Jean-Claude Boisset, Pommard `Les Vaumuriens`

Jean-Claude Boisset, Pommard `Les Vaumuriens`

Vintage: 2019

VintageProduct CodeFormatClosureAvailability
2019BO256B196 x 75Natural CorkAvailable
Producer

Jean-Claude Boisset is a family-owned wine company founded in 1961, with their first parcel located in Gevrey-Chambertin. Today the company is based in Les Ursulines, a former convent in Nuits-Saint-Georges and is run by brother and sister duo Jean-Charles and Nathalie Boisset. In 2018, they opened a new state-of-the-art winery, reflecting their modern, technical approach to winemaking.

Since 2002, the wines have been made by Grégory Patriat. Previously head viticulturist and assistant winemaker at the legendary Domaine Leroy, Grégory has brought a detailed, vineyard-led approach to Jean-Claude Boisset. This approach is mirrored in Grégory’s winemaking, resulting in wines that reflect their origins with a harmony of freshness and fruit expression. After tasting the 2021 vintage, Jancis Robinson wrote that she “was utterly knocked out by the balance and refinement of Grégory Patriat’s wines at J-C Boisset”.

Today, Grégory makes 45 wines from across the Côte d’Or, working closely with his team of growers throughout the year. He gets just as excited about his plot of Grand Cru ‘Clos de la Roche’ (from which he has been buying fruit since 2002) or his vines in Chambolle-Musigny (which includes a parcel of the Premier Cru ‘Clos de l’Orme’), as he does with his Aligoté, his Fixin Blanc or other lesser-known appellations.

His philosophy is simple: work with old, massal selection vines that produce highly concentrated, low-yielding fruit. In the cellar, he is non-interventionist, preferring to let the fruit express itself. “70-80% of the quality comes from the vineyard,” he says. Vinification for the reds is in large, open-topped oak foudres, while the whites are fermented in Chassin barrels. Since 2007, Grégory has introduced larger 450-litre barrels to reduce the influence of oak.

Grégory’s wines have won no fewer than 74 medals and 13 trophies from prestigious competitions over the past eight years, including the International Wine Challenge ‘Clos de la Roche’ Trophy, which he has won five times.

Vineyards

Les Vaumuriens is located in Pommard, between Beaune and Volnay, on the hillside slopes facing Volnay. The soil here is a mixture of clay and limestone, which gives the wine good intensity on the palate and elegance on the finish. In old French 'Vaumuriens' describes a narrow, steep-sided valley. The wine is produced from very old and naturally low-yielding vines, with careful and environmentally-friendly vineyard management.

Vintage

According to Grégory Patriat, the 2019 vintage will go down in history as legendary. It started with a mild winter that moved into a colder spring with some frosts which led to reduced yields. The cooler temperatures continued into June, then there was a sudden increase in temperature, so much so that some of the younger vines temporarily shut down. Nevertheless, the lower yields and hot and dry conditions resulted in a harvest of lower quantity but excellent quality with smaller berries packed full of flavour. Similar to the wines of 1969, 1979, 1999, 2009 the wines from this vintage show excellent concentration.

Vinification

The grapes were handpicked and sorted in the vineyard. Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes underwent a second sorting to ensure only the best fruit was used. The grapes were partially destemmed (20%) and gravity-fed into tanks. The remaining 80% was kept whole bunch and macerated for 18 days. Fermentation took place using only indigenous yeasts, with four punchings of the cap. The wine was aged for eight months with no stirring or racking in French oak barrels of which 44% were new oak.

Tasting Notes & Technical Details

This wine is intense ruby red in colour. The nose exhibits a beautiful bouquet which combines floral rose petal notes with fresh dark berries and some hits of black pepper. This wine is extremely elegant with a concentrated palate which reveals refined silky tannins and a long finish.

Alcohol (ABV)

13%

Acidity

5.39 g/l

Residual Sugar

0.4 g/l

pH

3.74