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The December 2022 Auction: Part 3

Auction # 741 | View Auction Schedule and Details
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Auction Ends: 12/15/2022 6:00:00 PM PDT

Lot #164. Jouan Morey-Saint-Denis Clos Sorbè 2018

Description: Consists of 2 Bottles, 0.75L
Score: 90-92 WA.
"Bursting from the glass with aromas of blackberries, smoked meats, licorice and cassis, the 2018 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Clos Sorbé is medium to full-bodied, rich and nicely concentrated, built around powdery tannins and concluding with a long, sapid finish .... I was a little delayed for my appointment with Philippe Jouan, but he graciously waited for me, taking the opportunity to smoke a pungent cigarette in his small winery before our tasting. As I wrote last year, this is a tiny domaine of scarcely more than three hectares, but it's blessed with a small but enviable palette of parcels in choice appellations, largely planted with old-vine Pinot Fin. 'Old vines limit yields,' says Philippe Jouan, adding that making wine with grapes like this 'is easy, what!' In the cuverie and cellar, the approach is resolutely traditional, with destemmed grapes fermented in concrete, the duration of cuvaison determined by taste and manual basket pressing. The wines are never pumped, descending to barrel by gravity, where they are attentively topped up. Until recently, bottling was by hand, barrel to barrel; today, a modern bottling line facilitates the process. Part of the production is sold under Jouan's label, but the Maison Joseph Drouhin is also a long-time client, and visitors will find Drouhin's barrels in the cellar along with Jouan's own—both, alike, from François Frères. The style is supple, fragrant and fruit-driven, the wines invariably succulent and satiny, drinking well young and old. Quite why Jouan remains so little known is hard to say—perhaps simply because there is so little wine? In any case, Jouan's 2018s are rich and lusty, seemingly a touch riper, wilder and more overtly sun-kissed than, for instance, his 2015s. 2018, after all, was a high-wire act, so let's see how they develop as they finish their élevage. The lone 2017 that I was able to revisit in bottle performed very well." William Kelley, Wine Advocate Interim, Feb 2020
Provenance: The Hodia Cellar
Lot Location: Orange County
Estimate: $272

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