I am a big fan of Catherine and Claude Maréchal. They rarely disapoint me.
A really tasty Savigny tonight. And I will say, a nice surprise. Opened the '98 Ecard Narbantons a few months back and wasn’t crazy about it, this Jarrons was on.
1998 Maurice Ecard Savigny Les Beaune Les Jarrons
Really terrific showing. Mature, dank nose that’s deep and persistent. Love this nose. Palate has no edge really, just a touch of red-fruited acidity. Lighter weight to the body and a finish that shows iron and is slightly dusty and rustic. Tart cherry, too. Not a mindblower, but a very fine Savigny.
A different domaine from the Maurice Ecard that Dennis wrote about above. As I understand it, Maurice retired and his vines and name were sold, and his son Michel acquired other vines and premises. Les Serpentieres is on the Pernand side of the appellation.
Domaine Michel & Joanna Ecard 2005 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Serpentieres
Full ruby color. Ripe black cherry fruit and pungent, earthy aromas. Sweet ripe fruit gives a glossy aspect to the palate, and a bit viscous as well, but acidity to balance. Perhaps this wine is a bit forced, a bit worked. I hope a few more years cellaring will give her some confidence and elegance and a little more complexity.
2005 Domaine d’Ardhuy Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Clous - Still very young, comes across very new world, those with over the top sweet fruit, little burgundy structure, possibly because it has not had enough time to evolve, though normally some hint of terroir complexity can be read, not here though. Perhaps being a little harsh as there is a nice mineral chalk character on the finish. It would have helped if it had been made dryer.
OK, Mike, I’ll call your Ardhuy and raise you an Ardhuy…
Domaine d’Ardhuy 2005 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Peuillets
Medium ruby. Earthy notes blend with ripe cherry fruit and floral complexity. On the palate, ripe red fruit and damp earth, an elegant wine with depth and presence. The finish is a long, minerally caress. This wine has developed beautifully since my last peek, and more to come. Outstanding.
Mike, after reading your post, I went back to the kitchen and tasted the final portion of this again. One could say the fruit has a touch of sweetness. One could also say it is a bit of '05 baby fat that has not yet melted away, and that is how I see it, really not a distraction to me tonight. By comparison, the '05 Michel & Joanna Ecard remaining from the night before is slightly vulgar, like a teenage girl with too much makeup and doused with cheap drugstore perfume. For my palate, the Ardhuy is not a problem, and in fact has depth and elegance and nice minerality. Your wine was obviously from a different climat entirely. (BTW, this Peuillets, which I also tasted last year, is the only Ardhuy wine I have tasted. Lots of chatter about this sizable 42 ha domaine raising it’s game recently, but I have no other data points.)
2006 Drouhin Chorey Les Beaune After a couple of hours this opened up quite nicely. Strawberry, pomegranate nose with hints of iron shavings. Some violet sneaking in faintly. The palate showed some tangy cherry and strawberry, light to medium bodied, ripe tannins and decent acidity to keep the palate excited. Structure for future upside potential. This is a decent burg @ $20.
Hi Lew, nice note, sounds a lot more typical than the Aux Clous which I would like to see in a few years to give it a chance, more like your teenage girl right now. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Tonights bottle was more my style…
2002 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Vergelesses - Still very primary. Lovely aroma of violets, cherries and very floral. On the palate dry and complex, good acid, nice detail, again SLB mineral and chalk on the finish. Great concentration and fruit power, great structure. Needs time but still very enjoyable. Cheers Mike
Thanks for the note, am interested in 06’s are showing… Also great fan of Drouhin, looking forward to next week when I will open a Beaune. Cheers Mike
Mike, thanks for that '02 Bize note. I have a 6-pack that I have not cracked yet. Good to know about it.
Emmanuel Rouget makes a really nice Savigny villages, which provides a nice entree into that trophier style of wine. It ages quite well , too. The 1998 still wasn’t “ready” IMO at Xmas season 2009. I noted to leave it until 2003, though it certainly had potential. (The 2002 and 2005 versions are fast asleep.)
We had the '06 (I think) VV Maréchal from at Disney World back in February. Lovely wine.
Only one person mentioned Mongeard-Mugneret, but a '93 Narbatons we stumbled on a restaurant list about a year ago was absolutely fantastic. To the point where my group had one of those ‘oh, this is what older Burgundy is all about’ moments. That is special.
A.
Lew touched on this above, but can someone give a little more detail on Dominode and Jarrons.
Dominode is a section of Jarrons, correct?
Why are some Jarrons, some Dominode?
I’ve get a bunch of both and really got my Burg feet wet with several Jadot Dominode a few years back.
Thanks.
Dennis, check this map, from Bill Nanson’s Burgundy-report.com. The map alone will not answer your question…
On the Beaune side, on the east-facing Monts Battois slope, you will see Les Jarrons, and just above that, Hauts Jarrons. There are conflicting reports of the exact size of each, but Jasper Morris (Inside Burgundy) reports Hauts Jarrons as 4.44 ha, and Les Jarrons as 8.18 ha. These are two separate premier crus. The lower cru, Les Jarrons, includes two sections (lieux-dits?) which are not shown separately on this map; the larger section is La Dominode (6.72 ha) and the smaller is simply Les Jarrons (1.46 ha). Both sections are entitled to use the name Les Jarrons, and the La Dominode section is also permitted to use the name La Dominode. It is my understanding that the La Dominode section was once owned by a local lord, and the distinction is this ownership history rather than inherent geology differences.
The La Dominode moniker seems to have greater recognition in the market, so vignerons tend to use that name if they are permitted. It is reasonable to assume that your bottles labeled Les Jarrons are from the smaller 1.46 ha section or a blend of both sections. Bottles labeled La Dominode are entirely from the larger 6.72 ha section; they could have been labeled Les Jarrons but typically the La Dominode label is chosen for wines that qualify for it. I am not aware of quality differences between the two sections, but others might know better than I.
Just to add to the confusion, look on the map just to the south of this, and you see Haut Marconnets and Bas Marconnets. Both of these lieux-dits are typically considered as simply Les Marconnets (AFAIK), not separate premier crus (unlike the situation with Hautes Jarrons/Les Jarrons).
Hope this helps.
Lewis.
Good stuff. Thanks.
Seems there is never “too much information” when it comes to Burgundy.
Cheers.
I think the wine world can be divided into two types of people based on their reactions to this post.
95% of wine lovers will read this post, throw up their hands in disgust and vow never to buy another bottle of Burgundy or even want to hear the word Burgundy mentioned again.
The other 5% are posting on this thread. Really great stuff. ![[welldone.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/fc9709a841aa9379fd892a9cf0b535b05f473b86.gif "[welldone.gif]"){kind=small}
La Dominode has its own climat so I expect all wine from this part of the “Les Jarrons” lieudit would officially be required to be labelled “La Dominode”. If La Dominode was in fact the lieudit, and “Les Jarrons” the climat, then it would be labelled “Les Jarrons” with a lieudit reference “La Dominode”. Because it is its own climat, no reference to Les Jarrons is required though I expect it could be added as a lieudit reference, still La Dominode would need to be foremost on the label:
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000021191001#LEGIARTI000021204157
AOC = Savigny Les Beaune 1er, Commune= Savigny Les Beaune, Climat = La Dominode, Lieudit = Les Jarrons.
I expect that Lew is right in that the name was born out of the ownership history, but then one would expect that the climat still to be Les Jarrons, and the lieudit be La Dominode, that is, if there was no geological difference… all confusing 
Cheers Mike
Mike, that is interesting, and it appears that I had it wrong. As do a couple of books that I have… LOL. I thought we had something like Chambertin and Clos de Beze here, with wine from CdB having the choice of two appellations, but I guess we don’t have that here in Savigny. It also appears my post was wrong about wine from Haut Marconnets being labeled Les Marconnets.
BTW, I just looked at a bottle of Santenay that does not follow the labeling construct of that document you linked.
Based on the table Mike it would seem that there are 1er climats of La Dominode and Les Jarrons with both having ‘les jarrons’ lieu-dit, but maybe what this means could be fleshed out a bit more? Is what is generally understood as the underlying terroir here based on the climat or the lieu-dit, and where are the boundaries of that terroir – La dominode or Les Jarrons? or both (given that the boudaries of terroir are a human distinction)? Or which came first and does it really matter?
This is probably a very minor detail, but one that is illuminating to Burgundy: how does terroir get classified and created. There are of course geologic differences that make for different wines, but how we classify and stratify those differences is a very human endeavor and creation – vineyards and classification systems don’t create themselves, so how do they happen?
Where do these terms come from and why? If the Lieu-dit predates the climat, why is that, and what does it mean – if anything? If la dominode represents ownership by nobility of a specific parcel how does that fit into the notion of terroir? Or to take this question really beyond this thread, how is site expression determined, given that that determination is a human endeavor?
Keith, all good questions and am pleased we like to share here, so I will leave it for someone more expert like Mr Peter Chiu to step in and comment on your questions. ![[thankyou.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/df165fe9c1593d19166ae7e1ffe5e272089cc07b.gif "thankyou"){kind=small}
Well said.
I find the stuff of this thread is one the alluring aspects of Burgundy.
Thanks Mike!