Morey-Saint-Denis

This vineyard is above Clos de Tart, on soil similar to that of Chassagne-Montrachet. Aromas of citrus fruits combine with buttered toast. In the mouth, there is an impressive density of fruit which cedes to an intense, mineral freshness and lingering notes of struck-match reduction. Gorgeous! Drink 2020-2025.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

This excellent domaine in Vosne-Romanée has flown under the radar – perhaps because Jean-Pierre Guyon spends so much of his time out in the vineyards, which have been farmed organically since 2006, certified from 2012. With his high-pedigree viticulture as a great starting point, Jean-Pierre can employ whole-bunch fermentation as the stalks are ripe, eschewing the use of sulphur at this stage, though some is added during élevage and at bottling to assure stability. Despite obvious frustration at the small volumes, Jean-Pierre Guyon is delighted with the quality of his 2016s. He describes it as a vintage of great Pinot Noir typicity, which will be greater than 2015, explaining that the wines' saline character will have you reaching for the next glass. As ever, the grapes here were picked a touch later than many estates to ensure the stems were fully ripe. He only bought six new barrels for the entire 2016 crop, so the proportion of new oak is reduced.

Bright, mid-purple colour, this has a more linear, mineral nose, compared to the flesh of Les Charmes. Indeed this is quite chiselled by Virgile’s standards. The fruit offers a raspberry and fresh blackberry mix. The chalky soil shows in this very mineral wine, which has a delightful finish. Drink 2021-2026

When Virgile Lignier came back from his brief summer holidays, he toured the vines and saw a bit of rot on a biggish (by recent standards) crop, so he took a substantial team round to remove damaged bunches and anything unripe. He picked the healthy grapes from 17th September and gave the new vintage a long but light extraction. He has made some very succulent, juicy wines here in 2014.

Morey-St Denis, Les Faconnières offers a dense, purple colour with an almost black centre. Virgile considers the soil to be similar to Clos de la Roche. It is more backward than the other Premiers Crus, dense and ungiving at this stage yet with a magical intensity of fruit, a crunchy finish, and excellent balance. Drink 2002-2028

When Virgile Lignier came back from his brief summer holidays, he toured the vines and saw a bit of rot on a biggish (by recent standards) crop, so he took a substantial team round to remove damaged bunches and anything unripe. He picked the healthy grapes from 17th September and gave the new vintage a long but light extraction. He has made some very succulent, juicy wines here in 2014. 

This sits beside Les Millandes, towards Clos de la Roche. The plot has lovely old vines (70 years), which produce tiny berries. This has great concentration, despite coming in at 45hl/ha. The fruit is lusciously ripe, but with no hint of over-maturity. The grip of the vineyard’s terroir keeps it perfectly in shape. Drink 2022-2030.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

Virgile Lignier started working alongside his father in 1988, really taking charge from 2000, by which time all the wines were being bottled at the domaine. Significant advances were made in the vineyards, reducing yields and ploughing the soil, along with the introduction of a sorting table and a higher percentage of new wood in the cellar. The domaine has an exemplary range of Morey- St Denis vineyards, supplemented by one or two cuvées from neighbouring villages. By his own admission, in his early days Virgile Lignier looked for too much extraction from his wines. The tide began to turn in 2006 and today he is very comfortable in his style. He does like to look for good levels of maturity and he waited just a day or two more than his neighbours to pick, beginning on 29th September and finishing on 3rd October in his Faconnières vineyard. He likes long skin contact, starting at a cool temperature, but with limited pumping over. Virgile is perfectly satisfied with his results in 2016, but did remark that it was hard work getting to what was eventually a very healthy harvest.

The 2013 Clos Saint Denis Grand Cru has a tightly wound bouquet with blackberry and boysenberry fruit, less expressive than the Charmes-Chambertin ’11 but with fine delineation and focus. The palate is very structured with fine, succulent tannins and a keen silver thread of acidity. There is real density to the Clos Saint Denis, a symmetrical structure and a lovely dash of white pepper on the spicy finish. It deserves several years of aging. Superb.
Neal Martin, The Wine Advocate (winter 2015)

A graceful tint of pale purple. Floral, with appealing sweet red fruit, clearly some concentration to the cherry and raspberry fruit, while there is clearly much more to emerge later on.
Jasper Morris MW - Wine Buyer

An expressive and quite cool nose blends floral notes, discreet wood, spice hints and ripe black pinot and plum that seamlessly intermingle with rich, delicious and impressively concentrated big-bodied flavors that possess really lovely acid/fruit/tannin balance, all wrapped in a complex, serious and palate staining finish. The subtle influence of the stem tannins gives the very rich, indeed almost lush finish an appealing sense of lift. This displays excellent potential to develop over the next 10 to 15 years and it should last 30.
Burghound.com

The nose is very sensual and classy, with ripe cherry fruit giving a sense of very small, concentrated, ripe grapes. The wine has a very precise, pure, linear intensity, with a marvellous power. There is a superb nervous tension, with deep, dark fruit too cool to be called exuberant. Crisp with fine fruit, black cherry on the palate, lush and nicely put together, ripe tannins and crisp acidity: this is very fine. 
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

 

All whole bunch fermentation, with 50% new wood. Palish in colour, it is lovely and elegant, with very stylish floral notes and fresh, crunchy red fruit and plenty of minerals. This has the drive and energy of the 2008 but with a little more weight of fruit. It is a lovely expression of Lambrays. 
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

Since last we spoke the domaine has been purchased by LVMH, though Thierry Brouin has remained in charge. No immediate changes are expected, except in one respect. While 2013 remains a very small crop (27 hectolitres per hectare for the village wine, 25 hectolitres per hectare for the Clos) it is at least much more than last year.

This is brilliant, fresh purple in colour and supported by a very stylish nose. Alongside some oak there is real heart to the wine, which finishes on whole-bunch fragrance. These Dujac Fils & Père wines are healthily concentrated this year.

Volumes available are somewhat restricted in 2014, athough the fruit was ripe and healthy and yields were better. The problem here is continuing to be able to source grapes at an acceptable price, but fortunately the Dujac team is savvy enough to know what works in the marketplace. This is another producer who is reducing the percentage of new oak. Also a good thing in the marketplace.

This starts promisingly with a glowing, purple colour throughout. It enjoys a very fine, heady nose, succulent and satiny, with a little touch of darker fruit, beautiful concentration and elegance. The whole is supported by a firm structure. This is swimmingly good, with a really long finish to boot.

Our jovial friend Jérôme Castagnier has excelled himself this year. The promise we picked up on last year has really been delivered in 2014. He says that the wines have lovely flesh but also a beautiful freshness, and notes some similarities to 2010. His generic Burgundies (available on www.bbr.com/burgundy2014) are also excellent.

Bright purple with medium density, this has a ripe, red-cherry nose. The elegant fruit is backed by a surprisingly firm structure which will require time.

Though we still have the pleasure of tasting with Christian Sérafin, it is now his niece, Frédérique who is solely responsible for winemaking. Christian describes 2014 as being all about elegance and balance, with neither too much acidity nor tannin. The Sérafin wines always repay patience.

Deepish purple in colour, this is really fabulously classy with great density and a lifted magical finish. Some blood orange notes lurk in the fruit. Altogether this is a red-blooded wine – really terrific. The finish is awesome: the whole range is really fine this year.

Our jovial friend Jérôme Castagnier has excelled himself this year. The promise we picked up on last year has really been delivered in 2014. He says that the wines have lovely flesh but also a beautiful freshness, and notes some similarities to 2010. His generic Burgundies (available on www.bbr.com/burgundy2014) are also excellent.

Thierry Brouin is extremely happy with his 2011 vintage which has produced a little more wine than in 2010. “It is very good this year, very Lambrays”, he says. Once more the pricing for this near-monopoly Grand Cru has been kept very reasonable. As ever, the grapes were picked early and the stems were retained for the Grand Cru. There was little or no rot but Thierry took care to eliminate any under-ripe grapes on the sorting table.

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Jasper divides his time between England and Burgundy. His unique position led him to write the ultimate guide to the vineyards of the region, Inside Burgundy. Described as “the greatest reference work of our generation” by Bill Nanson (www.burgundyreport. com), and “an essential book for anyone remotely interested in the region and its wines” by Neal Martin (www.erobertparker.com), this outstandingly detailed book, in 656 pages, covers one thousand specific vineyards, from Grands Crus to obscure plots.

Jasper Morris MW’s award-winning classic volume ‘Inside Burgundy’ is now available as a series of beautifully designed, interactive, Multi- Touch eBooks for the iPad and iPad Mini.
Inside Burgundy: The Côte de Beaune is the first volume is available for £14.99 on the Apple iBookStore. It is accompanied by the first edition of an innovative new Annual Report on Burgundy by Jasper Morris. Inside Burgundy The Annual Report 2012/13 is downloadable for free. Very pure, with very elegant raspberry and dark cherry fruit, this fills the mouth without ever becoming heavy. It has an immensely long, silky finish, still displaying notes of cherry and peony as well as a little pepper spice.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director

50% stems were used for the, sadly, very small cuvée of this Premier Cru wine. It displays a mix of raspberry and strawberry fruit, with a little cherry on the very attractive nose. Some white pepper comes across on the palate, with the tannins in perfect balance. This is a beautifully judged wine.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director Thierry Brouin is extremely happy with his 2011 vintage which has produced a little more wine than in 2010. “It is very good this year, very Lambrays”, he says. Once more the pricing for this near-monopoly Grand Cru has been kept very reasonable. As ever, the grapes were picked early and the stems were retained for the Grand Cru. There was little or no rot but Thierry took care to eliminate any under-ripe grapes on the sorting table.

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Jasper divides his time between England and Burgundy. His unique position led him to write the ultimate guide to the vineyards of the region, Inside Burgundy. Described as “the greatest reference work of our generation” by Bill Nanson (www.burgundyreport. com), and “an essential book for anyone remotely interested in the region and its wines” by Neal Martin (www.erobertparker.com), this outstandingly detailed book, in 656 pages, covers one thousand specific vineyards, from Grands Crus to obscure plots.

Jasper Morris MW’s award-winning classic volume ‘Inside Burgundy’ is now available as a series of beautifully designed, interactive, Multi- Touch eBooks for the iPad and iPad Mini.
Inside Burgundy: The Côte de Beaune is the first volume is available for £14.99 on the Apple iBookStore. It is accompanied by the first edition of an innovative new Annual Report on Burgundy by Jasper Morris. Inside Burgundy The Annual Report 2012/13 is downloadable for free.

Only one barrel of this wine is made for the whole world, from 40-year-old vines. With a bright, fresh purple colour, this has an attractive touch of wildness on the nose, typical of Bonnes Mares, with a wealth of fruit behind, a perfect balance of acidity, and excellent length.

Patrice Rion compares 2014 to a mix of 1979 and 1989 for the aromatics and delighted to have been able to pick a more or less normal-sized crop. He began on 12th September with healthy grapes, reinforced by his system of two sorting tables, one before and one after de-stemming. The amount of new oak has been reduced here, now just 30 percent on most cuvées.

Sadly this is a very small cuvée but we like it a lot, despite the touch of reduction on the nose. There is a wealth of fruit, a lively thread of acidity, with notes of black cherries and fresh raspberry in this large-scale, flamboyant wine. Seductive, fresh and succulent, it is very agreeable. With beautiful, juicy dark fruit, this really blossoms with time in the glass. Drink 2021-2030.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

Jérôme Castagnier is the Guide Hachette’s Burgundian vigneron of the year for 2017 and has been shortlisted for young vigneron of the year in the region’s own awards, so it is all happening for him. He began picking his 2015s on September 9th and finished on Saturday 12th before the rain that fell later that day. This year he has used one-third whole bunches for his village wines and the Crus, and in the last two years has refined his barrel regime so that the wood has less impact on the wine. Note that the malolactic fermentation was only just finishing when we tasted and this may have impacted the bouquets.

A rich purple but less black, there is a bit more refinement here. The wine has excellent weight, with a good mass of fruit behind which is lively all the way through. The blueberry notes are elegant with nuances. It’s very persistent indeed – a wine for the long term. Drink 2025-2035.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

Jérôme Castagnier is the Guide Hachette’s Burgundian vigneron of the year for 2017 and has been shortlisted for young vigneron of the year in the region’s own awards, so it is all happening for him. He began picking his 2015s on September 9th and finished on Saturday 12th before the rain that fell later that day. This year he has used one-third whole bunches for his village wines and the Crus, and in the last two years has refined his barrel regime so that the wood has less impact on the wine. Note that the malolactic fermentation was only just finishing when we tasted and this may have impacted the bouquets.