Aloxe Corton Grand Cru
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Erwan Faiveley believes that 2014 would be regarded as a great vintage – if only 2015 had not come along to trump it. He feels that the changes which have taken place in the cellar since 2007 have had a discernible effect on the quality of Faiveley wines, while similar qualitative changes in the vineyard are only now bearing fruit. Here, balanced but restricted yields are the key.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
The new era at Faiveley is now into its sixth vintage and the house style, which allows the fruit to express itself in a very seductive manner while enhancing the individual qualities of each terroir, has been safely established. Now the management is concentrating on reinforcing their supplybase with some crafty contracts and vineyard purchases in both Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. We may be able to offer more cuvées in the future, and though opportunities are clearly limited by the 2012 vintage circumstances, we have been well looked after this year.
“A vintage of pure happiness,” enthuses Nicolas Potel. He rightly retains enthusiasm for Burgundy as a whole and his own wines in particular, though his life has been made more difficult by the explosion of prices for grapes on the open market. However these cuvées make sense to us: we tasted a wide range and picked out the plums.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 2cs
Magnum 3 x 150cl 1cs
Giroud's Corton Grand Cru jumps out of the glass with a bolt of perfumed raspberries and cassis. It has lively fresh acidity and real staying power, is constant from start to finish, and is accompanied all the way on the palate by a core of powerful fruit flavours. This is delicacy and power, perfectly married.
David Croix has used 35% whole bunches in vinifying this Corton Grand Cru wine, whereas he normally de-stems entirely. The result is a gifted, perfumed nose with amazing length, and prime dancing qualities at the fore.
Jasper Morris MW, Buyer
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director The resurgence begun by the trio of Erwan Faiveley, Bernard Hervé and winemaker Jérôme Flous, who arrived in 2007, is very apparent in this brilliant series of 2011 wines. They began the harvest on 31 August and picked for 9 days. There are some new wines this year from a contract for the whole production of an estate in Chambolle-Musigny and the Faiveley white wines from totally healthy grapes are particularly successful in 2011, perhaps the best we have seen from the new regime.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
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.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 3cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
Faiveley use three picking teams. Two started in the white wine vineyards on 28th September and were finished in four days. Then it was all hands to the red grapes. In general the harvest came in healthily, the hard work all year round in the vineyards paying dividends. We were once again very impressed.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
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.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director Nicolas Potel has installed the négociant arm of his business on the Savigny side of town which gives him plenty of space for making and maturing the wines, along with logistics and office needs, while keeping his Domaine de Bellene operation completely separate in Beaune itself. The selling point here is consistent competence mixed with attractive pricing.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
The 2010 red wines are sublime here at Camille Giroud, responding well to David Croixs deft touch. His style is very much in tune with the vintage. The whites are very good too but there are fewer cuves this year.
Allen Meadows - burghound.com - May 2011
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Fergus Stewart, Private Account Manager
The excellent mid-palate of this Clos du Roi has more structure than Camille Giroud’s Le Rognet, and displays a fine, sweet, fruit finish with some black cherry notes. Every year this is an exceptionally fine cuvée and this 2011 continues the impressive run.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director
These are brilliant wines once again from David Croix and his team at Camille Giroud and fortunately they were able to make a little more wine this year than last. Alhough the white selection is small, the wines are just as fine as the reds. David has made some inspirational wines from less fancied appellations such as Maranges and Santenay, as well as majoring on the Grands Crus of Corton and the Chambertins. Almost all of the wines are from purchased grapes, but somehow Camille Giroud feels to us much more like a domaine.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director David Croix has made some very striking wines in 2011. The vineyards have been improving under his care and to begin with, yields dropped as the vines acclimatised to the new regime but now they are where they should be. In the cellar, there is less intervention in the winemaking now, with shorter periods in vat and noticeably gentler extraction. A few more stems are added these days and new wood is used on around 15 to 20% of the wine. David started picking on Monday 30th August.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 3cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Winemaker and general manager, David Croix, has been grumbling that he feels he has the temperament of a grower rather than the deal-making knack of a born negoçiant, so he hasn’t found it easy to fill the cellar in 2012. We also find that tasting with him feels like being in a grower’s cellar, though Camille Giroud only owns a couple of vineyards. There are, nevertheless, one or two really exciting new wines here this year, notably the Volnay Santenots, and the whole cellar is on top form.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
After several years surrounded by building works, David Croix now has a smart new cellar to play with, as well as the three new vineyards from the hill of Corton which arrived just in time for the 2009 vintage. This year all the vineyard work has been done by David’s own team which has made a difference. It is a beautiful range of wines overall, everything delivering just a little bit more than the appellations suggest. The Beaunes were picked from September 21st to the 23rd, the Cortons the following week.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Two changes to note in the Faiveley style this year: the diminution of new wood, a trend they plan to develop further, and the use of 25 percent whole bunches in the vinification for 2015, whereas previously it was very rare to use any. They maintained their practice of punching down rather than pumping over, and the combination of these points leads to wines which are more rugged and structured than their recent vintages. The harvest was completed between 2nd and 11th September.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Étienne de Montille began picking whites on 10th and reds on 13th September, relatively early. Despite the hail (worst in Pommard than Beaune, Volnay less) yields were slightly improved compared to 2013. The fruit was clean with small berries, and beautiful clusters, so they were able to continue with their usual programme of whole-bunch vinification in most instances. The details are given for each wine. They will be long lived wines.