Reviews

Here’s a floral and sophisticated Brouilly with a very striking mouthfeel in which moderately crisp acidity is married to silky tannins to create an elegant whole. Open on the nose and front palate, but still tightly wound at the spicy and savory finish, this should gain from further bottle age. Drinkable now, but best from 2024.

This concentrated and beautifully crafted Brouilly has clearly been made for long aging and already has excellent integration of redcurrant and sour cherry fruit with spicy oak and stacks of fine tannins. The rich and silky palate is wonderfully atypical for the 2021 vintage. Long velvety and spicy finish. Filled in Bordeaux-shaped bottles. Drinkable now, but best to leave it for a few years to develop. 

For the challenging vintage this has an excellent tannin structure and good concentration. The strawberry and redcurrant aromas are restrained, but there are also delicate notes of spice and savory to fill out the picture. Good length with moderate acidity for 2021. Drink or hold.

The flagship of this impressive estate, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Generations is an up-front, plush, incredibly sexy barrel sample that's just about overflowing with red and black fruits as well as spicy oak, dried flowers, and savory herb-driven aromas and flavors. Full-bodied, concentrated, and balanced, this pleasure-bent effort is going to shine right out of the gate yet still evolve for two decades.

In comparison, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon JCB #10 is a bigger, richer, more unctuous effort that reveals a dense purple color as well as a smorgasbord-like array of ripe blue fruits, chocolaty oak, violets, and ripe herbs. It's full-bodied and concentrated, yet still holds onto a terrific sense of finesse and elegance, and the tannins are beautiful. Both wines are brilliant.

I was able to taste two barrel samples from the JCB lineup. The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon JCB #1 is the slightly more elegant and seamless of the two, offering a pure, perfumed nose of ripe currants, toasted spice, graphite, and tobacco leaf. With perfectly integrated oak, full-bodied richness, and just about perfect tannins, this is legit awesome juice. The #1 Cuvee comes from two vineyards in St. Helena and is Clone 4 and Clone 7.

Grégory Patriat gets to harvest the fruit here as he knows the chef de culture well; it's his brother-in-law. This is archetypal Clos de Vougeot with ample spice, earth and sandalwood along with bushels of ripe black plums. Vinous and forward, this is almost ready to enjoy.

This is the oldest contract chez Boisset, which has been in place since 2002. They only make 900 bottles, but it's worth trying to get your hands on one. The nose starts with violets and balsamic before the palate follows with peak-season black cherries. This is vigorous and super-charged, so don't plan on opening it for the first eight or nine years.

Grégory Patriat calls this "the beast", not because its expressions are but because it reminds him to take it easy here. He does a single punch down then lets it "infuse". The power of Grèves–whose power is further amped up given the concentrated fruit from these 70-to 80-year-old vines, is in evidence here –but in a gentle giant sort of way. Roaring with ripe blueberries and spiced Marasca cherries, there is an almost lusty amount of fruit packed onto the palate. This considered, the lightly grippy–and not at all drying –tannins are well-placed. Oak spice pops up on the youthfully firm finish.