Domaine Bruno CLAVELIER (Vosne-Romanée): 2015 Tasted from Barrel

Bruno Clavelier said that he harvested between 5 and 12 September, finishing just before the rains came. The challenge of the vintage, he said, was to preserve the balance in the wines. Malolactic fermentations were late, as is typical at this estate. For the village wines, about 20-25% new wood was used, for the premiers crus it was about 30-40%. Clavelier uses a system of layering grapes between stems (he calls it a sandwich system), and it corresponds to about 1/3 whole clusters in this vintage. Alcohols are about 12.5º for the regional wines and up to 13.5º at the most for the others.

Overall, he described the vintage as one of a lot of sun and with finesse to it.

Clavelier has long been organic and biodynamic.

This is an estate of high consistency; my next posting will review many of Clavelier’s 2014s from bottle, and you’ll see high quality throughout there, too.

We start with three village Vosnes that display the diversity of their terroirs. (Continue reading here.)