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Importing Burgundy
for 13 years
Wills Burgundy
Queensgate House
48 Queen Street
Exeter Devon
EX4 3SR
tel: 01308 427820
fax 0870 755 9722
mob:07769 730403
call me- Will Grafton
vat no GB799971434
will@wills-burgundy.com
My TERMS of Business can be found here E&OE
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NEW TASTING NOTES Service, Email me with the Jadot wine(s) you are possibly interested in and I will send you the notes as a PDF's.
Events None Planned at present
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Wills Visit Report – Louis Jadot in Beaujolais and Beanue 30th & 31st Oct 1st Nov.
We flew into Lyon on the Thursday morning, and made our way to Moulin a Vent - Chateau des Jaques to meet Guillaume de Castelnaud, the head winemaker for Jadot’s Beaujolais operation. After a warm welcome he explained Jadot is moving to biodynamic production as far as possible to allow the vines to go deep and revert to the more natural taste of the Gamay on these local soils – more powerful and aromatic – somewhat like a Pinot Noir.
We tasted a large range of Chateau des Jacques wines. I liked the Beaujolais Villages we tasted, it has always been a favourite – with little or no wood to taste. I also enjoyed the 1999 Chateaus des Jacques La Roche and Rochegres (separate climats), produce smooth even perfumed wines. The combined wine of Chateau des Jacques was good too. The 2001 Bourgogne blanc Clos de Loyse was also very impressive –vanilla and some sharpness. Guillaume lets the natural yeasts ferment – it occurs in three separate stages (3 yeasts) and he lets temperatures rise in ferment. He also allows for a long extraction to get as much flavour from the grapes as possible. 2003 will be an ‘interesting’ vintage with tiny yields due to the heat. We then did a brief tour in the gloom of the dying day of the vineyards. Overall this is an impressive operation reverting Beaujolais away from the inconsequential light and solely fruity offerings we have known for too long.
That night we stayed at the excellent Hotel des Remperts in Beaune (tel 03 80 24 94 94) and had a couple of rather nice bottles including a beautiful Beaune Clos des Ursules which is Jadot’s oldest domaine holding.
Cadus Barrels at Chateau des Jacques->
Next morning (bright and early) we went to Cadus the cooperage and saw a very impressive operation constructing futs de chene or barrels from three year aged oak. Jadot owns part of and uses the Cadus barrels to ensure quality. Oak is stacked in air drying pallet structures for 3 years. The Burgundy barrel holds 228 litres or 300 bottles odd. The whole place smelled of wine even though none was present which is indicative of the influence of the wood on the wine. Three different oaks are used from French state forests each with different flavours Nevers, Alliers, and Limousin. A Chardonnay might come from an Allier fut de chene but a big pinot noir would go in the stronger Nevers. The craftsmanship was fascinating to be seen. Also the different levels of ‘internal toasting’ or basically a fire lit inside the barrell gives it more or less vanillas. You can order from many different toast levels!
Our final Jadot planned event was the Jadot 2002 cellar tasting from the barrel with the entertaining Marc du Pin. This involved pipeting out a small quantity of each wine (which is later topped up). It was interesting to see the actual quantities produced of each wine, some with as little as 3 barrels per named ‘cuvee’. We tried the 2000 Bourgogne blanc and it was as good as ever.
We then moved onto the white 2002s which was a super year as weather was perfect for last month to picking. Santenay Clos de Malte was very round and some vanilla – impressive. St Aubin 1er Cru les Combes - lemony and pineapple – lovely. Savigny Les Guettes much sharper. Mersault Blagny –very precise and drier- because it is higher than Mersault Genevriers lower hence more classic Mersault and we tasted it from futs from Nevers (caramel smooth) vs from Alliers (somewhat sharper). Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Perrieres on deeper soil contrasted with my choice the 1er Cru Folatieres, clean dry and luminous! Back to Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot – rich and beautiful yet cleaness as well. We then had the luxury to try Corton Charlemagne, Charlemagne itself and Batard Montrachet - needless to say all were quite heavenly **** 5 stars.
Reds we tasted 1er Crus e.g. Pernand Vergelesses croix de Pierre- a bit sharp for me contrast with Beaune Clos des Ursules – sweet harmonious and round. Pommard 1er Cru Commairaine was vegetal and musky. Volnay clos de la Barre was smooth and silky with violets. Nuits St Georges les Boudots was a very good balance of sweetness and undergrowths. Chambolle Musigny les Baudes was smoky and perfumed. CM Les Fuees – a long favourite was powerful clean and balanced but was junior to of course my home territory Bonnes Mares which is everything you can expect from the perfect Pinot Noir and gets ***** from me. We also tasted the Village Morey which was very good and moved on to the Clos Vougeot **** which is worthily delightful.
At lunch – right – we discussed different tastes and buying patterns, and had a very nice Gevrey 1er Cru - and I then went off to Morey St Denis for a brief tasting at the Amiot freres. That showed that 2002 is also impressive in the reds as well as whites and one to buy- when its available – soon!
NEW TASTING NOTES Service, Email me with the Jadot wine(s) you are possibly interested in and I will send you the notes as a PDF's.
We are purveyors of wine to the Bentworth Ball! |
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