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The October 2019 Auction: Part 2

Auction # 574 | View Auction Schedule and Details
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Auction Ends: 10/10/2019 6:00:00 PM PDT

Lot #286. Jean Grivot Clos de Vougeot 2015

Description: Consists of 6 Bottles, 0.75L
Score: 95-97 NM.
"The 2015 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru has a detailed, precise bouquet, very pure with ripe dark cherries, kirsch, orange sorbet and subtle graphite aromas. It is one of the classiest that you will come across from this ancient vineyard this year. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe tannin that feel a little fuller and suppler than the premier cru Vosne-Romanées. Grippy in the mouth with an effervescent finish, this is a long-term Clos de Vougeot that will age effortlessly . . . . Last year when I visited Domaine Jean Grivot, it looked like a building site. That's because it essentially was a building site. This year, I could enjoy the results of their labor within their brand new first-floor tasting room, furnished with chichi artwork, a large wooden table and wine fridge, all much comfier than when I used to taste down in the cellar. The piéce de résistance is the top-floor terrace with a quite awe-inspiring panorama over the village and across the vines in Romanée-Saint-Vivant and beyond, though my eye caught sight of the large stainless-steel rotisserie. Perhaps Etienne can start dishing out some freshly cooked poulet de bresse as he begins to hand over the reins to his daughter Mathilde? I am not so well acquainted with his son, but certainly in Mathilde he has an assured and competent pair of hands to pass the running of Domaine Grivot and indeed, it was quite refreshing to hear a winemaker so comfortable in telling me how happy he will be taking a more backseat role from next year. The generation has a domaine that has really leaped to the top echelon of Vosne-Romanée, wines that consistently deliver both when I have enjoyed bottles at various dinners and under blind tasting conditions. That Grivot produces some of the finest wines in the appellation is incontrovertible. So what of the 2015s? "The flowering was very fast," Etienne told me. "It was completed within four days from around 5 or 6 June. There was no oïdium or grillure during the growing season. We started the harvest on 10 September, a little bit later because we do not do lot of analysis, but enter the vines to taste the berries. Three weeks before we had a green sensation in the fruit with strict tannins that we did not want. We wanted a fine tannin, so we waited a little more. We have around 12.4° to 13.3° in terms of alcohol and a very good pH after malolactic fermentation, around 3.15. There was a very good balance between acidity and tannin." It was one of the most consistent and pleasurable tastings during my five week marathon of visits, wines that brim over with complexity, terroir expression and that oft-forgotten virtue, deliciousness . . . . what you have here are exemplary wines that culminate in a sensational Richebourg and some of the finest Echézeaux and Clos de Vougeot produced this vintage. I cannot think what could beat these wines...except these wines with rotisserie chicken?" Wine Advocate #228, Dec 2016
Lot Location: Orange County
Estimate: $1,500

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