine Fourrier. What a fabulous tasting – this vintage really suits the style of his wines. Jean Marie was very pleased with the results and rightly so.
The wines are brilliant and pure with bright elegant fruit, they are very special indeed. His Gevrey Cuvées are really gorgeous, particularly the 1er Cru Goulots, it’s very classic with red crunchy berries. The other stand out wine was the 1er Cru St Jacques – lots of elegance but also wonderful depth of flavours.
Next up was Domaine Mortet – what a tasting with Arnaud! The wines were spectacular. Beautifully rich and alluring, as well as having great purity, concentration and balance. All the wines were good but the Gevrey Cinq Terrois was an absolute beauty, with its beautiful red berried fruit. The 1er Cru St Jacques was another masterpiece: fantastic purity and balance with the most seamless texture and a never-ending finish. However the Grand Crus line up was sublime; Mazis Chambertin, Bonnes Mares and Echezeaux were all epic, but the Chambertin was even a level higher, not much spitting here…
At Domaine Ponsot we were met by the wine maker Alexandre and also Rose-Marie Ponsot. We had a fantastic tasting, with the wines showing beautifully. They were seriously elegant, very natural and at ease – they have really nailed this vintage. Chapelle Chambertin was fantastic with lovely sweet berried fruit and fine structure. The Clos de la Roche was the complete wine, plenty of mineral power and freshness. The star of the whites was a fantastic Corton Charlemagne with wonderful balance and concentration. This tasting was definitely one of the highlights of the week!!
A great lunch in Morey St Denis at Très Girard with Alexandre and Rose-Marie washed down with two superb bottles from Domaine Ponsot. The 2016 Clos de la Roche was an absolute ripper.
Last year the cellars at Domaine d’Eugenie were virtually empty, so it was lovely to see a bit more wine this year. An excellent tasting with the eloquent Michel Mallard. Their Vosne Romanée was gorgeous, as were both the Grand Crus Echezeaux and Clos de Vougeot, both wonderfully textured and complex.
Our next tasting was with Sebastian Cathiard – we were all blown away with his wines. This rightly sits as one of greatest vintages he has made since he took over the Domaine from his father. Many standout wines but the entire range was truly beautiful, they all had this incredible balance and harmony.
The final visit of the day was to the beautiful cathedral-like cellars of Domaine Faiveley. They own a large number of vineyards in the Côte d’Or which are made up of some of the most impressive names.
We tasted Nuits St Georges 1er Cru Les Damodes, Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Cazetiers, 1er Cru Combe aux Moines and 1er Cru Lavaux St Jacques. These were all stunning wines with beautiful freshness, purity, balance and lovely defined fruit. The finale was their stunning Corton Clos des Cortons Grand Cru; this was a lot more serious with plenty of structure and grip but still retaining the elegance that is such a trait of the vintage. It was great day’s tasting the 2017 are shaping up very well.
