Wine Advisor
Meo Camuzet, Richebourg Grand Cru 2015
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Richebourg Grand Cru has an expressive bouquet, a little earthier than the 2015 Cros Parantoux, more reserved and statesmanlike, though at the same time it shows impressive clarity and gains stature with every swirl of the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with superb, quite robust tannin that lend this Richebourg the arching structure that can define this vineyard. There is some some new oak to be absorbed on the finish, but there is great density and length. Does it have the flamboyance of the Cros Parantoux? Let's see - my bets are with the premier cru at present. I suspect that this will be an imposing Richebourg with time, as Jean-Nicolas Méo himself commented.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Dark ruby-red, a shade lighter than the Cros Parantoux and Brûlées. Knockout nose combines black raspberry, boysenberry, licorice, flowers, musky roast coffee and crushed-rock minerality. Wonderfully spherical, dark and profound, displaying a tight but utterly suave grain and strong saline minerality. The wine's superconcentrated black fruit flavors mount slowly and carry spectacularly on the rising finish. A monumental wine in the making.
About the Producer
Founded in the early 20th Century by Etie, Méo-Camuzet is one of the figureheads of Vosne-Romanée as well as an old family of the village. Back in 1920, founder Etienne Camuzet acquired 3 hectares of the house's flagship Clos Vougeot as well as the Château itself before donating it to the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. After WWII, the estate came to the management of Jean Méo who had agreements with vintners managing the vineyards and making the wines, the most famous of which was Henri Jayer. In 1983, the estate started to bottle some of its fruits under its own label and the sharecropping agreements eventually came to an end in 1988 when Jean-Nicolas Méo took over the management of the 17.2-hectare property. The meticulous work in the vineyard involves bud pruning in spring, careful trellising to ensure an optimal leaf exposure to sunlight as well as aeration of the bunches and green harvest may be performed if necessary. After harvest bunches are de-stemmed before a 3-5 days cold maceration prior to fermentation. The wines are then matured in oak barrels for 15 to 18 months before bottling. The winemaking aims at preserving the fruit purity to craft smoothly grained, profound wines with complex aromatics and silky textures. In order to ensure the quality acquired in the vineyard and revealed in the cellar is bottled unspoilt, the wines are not filtered. Jean-Nicolas Méo is also involved in a négociant activity which sources and vinifies grapes from vineyards managed by the estate before bottling them under the "Frère & Soeur" label. The attention to detail in the vineyards and the winery is the same as for the estate and allows the family to produce a wider range of appellation in lesser-known Côte de Nuits villages such as Marsannay or Fixin offering a great entry point to the wines of the domaine. Since 2011, this superb portfolio now comprises the first ever Grand Cru white produced by Méo-Camuzet: a Corton-Charlemagne.
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