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92-94 NM.
"The 2016 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru les Fuées includes around 30% whole bunches with 50% new oak. It has a glorious bouquet, quite intense and well defined with scents of red berry fruit, damp loamy soil/woodland, hints of Earl Grey developing in the glass. This is surprisingly mercurial. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannin, structured but not imposing with a superb line of acidity, fresh and tensile right through to the very finish. The quality of this premier cru shines through here. Superb. Keep an eye on Felettig. Actually, I have been saying that for a couple of years now. The interesting thing about 2016 is that it cajoled Gilbert Felettig into using stems in order to increase volume, between 20% and 100% depending on the cru, and you know what? He did it bloody well. He confessed that he was worried about using "les raffles" but in my opinion they enhance his wines, take them up a level, add another dimension. Of course, not everything ran smoothly. He had to stop organic viticulture in July and spray his crop with chemicals in order to save some of his crop. He eventually commenced the harvest on 26 September. Some of the cuvées did not finish their malolactic fermentation until September. Of course, being located in Chambolle-Musigny, a cluster of his vines were directly in the firing line and he had to make an assemblage of several vineyards under a Premier Cru that is actually extremely good. Fortunately, the northern part of Chambolle-Musigny was less frosted and he managed to obtain a decent quantity from Les Lavrottes. “It is the first time that I have experienced a catastrophe like I had seen in Volnay and Pommard,” he said, although I think he came through the ordeal with flying colors." Neal Martin, Wine Advocate #234, Dec 2017 |