TN: 2010 Christian Moreau Chablis Les Clos

In part inspired by the discussion of 09/10 white burgundy in Don Cornwell’s tasting thread, I opened one of these as I had the ’09 recently. The ’10 was definitely more advanced and maybe some surmaturite. On the nose caramel, but also sea salt, guava, and white fruits. It did speak of chablis and of the g.c. vineyard upon tasting—definitely, a bit of oyster shell, for lack of a better term, and lots of extract; yet it was also flabbier (and more advanced) than I was expecting. Generally, I like C. Moreau—very pure, and, it’s true, often tastes more like white Burgundy (Meursault?) than Chablis; but it can still be very fine. Of course, no great wines, only great bottles and not purchased on release, so…

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thanks for the report. I have some (purchased on release), but Haven’t tried one of my own. around town, we’ve had some variable experience with this–some premoxed, but not enough in bottle numbers to get a good idea. guess I should open one.

I took a bottle of the 2010 C. Moreau Clos up to the wine shop to taste blind a couple of years ago and it was premoxed. Took a second bottle up a few weeks later and it was premoxed. By your description, it sounds like yours was as well.

I have a few of the 2014, and I think I had better open them soon. I have no confidence in their ability to safely age.

Hi Josh

Like Robert, my experience with Christian Moreau hasn’t been good from a premox perspective. The initial reviews always look inviting, but I found that they were pretty consistently premoxed even at 7-8 years. I finally gave up. It’s a shame really, because the Domaine has a couple of nice plots of Les Clos.

FWIW, For the 17s, all but the Clos des Hospices were sealed with DIAM…

Drat. That’s the one I would most wish to have protected.

Another victim dashed upon the shores of the Island of Christian Moreau.

Ah, yes, Doctor Christian Moreau.

We’ve had a few stellar ones (I’d have to check notes, perhaps Robert remembers) I think 07 Clos and or Valmur, which triggered a few folks to buy 2010’s, most have which have been premoxed. I’ve bought off and on since 2004, still have some 10’s, and some 2012 Clos Hospice. I don’t remember a lot of premox from 04-06, but since then it seems more common (somewhat analogous to dauvissat?)

Bill

That is very welcome news. Do you know which version(s) of DIAM they are using?

But I would add the cautionary note, as I recently learned from David Ramey, that DIAM will only prevent premox if you add sufficient free SO2 and take the other steps needed to protect the wine along the way, including having adequate SO2 during the post M/L period and avoiding injecting oxygen via bottling. If a producer does what Domaine Leflaive did, and uses DIAM as an excuse to cut the free SO2 down to 20 ppm, DIAM may not prevent premox. David says you need 36 to 40 ppm of free SO2 even with DIAM closures. I don’t really know anything about Christian Moreau’s winemaking process.

This is too bad.

Joshua wrote

and, it’s true, often tastes more like white Burgundy (Meursault?) than Chablis; but it can still be very fine.

I’m still learning Chablis (but trying hard!), but I’d def agree this comment. GC Chablis has mostly seemed to me not very Chablisienne, but very good (and sometimes excellent value) “Burgundy”. Probably betraying ignorance, but I think 1er crus are the sweet spot with the minerality etc.


My relatively few GC put away are more recent (12, 14, 16 - 15s seemed to lack grip. ) William Fevre, Samuel Billaud, Domaine Pinson; what is the premix exposure there? These were not bought for immediate consumption.

I noticed discussion about closures but isn’t premix as much to do with the wind making?

Richard, wind making refers to a different issue, not always appropriate at the dinner table.

You are to a certain extent right. In many recent vintages the GC’s get too ripe and it’s hard to produce wines that don’t taste like white burgs. the PC’s are often where the best chablis like tension exists. Although in more classic years, the GC’s can still be great (eg 2007).

Richard:

Fevre converted to DIAM and all of their wines starting in 2010 have been under DIAM. The 2010 and 2011 wines were problem free. Fevre seems to be a safe bet going forward.

Domaine Samuel Billaud was officially founded in 2009, but only got a portion of the former Billaud-Simon vines starting with the 2014 vintage. He bottles with conventional cork. I have only tasted one of his wines (2014 Clos, which I purchased) and none at age 7 or older. Too early to make any assessment from a premox perspective.

Pinson also uses conventional corks. I owned some 1996 Clos (2 btls) and 2002 Pinson Clos (6 bottles) and didn’t experience any premoxed or advanced bottles. A burgundy collector I know in New York says that he experienced two bottles of oxidized Chablis Foret in the seven to seven and a half year time period. I haven’t tasted any since the 2002 vintage.

For those who are interested in a list of the Chablis producers using DIAM, here’s what my records show [Bill please advise if I need any updates here]:

Fevre (starting 2009 for all but grand crus; starting 2010 for grand crus)
Droin (starting 2011)
Brocard (starting 2012)
Daniel Dampt (starting 2014 for 90% of the production; the remainder are bottled either under screwcap or natural cork, depending on the importer’s preference)
Christian Moreau (starting with 2017, except for the Clos des Hospice bottling).

Don - a precision re Christian Moreau: 100% DIAM since 2009 for (villages) Chablis, the use of DIAM across the rest of the range slowly grew by the year. DIAM5 for the Chablis and DIAM10 for the Vaillons in 2016. The grand crus are a mix of DIAM and natural cork – ‘but certified TCA free cork.’ I’m assuming all 1ers/GC are DIAM10 except the Clos des Hospices - actually I typically prefer their ‘regular’ Clos - the hospices often being a bit more oaky and fatter - I couldn’t say for 2018s as our rdv got lost by a mix-up.

With all due respect to David Ramey, William Fevre bottle with ‘only’ 25ppm free sulfur, not 35+, any more brings the characteristic DIAM-reduction, and tasting back to 2004, their first vintage, the wines are fine/oxidation-stable.

This would make sense, since DIAM (or any closure) only affects the O2 transport rate into the wine, but not the reductive capacity to deal with any oxygen in there from the bottling or from expulsion during the original cork insertion. 35 ppm free SO2 seems a bit high to deal with that level of O2, but obviously whether anaerobic bottling (which would control the O2 in the head space) is going to make a difference there.

Thanks for all the good discussion; I by no means wish to cut it off. On this one point, though too advanced I do not think the bottle actually was pre-moxed. For one thing, it did not have that metallic or rusty (yes oxidized) taste that I get from bottles that are. Also, I think the color did not indicate pre-mox per se. It was just somehow heavy on the aged burgundy notes and flabbier than I expected. Perhaps incipient premox and it wil get there? But others here are doubtless better able to judge that than am I.

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Bill–could you clarify your “tasting back to 2004” comment? Are you referring to Fevre–was 2004 the actually the first vintage they tried Diam? the first examples I remember seeing were in 2007.

Bill:

If Fevre is only bottling with 25 ppm free SO2 now, that’s news to me. I was told that the 2009 1ers and 2010 grand crus were bottled with 30 ppm free SO2. When we held the 2010 vintage assessment dinners, there were absolutely no reductive aromas in either the Fevre Clos or Preuses. The same was true for the same two wines in 2011. Do you know when the change from 30 ppm to 25 ppm was made? That might prove to be important information.

The argument that bottling under DIAM with any more than 25 ppm brings “the characteristic DIAM-reduction” is absolutely contrary to my experience – at least for bottles that are 7.5 years old. I’m curious who told you that? In addition to no reductive aromas in any of the 2010 and 2011 Fevres, we have had multiple bottles of 2009-2011 Bouchard whites with no reductive wines at all, and the 2009-2011 Montille and Chateau de Puligny Montrachet 1ers and grand crus that were were bottled with 30-35 ppm free and they were not excessively reductive either. (As I am writing this I am sipping on an exquisite 2010 Montille Puligny Caillerets that isn’t reductive in the slightest.) As Etienne de Montille attests, “Even with Diam, we have to remain very cautious, DIAM is helping but not solving the issue.”

Further to that point, Lafon is bottling with DIAM 30 and 35 ppm of free SO2 starting with the 2013 vintage. Maison Harbour, who only produces 1er and village wines, bottles with 30 ppm with DIAM 30 and Nicolas says they are very happy with the results. We have tasted a number of other producers’ wines from 2009 to 2011 that were sealed with DIAM but I don’t know what the free SO2 levels were at bottling. In terms of knowledge of organic chemistry and the chemistry of wine oxidation, given a choice, I would bet all of my money on David Ramey. As you’re likely aware, French oenology schools don’t even teach organic chemistry and most burgundy winemakers have no knowledge of it. David has also did extensive experimentation with DIAM and SO2 levels long before adopting DIAM for his flagship wines in the 2012 vintage.

I get very concerned when large volume producers like Jadot or Fevre use justifications about making excessively reductive wines as the alleged reason to cut the free SO2 levels. The nonsense about trying to make wines that were attractive on release by cutting SO2 levels is exactly what got Jadot into trouble in the first place.

As for Fevre’s problems with premox, in my experience they had a huge incidence of advanced and oxidized wines right up to the point when they made the switch to DIAM. For example, both of the Fevre wines in the 2008 night one dinner were advanced by group concensus. In the 2009 dinner (the last vintage that Fevre bottled the grand crus under conventional cork), the Clos was highly advanced and close to outright oxidized and the Preuses was not advanced but very flat with little resemblance to what was expected (often a sign of a wine about to go premoxed). I dumped a huge number of oxidized Fevre wines down the drain, especially from the 2002, 2004 and 2008 vintages. (I had completely skipped Fevre in 2003, 2005 and 2006). I had relatively good luck with the vintages 2000 (held up well to 11 years after the vintage, then went off the cliff), 2001 (only three samples) and 2007. I thought that 2007 Fevre Clos was the Chablis of the vintage. I had one oxidized bottle out of the twelve 2007 Clos that I owned (consumed as late as 2019). All six of my 2007 Preuses lasted 10 years without problems. By the time the problems with the 2004 Fevre’s were apparent I had already bought six packs of all of the Fevre 2008 grand crus. My experience with Fevre was so so bad that 2008 was the last Fevre vintage that I bought on release until 2016. I ended up recently buying three packs of 2011, 2012 and 2014 Clos based on the experience with DIAM.

Your news just convinces me that I need more information about free SO2 usage among the producers using DIAM.

Sorry for my miss-type John - 2006! The first vintage where Fèvre fully DIAM bottled their domaine Chablis (villages) for sale.

Don:
First, let me explain my “the characteristic DIAM-reduction” as my perspective is possibly different to yours:
I’m not talking about bottles with any age - I taste young wines with producers, often only days or weeks since they have been bottled. ‘Normal’ (for cork) levels of added sulfur at bottling will reduce the aromatic fruit and deliver a characteristic reduction - easy to spot as the wine smells like cornflakes. Typically this ‘rights’ itself within 6-12 months (or within an hour of opening) - which in terms of time to market is not a problem for more expensive wines. Cheaper wines, faster to market, now that’s a problem. Hence, many producers in Chablis (earlier to market than most of the 1ers and GCs of the Côte de Beaune) use not much more than 25ppm to avoid this. Regarding Lafon (and others such as Chanson Père et Fils, Domaine de Montille, Domaine Méo-Camuzet and Domaine Taupenot-Merme at my last count) that use the DIAM Origine require more sulfur at bottling because there is more air trapped within the matrix of this product than ‘standard’ DIAM.

I made a great tasting with Didier Seguier in April 2018, published that May, where we tasted all of the 2017-2006 Villages Chablis with DIAM and went into the intricacies of how much sulfur etcetera were used. Fevre changed all of their villages production to DIAM5 in 2006. They followed by bottling their 1er crus with DIAM in 2007 and the grand crus since 2010. That report should be free to all to read when it’s two years old - so in another 8-9 weeks. I just edited the publishing date to the 1st of March so you could read in far more detail than here, but my site is more fiendish than me and it remains behind the two-year paywall, for now - those who read this thread in a couple of months will see it directly…

Hi Bill and thanks for the detailed info!
I hope you are doing well.

I’ve had no issues with Moreau 09 Clos and Hospices Clos, and actually prefer the Hospices in 09 as it has a whole other gear compared to the Clos. O9’s like 06 white burgundy with both vintages being ripe to perhaps in 06 overripe in the Cotes de Beaune, have largely avoided pre-mox in my cellar. *. I attended one of Don’s 06 premox dinner, *** didn’t purchase much 06 and certainly did many more in 09, a vintage I fully believe if they survive and continue normal aging evolution will surprise and likely be compared to 59’s.

Any thoughts as to why these riper vintages tend to have less pre-mox??


07’s Both clos’s Moreau have been mostly good, with a few advanced bottles and I await tasting my 14’s.

After so many Fevre disappointments over the years I dropped out a long time ago.

Essentially though, in order to protect all my old pre 94 white burgundies, I’ve purchased lots And lots of champagne.
When asked to give an opinion to people whom I share info and wine with I’m quick to say “Champagne, the new white burgundy.”

Regards from NYC