So here's my take on white Burgundy 2015. I went and tasted last year and this
year and adored the vintage. I thought there was great acidity and incredible mesmerizing fruit. Loads of minerality and just fantastic depth. Then Burghound came out with his initial assessment of the 15s and it puzzled me a bit as he said there was low acid and the wines were creatures of the vintage. I was like not at Chavy-Chouet or JJ Morel or Florent Garaudet. I was puzzled to say the least. So then fast forward a few months later and the next issue covering 2015 White Burgs comes out and he classifies the 2015 Burgundies into two categories. One where people picked before a certain date and achieved profound ripeness and great acidity, and another which picked after a certain date and got blowsy, overripe flavors and a lack of acidity. Since the producers I tend to work with love acid and tend to pick on the early side, I was relieved to see I wasn't crazy by saying there was good acids in the 15's that I tasted. Money quote is below.
"By contrast, there are also some wines, usually those picked prior to September 1st, that are ultra-fresh and while rich, they possess good verve and better delineation than one might expect. The other important point to appreciate is that this second group possesses markedly drier finishes than the ripeness of the vintage would suggest. Another key point that is closely associated with these two styles of wines is their cellaring potential. " BH, Issue 67
Jean Jacques Morel made masterful 2015s.
I drank a bottle of the 2014 Jean Jacques Morel Bourgogne Blanc Les Genouvrees the other night and time stopped.
It's very difficult for me to describe the perfection of this wine. The 2014 was by no means a powerful or overly fruited wine (it is Bourgogne Blanc after all). But is was one of the most well crafted Chardonnays I've had. The balance was perfect. So perfect that it just washed across my palate and I sat there in awe. It was complex and super dense and just left me speechless.
The Puligny is more concentrated and just as well made. It's an absolutely stunning wine. Borderline top 1er Cru quality with a simply gorgeous, structure and very long finish. An affordable taste of what premium white Burgundies can taste like.
Wines like this can only be made in incredibly small lots where every detail is obsessed over by a man who does not do this to make money but rather for pure love and enjoyment.
I have not offered the absolutely brilliant white Burgundies of Jean Jacques Morel in almost 8 months. I had a terrific visit with Jean Jacques this past March in Burgundy and managed to get a very small allocation of his 2015 whites. They blew my mind. He took me through a tasting of his 15's and I was blown away by the sheer quality. From '12 to '13 to '14 and now '15 he has raised the bar again for what you can achieve with mostly natural methods in Burgundy. He uses a skoche of sulfur at bottling to give stability to the wine. He calls himself "98% Natural."
Morel's wines are about as micro production as it gets in Burgundy, and along with Berlancourt are the two most culty/unicorn like white burg producers that I import. They are completely different from each other, but both achieve the same endpoint which is being wines of contemplation and deliciousness that defy the AOC system that codifies wine by geography. Values are found when winemakers like Jean-Jacques push what can be done in the vineyard (a biodynamic and organic environment is the only way to describe his vineyards) to such an extreme level that the resultant wines are "imprisoned" by their appellation. I don't often bang the drum about biodynamic production but when you taste these wines, you believe the claims that living soil makes great wine. These wines are so complex and delicious that paired with a bowl of Tater Tots, they make a great meal.
Up first is the 2015 JJ Morel Bourgogne Blanc "Les Genouvrees" for $24.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This is a Fass Selections core white Burgundy. The 2015 is awesome. It's by far the most concentrated and deep version of this wine yet. Eclipses the 13. Amazingly intense and ripe. Mineral slabs and piquant green apple skin, so serene and calming. Palate has electricity in spades. It brings the lighting as well as the Thunder aka the richness and fruit of a warm vintage. Tensile and intense with juicy minerals and ripe and green apple and pear fruit. Lean (even in 15!) in the best way and so clean and sopping with minerals on the finish. Sappy and so well made. Epic finish. Terrific acids.
Up next is the 2015 JJ Morel Puligny Montrachet for $44.99 a 3-pack. It was tight, but I took it back to the hotel and it finally opened. Gorgeous nose. When this wine sings it hits all the right notes. Lemon drop, hazelnuts, floral, iodine, mineral galore, hickory, so refined and complex. Palate is structured and deep with awesome zip and acids. Amazing density, concentration and explosiveness. Stunning purity. Amazing amount of material here. This always needs 2-5 years of aging no matter the vintage. It is palate staining as only the best wines are. The terroir here is more clay than limestone and as Jean-Jacques says "holds flavors and puts them back at you."
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