2007 Alain Hudelot-Noellat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots - Popped and poured. Some reduction funk at first but this blows off quickly. This has medium intensity aromas of wood, earth and cherry insense. Flavors are are middleweight, sweet and dark fruited with some minerality. The overall impression is fairly rich with good acid balance. Seems to have some stem influence. A bit of tannins on the longish finish but its very drinkable right now. A very successful wine and fairly evocative of its origins. I have never had a Hudelot-Noellat wine that I wasn’t a big fan of.
Sounds very good Berry, I think I have a couple of these in the cellar and will have to visit one soon.
Best Regads
Jeremy
Nice note, Berry. I have very little experience with this producer. I need to pick up some bottles. Actually, I just checked CT and I have some 08 Beaux Monts coming. Will pop one when it arrives.
I’ve been a huge Hudelot fan, some of my favorites, but haven’t had that many since Nawrocki left (after the '04 harvest, I believe). Has anyone noticed any sort of stylistic change?
Thanks,
-Robert
It has become more floral, spiced and red fruited with air and in general displays more energy. Good stuff.
I didn’t realize there was a regime change here. My introduction to the domaine was a 97 RSV and that was very nice.
Thanks for the notes Berry. While I liked most of the 2007 reds I tasted in March-June 2010, I must say I became a little more concerned when I subsequently heard some pretty vehement condemnation of the vintage from a couple of my burgundy tasting colleagues and one critic who lives in the area.
Hudelot-Noellat’s Richebourg and RSV became “every year” purchases for me starting with the 1995 vintage (after Nawrocki arrived and I tasted the wines at a retailer). The increasingly nice press about their Malconsorts and Suchots has made me think about buying those two 1ers as well.
Vincent Mugnier (formerly of Dom. Daniel Rion) replaced Pierre Nawrocki when he left shortly after the 2004 vintage. There doesn’t seem to be any drop off.
nice pick Berry on posting your note about this domaine as being high quality output and somewhat below the radar. i have very good experience with virtually all of their terrors. they actually make a lot of wine from bourgogne to Richebourg. their wines are pretty available too, from current releases to a full case the 78 Richebourg at Fine and Rare. if i had 10 labels that i liked to buy every year (and i do) for some reason they dont make the cut. but i find that if i am ever offered their wines i almost always buy it, especially if its a terrior i love like RSV. also in this camp i would put Arnoux.
I love H-N, and buy at least 2 cases each year, including the Malconsorts and Suchots. My favorite wine of theirs from '07 is the RSV, which is a decent wine.
Having said that, I really don’t like this wine, and find it to be (for me anyway) one of the '07’s that really carries that greenish/vegetal/chemical quality to it that I really dislike (I call it fly-spray, as in it reminds me of those old fashioned pump action fly sprays from years ago, if that makes sense).
I have had 3 bottles (2 of mine, and one from off a list), all with consistent notes.
Hi Paul - I usually align with your palate but I have actually been enjoying the 07s for their charm and accesability. It’s such a nice vintage to drink now and over the next few years while waiting for the more structured vintages to come around. And the pricing has been very good. Having said that, it’s not a “great” vintage nor will it ever be.
I have yet to come across the greenish/vegetal/chemical quality that you’ve been finding but maybe its one of those things that you have greater sensitivity to than others?
Cheers,
That sounds like a decent description of the 2007 Clos des Lambrays - worse than any 2004…
And now for the past few years, the youngest son of the Noellat family, Charles, who is around 24 years old, has been steering things, with Vincent still on hand as a team member. The 2010s I had out of barrel were BEAUTIFUL.
I guess to your palate Keith. I have yet to come across an 07 that was remotely close to any 04.
And btw, I sold off virtually all of my 04s as I found most of them undrinkable to my palate…
Interesting. My bottle had what I thought might be some stem flavors and aromas but this went away with air. I didn’t experience anything remotely chemical though. It could just be a function of different sensory threshold to some compound.
Lamrays seems to always turn stems up to 11 despite the vintage. I think this is a weak point of the domaine. I usually like their wines despite the stems instead of because of them (like the 2008 is great, but it is impossible to enjoy as a pop and pour because of massive stems for me). Could that be it?
I want to like the '07’s, but the more I drink, the less I seem to like them…I worry that like the '04’s seemed to do, that when that initial fruit character starts to go secondary, then the underlying wine will look far less attractive than it did…
As for the green edge, perhaps I am more sensitive now, I used to be able to drink '04’s, and now I struggle, or maybe that is more about the development of the wines.
A lineup of Roty TVV Charmes Chambertins last month clearly showed the '04 and '07 had some green similarities, as they easily stood out amongst the wines. The '07 initially showed a bit more sweetness, but this changed with time…