Les Evocelles

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.

Burgundy 2012 En Primeur - Staff Favourite
Planted at 36000 vines per hectare Les Evocelles must be among the highest density plantings in France. As a result the vines compete for water and nutrients producing small, highly flavoured berries. The wine shows ripe berries with rich cherry notes, finesse of a fine tannic structure and a finish that continues for a very long time. The 100% whole clusters are easily blended with the ripeness of fruit.

This superb domaine grows in reputation and also in size: this year sees the first vintage of Nuits-St Georges, Clos de Thorey. Look out for even further additions in the next two years. Winemaker Pierre Vincent’s style is for lighter colours and very sensual wines and he has done a cracking job again in 2012; a vintage which supported the plentiful use of whole bunch fermentation. The domaine is certified organic and fully biodynamic.

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.

Lovely bright purple, this has an impressive density of both colour and fruit on the nose, before a huge swelling volume on the palate, with dancing fruit and a lovely persistent finish. Drink 2021-2028.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

Picking here began on 2^nd September, relatively early for the Côte de Nuits. Louis Boillot’s 2015s are not massively powerful, but they are some of the very best he has ever made, thanks to the sense of poise and their persistence. The large proportion of old to very old vines among his offerings doesn’t do any harm either.

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.

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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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

This is aromatically similar save for one important difference which is that this is markedly more floral in character. There is fresh and lilting quality to the concentrated, detailed and beautifully precise flavors that ooze a fine minerality on the austere, firm and hugely long finish. Like the regular cuvée, this delivers outstanding quality for what it is.
Allen Meadows - burghound.com - Jan 2013