Aux Malconsorts

Because the malolactic fermentation was very late, this is the most backward wine in the cellar. Nonetheless it shows a brilliant, dense, purple colour, with a brooding bouquet, huge weight of fruit on the palate and excellent structure, but it will take more time for everything to fall into place, which will surely happen.

In the vineyard Sébastien has been moving towards an organic approach. In the cellar, while vinification remains broadly similar, much less new wood is being used during élévage: the village cuvées have been reduced to 50 percent and the crus to two thirds, with a slightly lighter toast being employed in the barrels. All the wines are so much more elegant with less new wood. The 2014 vintage is lovely here.

A wonderful piece of vineyard uphill from La Romane. An explosion of exuberant fruit on the nose. Rich, open, enchanting, yet absolutely packed with fruit which will need time to develop.

From a vineyard sited alongside the Grand Cru La Tache, this remains a Grand Cru in all but price. Fabulous density on the palate, as ever.

Les Malconsorts is an outstanding vineyard even by Vosne Romanée standards. In Nicolas Potel’s capable hands this 2006 is a rich, perfumed, wine.
(Jasper Morris MW, BBR Buyer)

There is real intensity to the nose of this Les Malconsorts, with black and red fruit vying for ascendancy. Perfumed and harmonious, even the tannins seem to taste of fruit.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director

With Nicole Lamarche firmly in charge, the domaine has converted to organic farming, and the recipe in the cellar this year was for a long vinification but less extraction. The wines have spent twelve months in barrel (with 30% new wood for the village wine and up to 60% for Grand Crus) before being transferred to vat. Sadly, many of the Vosne-Romanée vines here did not make it through the winter, so there is no village wine this year for us in 2010. Otherwise, expect attractive wines in 2010 with excellent typicity.

Very rich, ripe and heady, this Vosne-Romanée Les Malconsorts 1er Cru from Domaine Cathard has chocolate notes creeping in at the back of the palate and a wonderfully long finish.

A rich, bright purple in colour, this has dense concentration of dark raspberry fruit. It is very intense on the palate with a relatively firm structure that promises longevity. Lovely fresh finish behind. 
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

Nicholas feels that the saving grace of the 2013 vintage was the amount of small berries caused by millerandage. He has opted for minimum extraction but longish cuvaison. The white wines have not been stirred because they were rich enough naturally. They are expected to be bottled in December and will all be under DIAM corks, apart from the Grands Crus. The reds will be bottled during February.

This is less obviously floral in character though this element is still quite prominent on the discreet spicy aromas of plum, dark raspberry and sandalwood nuances. There is an equally sleek mouth feel to the broad-shouldered and muscular flavors that possess an exquisite sense of underlying tension and plenty of minerality, all wrapped in a firm, cool, linear and built-to-age finale. I very much like the complexity and the persistence is most impressive.
Allen Meadows, Burghound, April 2015

Bright and attractive with a delicate touch of oak and a wealth of red and black fruit behind, this has good tension and a lovely finish.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director The bad news at Domaine Lamarche is that the 2011 crop is actually less than 2010. We have done our best to keep prices stable, though the price of La Grande Rue has deservedly increased this year. Everything else is good news; Nicole Lamarche, assisted by her cousin Nathalie, is steadily growing in assurance, delivering an excellent set of wines this year. She continues to reduce the amount of new wood used while the vineyards, which are now farmed organically, are getting the care and attention that they need. The future is in good hands.

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Dark and brooding on nose, typical Malconsorts class. Lovely lush bright fruit on the palate, but still dark fruit for Vosne’ and huge and brooding, more to come. Loads of ripe grippy tannins to balance the weight of fruit. All there, but will need some time to knit, will be superb.
Chris Pollington, Private Account Manager

This Vosne-Romanée, Les Malconsorts from Roche de Bellene is a combination of two cuvées producing a wine greater than the sum of its parts, which is deep and dense with an exquisite finish.

This vineyard is next to La Tâche and Sylvain's vines are on very similar land to the Grand Cru. Richer and more structured than En Orveaux. Drink from 2010.

Robust, vibrant mid purple, this is pretty powerful stuff with marvellous density to it. It exhibits a concentrated extract of ripe red fruits, tightly-knit but impressive, clearly needing more time. The finish is lovely nonetheless.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director

Nicolas Potel has retained the majority of his regular contracts in 2012, though a couple are missing after the hail. Like everybody else, he has had to pay more for his grapes though, especially at the top end of the hierarchy. But as ever there are some delicious wines in the range, and at the lower end the prices are thoroughly competitive.

Dense, rich purple with a black centre, this has massively more weight on the nose than any of the other Vosne-Romané  Premiers Crus, though it is still a bit rough and ready at this stage. This is an immense wine on the palate, with substantial structure, but with such an extraordinary wealth of fruit all round. Drink 2025-2040.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

Sébastien Cathiard completed his harvest in just three days, beginning on 12th September. He already had good sugar and low-ish acids a week earlier, but not the desired phenolic maturity. He took the decision to run with the vintage and so extracted as much as in other years, in fact punching down more in 2015 than 2014. He also made sure that the malolactic fermentation happened relatively late, so these are backward wines which will require quite a lot more élevage. But they are unquestionably brilliant wines. Sébastien has used less new oak than in the past and with a lighter toast to the barrels.

The fruit for this comes from two plots, higher and lower on the slope. A rich, bright mid-purple, the nose offers more velvet, a certain dense raspberry headiness, yet without losing elegance. You can currently taste the whole bunches a little bit and the oak is quite present, but these aspects will integrate before bottling. Drink 2023-2032.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

The Lamarches began on 10th September, picking over six days and realising better yields than in 2014. This year Nicole Lamarche has been able to make exactly the wines which she wants to make, avoiding deep extraction while using around 30 percent whole bunches. Do not expect dark colours and overt concentration, but if your taste is for elegant, floral, eventually ethereal wines then this is the place to be.

The creaminess that comes from the whole- bunch element softens a little of the firmer side to Malconsorts, but there is no doubting the general direction and drive of the wine. The harvest started here on 26th September, arguably on the earlier side, but the result is a wine that has effortless intensity married to appealing rigour. Drink 2023-2035.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

Domaine Lamarche today produces 14 different wines from 11 hectares. Ancestors of the Lamarche family were already living in the village of Vosne-Romanée in 1740, though the domaine was really established in the early 20th century. Henri Lamarche, born in 1903, received La Grande Rue in 1933 as a wedding present. Henri was succeeded by his son François and now his granddaughters; Nicole in charge of winemaking and Nathalie on the marketing side. As well as more meticulous work in the vineyards, better barrel selection and a new cuverie (since 2000) have combined to make this a fine and consistent domaine. This was a vintage to truly deliver Nicole Lamarche’s ambitions. Already on a road to make the most delicate, ineffable expressions of Pinot Noir – organic, unfined and unfiltered – this year the quality and health of the fruit has allowed her to eschew new oak as well. There is a policy to use 30 percent whole-bunch throughout the range. For Nicole this is a spiritual vintage, the quintessence of Pinot Noir, whose core she has tried to express through the extraordinary collection of terroirs she has under her, and her cousin Nathalie’s, stewardship. But, tragically, frost has reduced the domaine’s total yield by half and their Les Suchots was practically wiped out with an 80 percent loss.

Glowing imperial purple, the nose instantly shows the class: heady, voluptuous but a bit more tightly knit than in the past. Utterly splendid as always, with wave after wave of flavour, real stuffing, a great mix of fruit, tannin and acidity at the finish. 
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

Sylvain considers 2013 to be a very classic Burgundy vintage, with good acidity similar to 2010. This delivers very good terroir definition and the classification levels are well marked out. Pure and precise wines, but unfortunately volumes are a further 20% below 2012 because of bad flowering and the need to sort the grapes. Contrary to many Sébastien favoured a bit more extraction, with longer maceration both before and after fermentation, and a bit more punching down during. Very interesting results as you will see. He has also cut back on the new oak.

Reduction. This is completely different from the Beaux Monts, particularly in terms of size and weight as there is real muscle to the impressively concentrated and ripe medium-bodied plus flavors that culminate in a hugely long finish that coats the palate with dry extract. The supporting tannins are also markedly firmer and it's clear that this will require around 15 years to completely realize its full, and considerable, potential yet it should be approachable after 10 years or so. In a word, impressive.
Allen Meadows - burghound.com - Jan 2014