Les Evocelles

The youngest vines here date back to 1964, planted by Monsieur Boisset himself. This is an incredibly graceful wine all the way through, from its pale pink-purple colour, through the delicate yet intense floral nose, to the swelling fruit in the middle and the exceptionally persistent finish. Drink 2020-2027.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

This year Pierre Vincent has been able to achieve his aim of an ideal barrel rotation. Each of these wines has been matured in one-third new wood, one-third one-year-old and one-third two-year-old. Because of the exceptional health of the grapes in 2015, he has also been able to vinify all the wines without de-stemming. His 2015 reds are wines of grace and elegance, while the white wines (picked from 28th August) have an impressive tension alongside a concentration of fruit.

After displaying a lacy, stylish bouquet of charming fruit, the palate of this Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles from la Vougeraie is surprisingly dense before a fine and long, deliciously fresh finish.

Les Evocelles has an attractive, medium range purple fruit and quite perfumed nose. Very juicy, with a lovely limestone lift at the back from this hillside site, this is very stylish.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director

Louis Boillot seemed remarkably cheerful for a man who has made so little wine this year, the poor flowering taking as much toll as the hail. Most cuvées have slightly more new wood in 2012 because of the shortage of wine, but the concentration of the fruit is easily able to absorb this.

With beautiful aromatics, medium density and much more about finesse than power, this Gevrey-Chambertin is lacy and distinguished. It is a really graceful wine for drinking over the medium term.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director Pierre Vincent’s reputation has been blossoming over the last few vintages, as critic’s rate his wines increasingly highly and repeated success at the International Wine Challenge has been rewarded with the Len Evans Trophy for consistency over 5 years. Pierre is looking to major on delicacy while building persistence, to which end the new oak component is being reduced and the whole bunch fermentation percentage increased. The Vougeraie 2011s were picked over 12 days, beginning on the 31st August.

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This regular bottling of Les Evocelles has a fine brisk purple colour and charming fruit, medium-bodied pretty red fruit notes including a touch of raspberry. It is elegance personified, not too weighty, but stylish, racy and with a fine long finish.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director

Two recent trends which have been continued here by winemaker Pierre Vincent are a slight reduction in the amount of new oak, which now mostly comes from the local forest of Cîteaux, and a slight increase in the use of stems during vinification. The latter is subtly judged though, as there is very rarely any outright feel of the stems in the bouquet or on the palate. 2010 is a tiny crop here, averaging out at 24 hl/ha across the cellar but the wines are magically concentrated.

There was a bit of frost damage here, with yields down about 20 percent. The vineyard is high and in the neighbouring commune of Brochon, with more limestone. Fifty percent whole-bunch was used, but the strong mineral character punches through. There is plenty of structure in this wine, almost atypical for the vintage, but with lovely ripeness too. Drink 2021-2028.
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer

Based in Premeaux, just south of Nuits-St Georges, Domaine de la Vougeraie was created in 1999 when Jean-Claude Boisset decided to group together all the vineyard holdings of the various négociant companies he had acquired over the years. Pascal Marchand was put in charge in 1999, with Bernard Zito in the vineyards, which are farmed biodynamically. Pascal produced powerful wines, fairly heavily extracted in his early vintages but clearly moving to a softer style by 2004. The wines have subsequently been made by Pierre Vincent who has maintained the more delicate approach. Top-quality vineyards continue to be added, especially Grand Cru whites in recent vintages. This is Pierre Vincent’s last vintage, as he is now installed at Domaine Leflaive. Vougeraie is very happy with this year’s result, another domaine to call the vintage “très Bourguigonne”, meaning that the precision and purity of the fruit means this is more terroir-focused than 2015’s broader and more intense style. They are also very happy with the way the frosted and non-frosted vines finally ripened homogenously, giving much of the credit to their biodynamic culture. Given the health of the berries, a lot of whole bunches were used at fermentation.

Evocelles usually presents a mineral edge, but this year the wine is pure and creamy, with an appealing lifted freshness and, to be honest, is just simply rather charming. There is no whole-bunch this year (from 50 percent last year), allowing, I suspect, clearer sight of the wine’s more genial side. Drink 2020-2024.

Based in Prémeaux, just south of Nuits-St Georges, Domaine de la Vougeraie was created in 1999 when Jean-Claude Boisset decided to group together all the vineyard holdings of the various négociant companies he had acquired over the years. Pascal Marchand was put in charge in 1999, with Bernard Zito in the vineyards, which are farmed biodynamically. Pascal produced powerful wines, fairly heavily extracted in his early vintages but clearly moving to a softer style by 2004. The wines came of age under Pierre Vincent, who maintained the more delicate approach. He departed after the 2016 vintage, leaving behind a crack team, led by the redoubtable Sylvie Poillot. Top-quality vineyards continue to be added, especially Grand Cru whites in recent vintages.

Pierre Vincent may now be fully installed at Domaine Leflaive, but his legacy is still firmly in place here, with the team he left behind brilliantly stepping up to the mark. They felt that the speed of the harvest was vital this year – no threat with their three teams of pickers, one based each in the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune, and another to shuttle between the two, to wherever it was most needed. They began with the whites on 28th August, finishing 16 days later in the Côte de Nuits. They decided the resulting wines, especially the whites, required less new oak; allowing greater fruit purity.

This high vineyard is usually a little austere but this is almost seductive. Spicy with notes of blood orange, the palate is fluid before the more architectural tannins reassert themselves. Really delicious and forthright. Drink 2020-2026.

Louis began his harvest on 28th August on his earlier Côte de Beaune vineyards and enjoyed bright sunshine throughout the harvest, which ended nine days later. He volunteers that there is less structure than in 2016 but he likes the fruity, gourmand style. This year he looked for freshness and aromatics. “Quatorze degrés n’est pas Pinot,” says Louis (“14 degrees [of alcohol] is not Pinot”). He will bottle earlier, without fining or filtration, as usual. A very pretty range this year, delicious and pure.

Bronze medal winner at the 2016 Decanter World Wine Awards

Glorious purple, the nose is layered with deliciously rich cherries, more fruit than stems. There is an appealing structure to this, dancing heady fruit and good freshness. A fine vineyard, well interpreted.

The domaine has developed its white wine holdings, with four new cuvées this year, arising out of Boisset’s purchase of Vincent Girardin’s business. Girardin had farming arrangements in Puligny- Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet Champ Gain Premier Cru, Bienvenues-Bâtard- Montrachet Grand Cru and a tiny holding of Chevalier-Montrachet: Monsieur Boisset has now bought these vineyards. As well as these excellent whites, Pierre Vincent considers 2014 to be one of his best red wine vintages, with something in common with 2006 and 2010.