Another excellent tasting. Superb wines across the board, Sébastien is cementing his reputation as one of the finest wine makers in the Cote de Nuits. Many thousands of words have been written eulogising these wines, what more can be said? Don’t forget the Nuit Saint Georges, from the village to the 1er Cru Aux Murgers they are great examples and often overlooked.
Coteaux Bourguignon 2017
The second vintage of the Cuvée, from 38-year-old vines growing between Vosne and Nuits. Roughly 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Gamay, co-planted and fermented. Good depth, nicely round and grippy, fresh and crunchy. A fun wine, although when we were given the 2016 blind, we all said Vosne, so perhaps it is better than just fun!
Bourgogne Rouge 2017
Tasted from a one-year old barrel. Lovely purity. Good rich attack, crunchy and fresh mid palate, spicy, floral finish. Quite Vosne in character.
Nuits-St-Georges 2017
1/3rd new oak. More earthiness on the nose under alluring sweet raspberries. Very pure, nice tension, this is more detailed than the Vosne today, super freshness and lift. An excellent village wine.
Vosne-Romanée 2017
Around 1/3rd new oak. Rich nose, pure berry fruit and a little wood smoke. Fine boned palate, textured, silky. Fine tannins and a crunchy, sweet fruited finish with notes of spice and dark cherry.
Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru aux Thorey 2017
75-year-old vines. Richer, deeper and darker, a leap in texture and complexity. Very sleek and pure yet retaining some of Nuit’s grainy structure. Great presence, and long, but not for early drinking perhaps. 2027+.
Nuits-St-George 1er Cru Aux Murgers 2017
60-65-year-old vines. Deep sweet violets and black cherry. Night flowers. Quite dense and rich, perfectly (just) ripe fruit, super freshness and a cool sleek profile on the mid palate, but one feels the skins and the Nuits structure on the finish. 2030+
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Reignots 2017
Planted in 1997 these are the domaines youngest vines. Fine cool nose, black fruit pastille, floral, anise. Fine racy attack, not as dense, but elegant and delicate without being underpowered. Discreetly muscular, this feels very open today and gives a lovely sense of pristine serenity.
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Orveaux 2017
A vineyard which sits at the top of the slope above Échezeaux. 75-year-old vines. Sébastien comments that they are particularly good stock, giving tight bunches of very high-quality small berries. Always a highlight for me at Cathiard. Today though a little reduced and hard to read. This isn’t heavier than the Reignots, but it is both denser and more lifted. There is superb tension as it flows across the palate, a dramatic wine which seems to heighten one’s senses.
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Malconsorts 2017
Huge, thrilling nose full of fruit, mineral and earth. Broad, powerful but tensile and controlled. An impression of stone fruit, or fruit stones. Structured, plenty of tannin, but flooded by fruit today. A big exciting wine with a peacock’s tale finish that ebbs and flows across the palate and synapses. Superb in every way.
