Domaine Bruno CLAVELIER -- 2013s from Cask and Two 2012s from Bottle

 Domaine Bruno CLAVELIER (Vosne-Romanée)

I often ask other producers where in a particular vineyard their holdings are. Those who are near to Bruno Clavelier’s vines frequently comment on how pergectly tended Bruno’s vines are (he works organically and in biodynamie), and indeed his wines have the highest respect among producers I visit (and from me, too). If you do not yet know his wines, they are worth your effort to track some down.

2013s from Cask

Bruno said that he began harvesting the first week in October. He notes that in his grandfather’s time, October harvests were fairly normal, but we’ve seen average harvest dates advance over the last decades. Because he has a very high proportion of old vines, he had lots of small berries, thus the small harvest. But the small berries and the set problems in the spring meant that the grape bunches were well aerated, so he had little rot and did not have to do much sorting at harvest. But the down side of the small berries is that he lacks half a normal harvest. As for whole clusters, Bruno said that he always has some, and because there was so little juice in the grapes in 2013, there was a multiplier effect, resulting in the equivalent of 20-40% whole clusters in a more typical year. He calls the vintage classic in style.

2013 Vosne-Romanée   Les Hauts Beaux Monts

As the name indicates, this vineyard is located quite high up, above the Beaux Monts vineyard. The nose is floral. The wine is medium-light on the palate with very forward fruit that is fresh and energetic. Some of the violets that I often find in Les Beaux Monts come through here, too. The texture is smooth. To give you an idea of how small the crop is, Bruno has 1/3 ha of vines here and just three barrels in 2013, or about 20 hl/ha. , The vines here are on sand from erosion with oolite limestone beneath the sand. There is silt here, but no clay. (88-91)

2013 Vosne-Romanée    La Combe Brulée

The vines are 85 years-old. The nose is floral. The mouth shows good acidity and freshness to blueberry fruit. There’s nervosity here and a finish that causes one to salivate. Good overall balance. Only about 19 hl/ha here. Here we are above the Brulées vineyard on a type of limestone that has gunflint aromas. No clay here, either, but the vineyard gets lots of sun reflection from the sand. (88-92)

2013 Vosne-Romanée   Les Hautes Maizières

The nose is spicy – Bruno compares it to the garrigue smell from wild vegetation in the south of France. The mouth is full, round, and dark with blueberry fruit and more tannin showing than in the previous wines (although I would not call it a tannic monster). The limestone here is the same type as that at Mazis-Chambertin and the Corbeaux vineyard in Gevrey. (89-92)

2013 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru – Aux Brulées

This wine shows white flowers in the nose. The acidity seems sharper than in the previous wines and the wine has subtle dark plum fruit, length, smoothness, freshness, and some tannin for aging. The limestone is the same here as for the Combe Brulée, but with sand from erosion. It is a site that reheats fast but that also gets cool air coming from the Combe, so it is both a hot and cool site combined, Bruno explains. (90-93)

2013 Vosne Romanée 1er Cru – Les Beaux Monts

Some barrels of this wine still had not finished their malolactic fermentations (Clavelier often has late malos, and it’s not unusual for me to find some wines that haven’t finished when I taste in October or November.) This wine is broader and denser in the mouth than the Brulées with refreshing acidity on the finish. The site here has just 20 cm of clay before one gets to the rock. (91-95)

2013 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru – Les Noirots

The nose and mouth here show dark fruit. The body is medium-weight and dense, and the wine seems perhaps a little rustic at this point in the sense of a young Bonnes-Mares. Possibly it is the concentration from the small yields, but this wine seems to show more power than I’ve found in past vintages. The soil is red limestone and clay. One part of the vineyard is 40 years-old, one part 70 years-old, and one part 80 years-old. (90-93)

2013 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru   La Combe d’Orveaux

This vineyard, of course, is the lesser-known complement to Amoureuses, each showing a different aspect of Musginy that lies between them. Amoureuses frequently has red fruit; Combe d’Orveaux tends to dark fruit, and that’s what we get here in both the nose and mouth, along with some nervosity, a medium to medium-full weight body, and sensuality. (91-94)

2013 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru – Les Corbeaux

This wine shows typical dark Corbeaux fruit, medium-weight, and great energy and freshness typical of wines from its particular sector of Gevrey. (91-94)

2013 Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru – Aux Cras

This is from the vineyard just south of Boudots and just down slope from Damodes. Vines here are 85 years-old. Yield was just 18 hl/ha, and of the three barrels that Bruno has in 2013, only one had finished malo when I tasted. The wine is smooth with dark plum fruit that is typical here, roundness, and outstanding energy – making for an outstanding wine. (92-95)

2013 Corton-Rognet

This wine shows redder fruit than the previous ones and is round and easy to like now, unlike many young Cortons, which need a long time to come out of their ugly duckling phase. (92-96)

Two 2012s from Bottle

2012 Vosne-Romanée   La Combe Brulée

This wine shows the structure of 2012 with great energy, lightness, and violets. 90/A

2012 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru – La Combe d’Orveaux

There’s more tightness in this wine than in the 2013 version. It is medium light with splendid dark fruits and will prove to be a lovely wine when it matures. I’d give this wine 12-15 years in the cellar before I started drinking it. 94+/A