Producer note: In the miniscule chance that you missed it, Maisons & Domaines Henriot, which controlled both Bouchard Père & Fils and William Fèvre in Chablis plus Beaux Frères in Oregon, has joined Artemis Domaines, the new incarnation of François Pinault's wine holdings. These include Domaines Clos de Tart and Eugénie, along with Château Latour in Bordeaux and Château Grillet in the Rhone plus Araujo Estates in Napa. Artemis wasted no time making changes as it chose to divest its long-term leases for the vineyards of Domaine William Fèvre in favor of the owners of Château Lafite-Rothschild. Chez Bouchard, there are also a number of changes taking place as it will rapidly transition to 100% domaine bottled wines from vineyards, and this is important, that it owns outright. So, for example, there will be zero négociant wines made in 2024 and they will represent no more than 5% in 2023. This change is much more significant than those figures suggest as production totals will drop from roughly 3 million bottles annually to 500,000! As if these changes weren't dramatic enough, with only two exceptions, all of the Bouchard Côte de Nuits vineyard holdings will transfer to Domaine Eugénie. The two exceptions are holdings in Clos de Vougeot and the Nuits 1er of Les Porrets St. Georges, which for technical reasons are subject to long-term leases that cannot be transferred. But the key takeaway is that Bouchard itself will manage 106 ha (97 ha actually in production) in the Côte de Beaune. In two other key changes, Winemaker Frédéric Weber explained that the approach in the vineyard will radically change as Bouchard will progressively move to farming biodynamically as well as significantly increasing the number of vineyard personnel. He further noted that all of the vine replacements would now be done in-house from selected vineyards. Similarly, the quality of the production facilities will also receive major improvement. In both cases, it demonstrates that the emphasis is quality above all else.
Tasting note: A slightly riper but brooding nose only grudgingly reveals it aromas of dark berries, earth and a whiff of leather. The noticeably denser medium-bodied flavors are at once caressing but powerful with both mouthcoating sap and tannins on the robust, serious and built-to-age finish. This excellent effort also always needs time in bottle and 2022 will again be no different.