Richebourg 2014 75cl

The 2014 Richebourg Grand Cru clearly has the best bouquet amongst the A.F. Gros range: wonderful, minerally red berry fruit, dried flowers and just a hint of warm gravel in the background. It gains intensity in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with supple, ripe tannin. The acidity is very well judged and there is a creamy texture lending harmony to this Richebourg. I do think it is the most complex Richebourg I have tasted from the domaine in recent years, but it is one of the most sensual. Give it 8-10 years in bottle so that it can show what it can do.<br/>It is always a pleasure to meet Caroline and Mathias Parent at their Beaune-based winery, opposite the local college (there are always teenagers hanging around outside...they should be in class...studying Pitiot's map of the Côte d'Or). We settled in Caroline's office to taste through their 2014s, which she described as "classic" like many growers, with "good balance." She told me that they suffered some suzukii fruit fly in Richebourg and Vosne Aux Réas, and this necessitated strict sorting, eradicating between 15% to 20% of the crop that had been picked from September 13. Everything was destemmed, apart from 20% whole bunch in the Echézeaux. Mathias told me that they practiced a slightly shorter ferment from a lower temperature base this year, up to around 33 degrees Celsius, and also undertook a double débourbage to clean the vats in case of any residues from the suzukii fruit fly. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I find a distinct improvement in the quality of wines, especially over the last three or four years. I would just caution that I find some cuvées laden with too much new oak and on occasion, this shaved away some of the terroir expression and occluded their personalities. Sometimes I felt that I could have been tasting a much more balanced wine had there been more prudence in terms of the new oak. On the Richebourg, it works absolutely fine, but especially some of the village crus felt a little labored under the wood. Hopefully they will absorb that by the time of bottling...we will see. Otherwise, there are some fine wines at this address in 2014, my interest piqued by the excellent Savigny-lès-Beaune Clos des Guettes.