Tastings at Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux, Vosne Romanée and Domaine Lejeune, Pommard - Day 2 of Visit to Burgundy 2010

18 November 2010: We drove from Joigny to Beaune, this time on the autoroute. We timed our arrival at Vosne-Romanée so that we could enjoy a small picnic lunch of ham and cheese bread rolls on the slopes of Vosne-Romanée, amongst the vineyards, before turning up at Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux for a tasting. We arrived at 2:30 pm and we were told to wait in a wine bar area until Pascal finished his previous tasting. Pascal came and fetched us at about 3 pm, rather apologetically for the delay. This is an incredibly busy week in Burgundy and every popular domaine is totally inundated with visitors. Our group became rather numerous when we finally got started. We were joined by 10 other people, 6 of whom from New York and the other 4 from France.



Pascal Lachaux

 The domaine renamed in 2009 to Arnoux-Lachaux is now run by Pascal and Florence (daughter of Robert Arnoux), a very charming couple, with a good deal of business savoir-faire. Pascal led us down the steps to the cellars, which were in such immaculate and organized condition. We started with tasting of 2009 wines from the barrels. The first was Bourgogne Rouge, which was a nice simple wine with beautiful fruit. Following were 2 Villages level wines: Vosne Romanée and Chambolle Musigny. The average age of vines for the Vosne Romanée was 50 years old. He would rack this wine around end December and transfer to a stainless steel cuve before bottling around end of February. 20% of new oak was used for this wine. Premiers Crus would have around 40-50% new oak and 100% new oak for Grands Crus. The Chambolle Musigny tasted more tannic than the Vosne Romanée. Pascal said that his Chambolle Musigny vineyard was situated below the Premier Cru vineyard and as a result the wine did not taste as refined. Also, for 2009, they suffered from hail which reduced the yield by 40%. The grapes were smaller and the greater skin to pulp ratio gave the wine more concentrated phenolics. Next we tasted a few Premiers Crus, starting with the Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos des Corvées Pagets, very elegant, floral and beautiful fruit. The Vosne Romanée Chaumes was very approachable already, in a slightly more spicy style. The Vosne Romanée Les Suchots was a big step up, much more “flatteur”, concentrated, complex in style, with a nice long finish. Only 5 barrels were made. The first Grand Cru we tasted was Latricières Chambertin, which would typically spend 15 months in wood. A much more mineral style, more power than the Suchots, with much firmer acidity. Pascal finished the 2009 tasting with the Romanée Saint Vivant which was simply stunning! Aromatically incredibly complex, with a lovely balance between the “puissance” and finesse. Already a very harmonious structure with the grainy tannin, firm acidity and beautiful ripe fruit. Only 5 barrels made. (It seemed such a shame to be spitting out this gorgeous wine!)  My favourites?  Definitely the Suchots and the Romanée Saint Vivant, and I thought the Vosne Romanée villages and the Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos des Corvées Pagets were very fine indeed!
We were then shown some 2008 from bottles. Echezeaux (very mineral in style), Suchots (powerful, spicy, quite earthy and tannic), and the Romanée Saint Vivant (harmonious, powerful, balanced, and in a lovely mineral style). Minerality seems to be a common style amongst the 2008, while the 2009 was already very approachable from barrels!

According to Pascal, 2007 was a vintage with less acidity, less austere, and in some ways more approachable now than 2006 and 2008. 2008 was more restrained, more “tendu”. 2006 was somewhere in between 2007 and 2008. Pascal believes that if one likes to enjoy young burgundies with plenty of fruit, then they are best drunk in the first 3 – 5 years of their lives, and for those who appreciate the mature characteristics, best to wait after 20 years of age……

From the immaculate cellars of Arnoux-Lachaux, we next visited a very small domaine in Pommard, Domaine Lejeune. We were received by the winemaker Aubert Lefars. It was very refreshing to meet someone like Aubert, who in all modesty and sincerity, told us that he’s a novice in the world of winemaking, how he had learnt everything from his father-in-law, a former professor at the Ecole Viticole in Beaune when he left the engineering firm Schenker 5 years ago. His wife’s family have been winemakers at this domaine for 7 generations. The domaine has holdings in 3 Premier Cru vineyards: Les Rugiens (the domaine owns 0.25 ha out of the 5 ha vineyard), L’Argillières (clay-limestone soil) and Les Poutures (more clay). They also own some village level vineyard in Trois Follots, as well as vineyard on the plain, for the making of Bourgogne Rouge. Total production is 40,000 bottles, 20,000 of which are Bourgogne Rouge. Aubert was very enthusiastic in sharing with us his father-in-law’s winemaking philosophy. The domaine uses a mix of alcoholic fermentation and carbonic maceration for their wines. This means that part of the grapes would be crushed (foulage) and part of the grapes would be left in whole clusters for the carbonic maceration which would be completed in 7 – 10 days. His father-in-law believed that this would help reduce the acidity in the wine, but care would need to be taken in avoiding over-extraction of tannins from the stalks in the whole clusters. Maceration would vary between 15 and 25 days depending on the year. 60% new oak would be used for Les Rugiens, 25-30% new oak for L’Argillières and Les Poutures. Bottling of the 2009 would take place between March and June 2011.

We tasted the 2009 from barrels, starting with Les Poutures, which was in a supple style. L’Argillières was a more mineral style, more elegant, with firmer acidity. Les Rugiens was much more concentrated, complex, showing some spicy and chocolate character on top of the ripe red fruit. 5 barrels of Les Rugiens were made by this domaine. Yield for 2009 was around 45 hl/ha. 2010 was much lower, at 35 hl/ha.

We then tasted some wine from bottles including a 2008 Les Rugiens, which was really spicy, earthy and mineral, yet to develop its characteristic animal, gamey notes.

We actually visited Lejeune because we chose them as the éleveur for our barrel of 2009 Hospices de Beaune Pommard Cuvée Dame de La Charité, which we tasted from barrel. We were really pleased with the domaine’s work – the wine tasted very well, with a lot of finesse, suppleness, minerality and ripe red fruit wrapping around the soft tannins and firm acidity. Classy wine.

We drove away, very happy that we had just done two really good tastings at two very different domaines!  One similarity was that they are now both run by a younger generation and both very impressive, in their own ways.