- Incredible Clarity in All Elements
- Textbook Elegant Winemaking
- If You Love Burgundy or a Terroirist, These Are Must Buys
- I Buy These Direct So That Are Steals for What they Are
2017 Domaine JanotBos St. Aubin 1er Cru "En Criot"
- Stunningly Vivid Fruit with Incredible Freshness
- Fruit Complexity Has So Much Pure Green Apple, Apricot
- Power and Concentration Matched with Epic Purity, Fruit, Acid and Freshness
- Delicious St. Aubin Richness but Balanced By Minerality
- Will Compete for The Most Delicious White You Drink All Year - Against Anything
- His Most Accessible, Delicious Wine
- The Sleeper Value of His Portfolio
2016 Domaine Janotbos Macon-Vergisson
- Great Macon White Fruit
- None of the Typical Blowiness of the Macon
- Cote d'Or Style: Serious, Complex, Mineral
- JanotBos' Serious Elegant Style Makes This a Stunning Value
- Nose as Complex As Much Pricier Cote d'Or Whites: Lean, Mineral, Saline , White Flowers, Hazelnuts
- Palate: Power and Concentration
- Matched with the Epic Purity, Fruit, Acid and Freshness
- At $32.99 A White Burgundy That Will Compete with Many Very, Very Good $50+ Village Wines in the Cote d'Or
We are all familiar with the work of Edgar Degas, the 19th century French artist who was one of the founders of impressionism. He is perhaps most famous for his sculpture of a girl ballet dancer, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, which is interesting because he was mostly a painter and produced many famous paintings. I've found many of his works to have an almost eery, calm beautiful and almost transcendent elegance about them. It's a quality that I love in art and, most certainly, in wine.
The JanotBos Style
The wines of JanotBos have that level of beyond reality about them. The minerals are so finely cut they are almost beyond mineral. The acidity is precise and just there in a clear way but not obtrusive. The fruit is always that which it should be and not a teeny bit more or less. The fruits taste like the perfect fruits - not overripe, not underripe just exactly there. They bring back Robuchon's famous line, "a carrot should taste like a carrot, a pea should taste like a pea." In a world that often strives for extravagant intensity, these wines reach the level of perfection and then stop on a dime because any more would be simply vulgar.
Today I've got one of my absolute favorite 2016's and a brilliant 2017 I tasted back inFebruary 2019 at Janotbos, including the Fass Selection debuts of his absolute knockout Macon wines and what is quickly becoming my favorite high end sleeper wine at Janotbos, that I think is directly under the Chassagne 1er Cru Morgeot. It's the sleeper value steal of the whole line up. His epic St. Aubin 1er Cru "En Creot."
The Wines
I am very excited to offer the 2017 Domaine JanotBos St. Aubin 1er Cru "En Criot" for $52.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This is a Fass 4-3-1 plan. Buy 4, slug one down young. 2017 is a brilliant vintage at JanotBos to drink young but has the real deep structure to age. I had an 2008 of this that was mind blowing. This is from a south facing vineyard and my note says great stuff and indeed it is.
The nose is very lean, very mineral and saline with lots of iodine and white flowers with a deep stony mineral earthiness as well. Almost dark round stones, if that makes sense. There is very complex hazelnut as well. It's such a unique and compelling nose. Very precise and very pure and reminds me a cool climate scene.
The palate is stunning with absolutely clear and vivid fruit with incredible freshness. It has amazing texture and St. Aubin richness but is so sleek, so refined and so complex you can't believe it's not the Morgeot. It is off the charts complex. Just enormous complexity and explosive yet nimble and so graceful as it crashes with fresh minerals across your palate. Think Riesling in a Chardonnay style. The fruit complexity has so much pure green apple, apricot and is off the charts and it finishes with huge palate staining minerals and such energy and cut. The roundness is so engaging as a contrast to the minerality. It's dazzlingly pure with amazing inner mouth aromas. This is a wine I'd sell to a JanotBos rookie. The power and concentration matched with the epic purity, fruit, acid and freshness will really turn some heads. It's just awesome and has a finish that pumps and pumps fruit and mineral. It is just a brilliant wine that should be 2-3 times more expensive. Will age and improve for 10-13 years. All my white burgundy drinkers cannot miss this.
The Macon
I love the Macon. I've always had an affinity for it and I've only offered a smattering of some here and there in the 6+ years of Fass Selections. There is incredible diversity of terroir between Macon, Pouilly-Fuisse and Pouilly-Vinzelles and as everyone knows they can be terrific values and some of them can have terrific short to medium term aging. There is also a freedom in drinking inexpensive Burgundy. Expectations are always built up when a Burg hits a certain price point. Sometimes you get disappointed and sometimes you have a come to Jesus moment and also many experiences in between. Most of this is due to expectations. With inexpensive Burgundy people always seem to manage their expectations and as a result of this they are overwhelmingly happy with Macon wines when they are drinking them because they tend to always rise above our somewhat managed expectations. That's why I love Macon wines as there's is a freeing feeling when drinking them.
When I was recently tasting in Richard Bos' cellar of Domaine Janotbos he tasted me on two Macon wines that absolutely blew me away. I had tasted them before, but they were always sold out but I got there early this year and in 2016 both of them were just smokeshows. They have the classic Janotbos style of a steely structural architecture and unreal cleanliness, depth and precision. Both of these are top top values and should be considered to be case purchases if you like value Burgundy and you like Macon as I will not be selling anymore Macon wines until the 2018's of these as these will become regular parts of the Fass Selections rotation.
Up next is the 2016 Domaine Janotbos Macon-Vergisson for $32.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This wine is a rock star doing a metal cover. It's so brilliant. Really a wow wine and it really performed way above my expectations. Gorgeous wine and a killer Macon that's more like a great Cote de Beaune wine than anything.
Nose is super mineral with almost chlorophyll like aromas and just a sense of purity and essence of great single vineyard Macon. Lemon pit, lemon zest as well as high toned white flowers. Also deep nose of apple, more different apple and some pear. Gorgeous spice and minerality.
On the palate, this has insane inner mouth aromas that I typically only associate with much more expensive wines. Very, very pure. The purity streak that runs through the 2016 Janotbos wines is something else. Complex, mineral and very sappy with a mineral wash finish. Freshness is off the charts. Really terrific length. Complex, fresh and concentrated with dazzling purity, a hit of opulence and such amazing persistence and freshness. Wow. Deep. Long and so balanced. Energy for days.
This is one of those wines that I just love to drink and share with people because they aren't prepared for how great it is. I just looked at all the other Macon-Vergisson on Delectable and I'll say this is easily on the same level as Barraud and I honestly prefer the style even more as it's much racier and mineral.
2017 Domaine JanotBos St. Aubin 1er Cru "En Criot" - $54.99
($211.96 4-pack) (Including Tariff of $5.98)
2016 Domaine Janotbos Macon-Vergisson - $34.99 ($131.96 4-pack) (Including Tariff of $3.32)
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