MOREY SAINT DENIS

2017 1er Cru Les Loups Domaine des Lambrays

EN PRIMEUR

This has good weight and a nice soft feel. Just a lick of cool minerality adds a gorgeously fluid feel. Nice rich weight to the soft fruit and perfect ripeness. Darkish berry juice, but flattering and crowd pleasing. So smooth and sleek.2017 is the last time this wine will be labelled as Les Loups. With 2018 Boris has taken out one of the three contributing elements; 0.29 of a Ha - (4-5 barrels) Clos Sorbe - so do catch this while you can! Drinking range: 2022 - 2028L&S (Nov 2018)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

(from La Riotte, Clos Sorbé and Le Villages; 50% whole cluster). Wisps of herbal tea and spice add interest to the ripe and ultra-fresh aromas of both red and dark currant that are laced with soft earth. There is a bit more volume but much more refinement to the super-sleek, indeed even satin-textured middle weight flavors that possess even better complexity and sneaky good length. I like the balance and this too should be accessible young yet reward up to a decade of bottle age, perhaps even a little more. Drinking range: 2025 - Rating: 90-93 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Jan 2019)

The charming 2017 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Les Loups offers up a generous bouquet of raspberries, cassis, cinnamon, raw cocoa and orange rind, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample and velvety palate that's open-knit and giving in profile, with deeper reserves of fruit at the core than the Morey Village, concluding with a saline finish. Rating: 90-92 William Kelley, The Wine Advocate (Jan 2019)

The 2017 Morey-Saint-Denis Les Loups 1er Cru comes from three climats (Le Village, Clos Sorbet and La Riotte). Picked September 2, this vintage includes 50% whole bunches. The delicate bouquet takes a little time to find its footing, but it eventually reveals attractive blackberry and pressed iris scents and a hint of peppermint. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin, and quite lively thanks to a little VA that winemaker Bruno Champy tells me he was seeking. The elegant finish is lightly spiced and tinged with white pepper. Very fine. Drinking range: 2020 - 2030 Rating: 89-91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2019)

Gloriously aromatic nose, fragrant with dark red fruit and whole-bunch freshness but not stemmy. A touch spicy and stony to add complexity to the fruit. A tiny hint of vanilla and oak sweetness. Super-fine, dry tannic finesse here, bone dry but fluid across the palate. Real elegance and refinement but still with plenty of cherry fruit. Highly aromatic but not what you would call pretty. Mouth-watering finish. Firm and fluid at the same time. Very approachable. Drinking range: 2022 - 2030 Rating: 17 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Dec 2018)

Blend of three climate Clos Sorbe, La Riotte and Le village (inside the domaine’s park..there is a total mix of soil here, some places mother rock 25cm below and other more than 2m deep). Three spots. 2018 they will make Sorbe separately as it’s a sufficiently large parcel and has a homogenous soil, which Le village does not - much more varied.. This has a light gun flint note with a hint of red cherry. It is silky soft and wafting. Delicate tannins. Very pure and ‘light’ but intense. This is a delight. Soft, but lifted. It is sweet and subtle and vivid at the end. There is a line of minerality here on the finish. Rating: 18.5 Sarah Marsh MW, The Burgundy Briefing (Dec 2018)

Three different premier cru parcels - Le Village, La Riotte and Clos Sorbé - make up this 0.78ha cuvée, fermented with 50% whole bunches and aged in one-third new oak. This has sweet red berry fruit, some sappy, tobacco pouch aromas, nuanced tannins and well-handled wood. Drinking range: 2022 - 2027 Rating: 93 Tim Atkin MW - Decanter (Oct 2018)

The 'Clos' consists of 8.66 hectares of land enclosed by a wall in which there is the original milestone marking its founding in 1365, confirmed in the records of the Abbaye de Citeaux (those monks knew where to place a vineyard). The Clos owes much of its current fame to the nineteenth and twentieth century proprietors who reconstituted it after the fragmentation of ownership which followed the French revolution. Despite always having been considered a Grand Cru site, the Clos was in fact classified Premier Cru in the original 1936 appellations contrôlées.

The Rodier family which owned it from the 1930s fought to regain its Grand cru status, with eventual success only in 1981, when it became the last of the thirty-three Grands Crus of Burgundy, although by then it had passed to the Saier family. Recently under the benign ownership of the Günther Freund and his family, who gave a very free hand to régisseur Thierry Brouin, who had been employed by their predecessor Rolland Pelletier de Chambure, the quality of the wines here has pushed up again. In 2014 it was bought by the LVMH group.

It has been all rather quick change here as Jacques Devauge has taken over here after a short interregnum under Boris Champy. The legacy of Thierry Brouin can still be felt, Jacques decribing him as having been 'clairvoyant' in his approach to the domaine, which has set it up well to deal with challenges of warmer vintages. Jacques seems set to take this estate onward - 'every domaine has to challenge itself to do better', he says. 2019 marks the second year being fully organic - if all goes well they will be certified after another two.

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