Prices:
Bottle
£55.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 12cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
A difficult year with cold damp conditions at harvest during the first week in October. Sorting was needed and it was important to be gentle in the maceration of the fruit. The grapes appeared ripe enough despite slightly low sugar levels. There is a little more wine than in 2012, and Louis was upbeat despite the repeated short crops.
Bottle
£57.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 13cs
The 2013 “En Foule” version of Les Evocelles combines fruit from the plot of very high-density vines, along with the best from the adjacent old vines, all of which is vinified without de-stemming and then bottled uniquely in magnums. It has a fine pale colour with a heavenly, heady bouquet. There is a huge density of fruit on the palate then, in youth, a firm finish, which will ensure longevity.
Magnum
£150.00
89-91/100 Top Value wine Allen Meadows, burghound.com, Jan 2016
Magnum
£150.00
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.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
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.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
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.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
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.
Louis Boillot came to Chambolle-Musigny, where his partner Ghislaine Barthod is based, from Gevrey-Chambertin, though as his full range of wines indicates, he is descended from the Volnay family of Boillots. He was formerly associated with his brother and father at Domaine Lucien Boillot, but set up on his own from the 2003 vintage. In 2013, Louis supplemented his holdings in the Côte d’Or with the purchase of just over four hectares of well-sited old vines in the north of Moulin-à-Vent (the fruit of which you’ll find on pages 54 and 55). Louis and Ghislaine have recently been joined by their son Clément. Given that Louis thought that his 2015s were among the best wines he has ever made, it is quite a step up for him to say that, categorically, this is his best-ever vintage. It is an assertion that’s hard to refute. His eschewing of current trends in winemaking (no whole-bunch here) and a modest, reflective stance has allowed him to get the best out of his extraordinary array of vineyards and old vines. There are wonderful expressions of each vineyard this year.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 4cs
The good thing about having a domaine shared between Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits is that you are unlikely to sustain hail damage in every vineyard in any given vintage. The bad thing is that your Côte de Beaune vineyards will have suffered three years in a row. So this year we concentrate on Gevrey-Chambertin, where Louis’s results are excellent in 2014.