Domaine Bizot Vosne-Romanée Les Jachées 2016

Reviews

94WA

"The 2016 Vosne-Romanée Les Jachées is striking, bursting from the glass with aromas of violets, rose petals, peonies, Indian spices, red berries and orange rind, with deeper bass notes of raw cocoa and soil emerging as it sits in the glass. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, satiny and saline, with an ample core of fruit that largely cloaks its melting tannins and a long, resonant finish. Bizot notes that its floral and exotic bouquet—as well as its relative lack of color—is very typical of the site. Jean-Yves Bizot once asked a group of enology students what they considered indispensable to making wine. "I expected them to say, 'grapes'", he recalls, "but their response was: 'sulfur'. Bizot is Vosne-Romanée's resident intellectual, and his declared objective is to make wines with grapes and as little else as possible; so it will be no surprise that he arrived at a different answer—revealed as the punchline to a tasting as stimulating to the mind as it was to the senses—from his students. "I concluded", says Bizot, "that a fermentation tank is the essential thing". At this address, there is no destemming, pumping or heating and scarcely any sulfur; yields are minuscule, something Bizot believes is a prerequisite for attaining the searing concentration without the weight that characterizes his wines. Barrels are largely new . . . . These are some of Burgundy's most singular wines, endowed with rare—and thrilling—aromatic range and a unique amalgam of sweet and pungently savory qualities. While they are scarce and expensive, they are well worth the effort to taste. In short, the Côte de Nuits is very much the richer for Jean-Yves Bizot and his tiny Vosne-Romanée domaine."