Wine Advisor
Alain Hudelot Noellat, Romanee St Vivant Grand Cru 2015
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Full, bright red. Alluring aromas of black cherry, raspberry, cocoa powder, licorice and violet hint at the exotic side of the vintage. Wonderfully silky-sweet on the palate, but with its plush, seamless texture given shape by surprising harmonious acidity. This is deceptively accessible today owing to its sheer sucrosité and pliancy, and its utterly suave tannins, but the extremely long finish shows an exhilarating sappiness that suggests this wine will evolve slowly and gracefully in bottle.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(these vines yielded only about 25 hectoliters per hectare in 2015): Bright, dark red. Ripe, slightly high-toned aromas of raspberry, mocha and cocoa powder. Wonderfully sweet and penetrating, conveying a strong, sappy impression of dry extract and terrific depth and volume while maintaining a light touch. This impressively primary wine finishes with chewy, ripe tannins and slowly mounting, mouth-staining persistence. Van Canneyt compares this terroir to his Suchots, noting that the two vineyards feature the same plant material.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Romanée Saint-Vivant Grand Cru from Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat is exceptional, bursting from the glass with notes of cherries, wild berries, exotic spice, dried flowers and orange rind. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, concentrated and authoritative, built around a bright line of acidity and a fine-grained chassis of satiny tannins. The finish is long, fragrant and racy.
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.
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