2009 Fixin, Clos de la Perrière, 1er Cru Domaine Joliet

There are certain sites up and down the Côte d’Or which have been recognised for centuries as being outstanding locations. The monks were usually the first to spot the potential and to stake a claim. One such is the Clos de la Perrière, founded by the monks of Cîteaux in the early 12th century, in Fixin, just north of Gevrey-Chambertin.

The Joliet family purchased the Manoir de la Perrière and its attendant vines in 1853. Bénigne, who has bought out other family members so as to be able to run the domaine as he wants to do it, is the 6th generation of the family. He has moved towards organic farming in the vineyards, reduced yields and developed a style of vinification and barrel maturation to suit this vineyard.

Fixin wines are noted for the quality of the fruit but they can have rustic tannins. Long barrel ageing for this wine over 24 months – has softened those tannins. This wine has also benefitted from the lovely sunny summer of 2009.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Domaine Joliet

Pale ruby. Ruddy appeal and lots of sweetness. Real intensity and richness. With some purity and tension too. Long and satisfying. Exciting!
Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com, 17 July 2012

Bottled at the same time as the 2008 and very similar colour. Given the ripeness of the grapes in 2009, Benigne neither punched down nor pumped over so as to avoid heavy extraction. There s still a slight rusticity to the tannins but there's a lovely soft roundness to the fruit. A bottle opened one night and finished the next had taken on extra dimensions of lively fruit.

Various early wine authorities in the 19th century singled out Clos de la Perrière as an exceptional vineyard, Dr Lavalle (1855) noting it as a Tête de Cuvée making wines which kept for longer than any others of the Côte d’Or. Though attempts to have it classified as Perrière-Chambertin in the 1930s failed, Bénigne is about to start work on a dossier to propose Clos de la Perrière as a grand cru now. Up to 10,000 bottles are made each vintage, with young vines being declassified into village Fixin. There is a small amount of white made as well from the coolest part of the vineyard.