Tasting Notes
Robert Parker 88-90
The 2014 Chambolle Musigny Vieilles Vignes contains 30% of Combes d’Orveaux that Christophe used to bottle separately. It has a nose that blossoms with red cherries and blueberry fruit; it is airy in style and quite expressive at this early stage. The palate is smooth and harmonious with well judged acidity, commendable weight in the mouth, but perhaps just needing a little more substance and complexity to come through on the finish. Perhaps afford this a couple of years in bottle? You feel like gee-ing it along. I never like being late, so I had to apologize to Christophe Perrot-Minot in the courtyard of his winery in Morey-Saint-Denis when I sloped in 45 minutes tardy. Still, better late than never (I hope). We walked down to his rather chichi tasting room, dominated by what must be the largest table in Burgundy. We began by discussing recent vintages… “2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013: they were all four small vintages with regard to quantity. But in 2014 I had the capacity to make more wine than other years. I did a strict green harvest and during the picking, I did a first triage in the vineyard and another on the sorting table. After all this, I still have produced 85% of what the appellation rules permit. I never made so much wine. I kept seven to nine bunches per vine, but they were full of juice. I started picking around September 10 and finished around September 22 or 23. It was the sorting that was complicated. I have ten-meters of sorting table both vibrating and normal.” I asked Christophe if he had any problems with drosophila suzukii. “The suzukii fruit fly attacked the compact bunches,” he told me. “We lost around 10% to 15% in Gevrey. I like 2014 — it is fresh and elegant, with no dilution. You can age the wines but you could drink them young.”
Anticipated maturity: 2017-2027
Vinous 90
(the same blend of elements as the 2015 version): Bright, dark red Cool scents of dark cherry, licorice and stone Silky and nicely concentrated but showing little easy sweetness to its youthfully medicinal flavors of cherry and menthol As there’s less mid-palate flesh here than in the ’15 version, the tannins come across as a bit tight today but the classically dry finish is tactile and persistent Christophe Perrot-Minot says this wine is closed in the early going owing to its sizable Combe d’Orveau component
Anticipated maturity: 2019-2026