The power and the glory
Here are two appellations with different histories and images. In the public perception, Vosne-Romanee is a glamorous commune stuffed full of Burgundy aristocracy, who can only make great wines, while Nuits-St-Georges has no PR machine and is a workmanlike, dowdy town whose main fame is its traffic lights. Much Nuits historically went to negociant brands though it was the only Burgundy village I had heard of for my first quarter century. Now, finally Nuits as a village has reclaimed its true identity: there is so much more to it than muscle nowadays. The introduction of modern growing techniques has made a big difference and a new generation of winemakers is ambitious to reveal aroma and terroir through gentler extraction.
Domaine Chevillon has four generations and over a century of continuous growing to its name and its reputation. As across the region, poor flowering was what reduced yields here, but the brothers' farming expertise has carried them through triumphantly. Bertrand and Denis can be justly proud of their fine 2013s.
At Domaine Gouges Greg was one of the few who wasn't surprised by the quality of the harvest. It was late and small; scant reward after an arduous growing season and the reduced size of the crop was caused not just by disrupted flowering, but by sorting out 25% of what remained of the fruit. What was allowed into the wine was fruity and complex and with perfect ripeness.
In Vosne, Michel Gros has dealt brilliantly with the smallest crop since 2003. But the resulting grapes were perfectly ripe and needed only a little chaptalisation. Imbued with dark, black cherry fruit, the wines are also deeply coloured from the small size of the grapes.
We began the Domaine Jean Grivot visit with (daughter) Mathilde but Etienne took over and was effusive in his praise of her as a highly talented and intuitive winemaker. 2013 didn't have to be difficult, said Etienne. One of the aspects of the vintage that Etienne noted was that most of the grapes were so small that they only had one pip, which contributed to their successful ripening. He wasn't surprised by the vintage quality, he'd been following the physiological makeup of the fruit from the beginning and his skilled and dedicated team followed his vision to produce great wines. Unprompted, he compared the year with 1978 and this was a superb tasting.
Don't ignore Meo-Camuzet's negoce wines under the Frere et Soeurs designation. The Meo family has been landlords - most famously to Henri Jayer - as well as farming under various arrangements for these wines for many years. Crucially they do all their own vineyard management and harvesting and Jean-Nicolas with his team make brilliant wines from all their vines. To adapt to the 2013 fruit, the team used fewer whole bunches this vintage. /CW
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