Wine Advisor
Alain Hudelot Noellat, Richebourg Grand Cru 2013
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Deep red. More medicinal and reticent on the nose than the Romanée Saint-Vivant, offering scents of black cherry, menthol and licorice. Tactile and dense but very closed and unforthcoming. Less sweet and more savory than the RVS, showing less early sex appeal but more power. This struck me as much more affected by the bottling last March than the RSV.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(60% new oak): Deep red, darker than the RSV. Less showy on the nose today, offering aromas of black raspberry, licorice, coffee and brown spices. Big, rich and highly concentrated; in a more masculine style than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant, showing a youthful medicinal cast to the sappy red cherry and menthol flavors. Seriously structured grand cru, finishing with a rather muscular tannic spine but also terrific lift and soil-driven salinity. Charles van Canneyt told me that this wine was much more open than the Romanée-Saint-Vivant a week before my visit, but then these two grand crus routinely flip-flop in his cellar during the months following their malos.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2013 Richebourg Grand Cru has a more broody bouquet compared to the Romanée Saint Vivant, the fruit darker, though perhaps eventually that subtle floral note with become more pronounced. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin, a fine bead of acidity plus a firm backbone and focus, although at the moment it does not have the sheer untrammeled chutzpah of the R,S,V. Still impressive though, and Charles mentioned that it was changing each day.
About the Producer
In 1962, Alain inherited two small parcels of his father's Chambolle-Musigny Grand Cru Les Chames, plus several vineyards from his marriage to the great-granddaughter of Charles Noellat, a Vosne-Romanee winery family, and he established Domaine Alain Hudelot Noellat. The winery is now about 10 hectares (24 hectares) in size. The estate now has about 10 hectares (24 acres) of vineyards with an average age of over 50 years, including several dating back to 1920, including the vineyard at Romanée-Saint-Vivant. The winery is known for its lighter wines with nuanced and natural flavors. Now managed by third-generation grandson Charles van Canneyts, Hudelot-Nollat is not so different from its grandfather's time, when it was less visible in the thicker wines, but now it has the advantage of refinement, often with fresh, bright fruit, balanced acidity and silky tannins. The vinification is entirely de-stemmed, using local yeasts that are not comparable to artificial yeasts, with a relatively long pre-fermentation cold soak, mainly with trampled skins, and 18 months in new barrels at 20-60%. In 2012, Charles also started to buy grapes from other winegrowers under his own name to make his wine. Vosne-Romanee is a blend of three first growths, Suchots, Beaumonts and Malconsorts, and as young as it is, the Hudelot-Noellat family owns three first growths that are over 100 years old, so this VR is ostensibly a village wine, but with a first growth heritage. Jasper Morris MW has high praise for Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat. He believes that while Alain Hudelot's management has produced fine style reds, Charles van Canneyt has taken over and given the wines more concentration and backbone, retaining their elegance, but with more ageing potential and balance.
