2018 Fixin Village
$40 (2012)
France
Fixin
Burgundy
Red
Pinot Noir (2020 vintage)
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2018
2023 - 2033
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Louis Boillot, the husband of Ghislaine Barthod, told me that he started the harvest on 25 August in Volnay, the earliest in his career. "I picked for three days over the duration of fifteen days in order to focus on parcels that were very ripe, first in Beaujolais and then returning to the Côte d’Or. Some parcels in the Côte de Beaune had to be picked three times because ripeness levels varied so much. You would analyse five consecutive vines and they would all be different! The berries were on average around 13.7% potential alcohol but the acidity was good between 3.20 and 3.30. The malic acid was very low and the malolactic fermentation was done by December. I had no problem with the vinification in terms of fermenting the sugars."
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2020
2024 - 2030
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2019
2023 - 2032
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This year I began the husband and wife tasting (or rather husband, wife and son tasting) with Louis Boillot’s range of 2019s that span both the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits. (Boillot is married to Ghislaine Barthod and their son Clément also works at the domaines)
“We had a small harvest in Les Pruliers because of some frost and we lost 20% of the crop,” Louis Boillot explained. “We started the harvest on 9 September in Volnay and finished on 18 September. I decided to reduce the new oak across the range from around 25% to 10-15% in order to express the fruit. I find that the 2019s absorbed the new oak more than other vintages, similar to the 2016s. Everything is de-stemmed. The wines will be bottled in March or April next year.”
I probably err towards Boillot’s Côte de Nuits over Côte de Beaune thanks to an excellent showing of his Gevreys, such as the Les Cherbaudes and Les Champonnets, not to mention a lip-smackingly delicious Côte de Nuits-Villages. These wines often receive less attention than those of Ghislaine-Barthod whose enviable cluster of Chambolle Premier Crus tends to put it ahead of Boillot’s. But these are certainly worth seeking out as they are well crafted Pinot Noirs and indeed Gamays. I have included a quintet from Beaujolais that Louis Boillot makes in Moulin-à-Vent and Fleurie that come recommended.
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2017
2021 - 2035
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Every year, following my tasting through Ghislaine Barthod’s barrel samples, I shimmy across to the adjoining cellar that houses the wines of her husband, Louis Boillot. They make an interesting comparison: Barthod is focused entirely on Chambolle, whereas Boillot’s seven hectares of vineyard encompass both Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, reflecting his ancestry as part of the Volnay-based Boillots. He told me that frost-affected vineyards tried to compensate with greater vigour in 2017 and so this had to be controlled. As usual, he ventured into the early-ripening Volnay Les Angles on August 28, but the picking started in earnest with a full team on September 2 (compared to September 23 in 2016.) Every cuvée is de-stemmed as usual. Boillot explained that there was a straightforward vinification whereby the fermentation temperature increased gradually, not too quickly. This year he chaptalised his cuvées by around half a degree, though it was unnecessary in 2018.
I agree with Boillot that his standout is his Nuits Saint-Georges Les Pruliers: very complex, full of joie-de-vivre and demonstrating great persistency. I also admire his Volnay Les Caillerets, one of his most consistent performers in recent years, which rather shows up the three other Volnays whose terroir cannot compare. In addition, his Gevrey-Chambertin Les Cherbaudes has an engaging spiciness, whilst his Bourgogne Rouge is certainly one of the better examples I encountered during my tastings.
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2016
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Louis Boillot, who owns 5.7 hectares of vines and works another 1.3, describes 2016 as a homogeneous vintage in terms of quality--“with no big difference between the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits”--and a very ripe year. Of course, the frost was a major factor and, among his numerous Côte de Beaune cuvées, only Volnay Les Angles and Volnay Les Caillerets produced normal crops. Boillot began harvesting on September 23 (with the exception of his Volnay Les Angles, which he brought in on September 19), with grape sugars in the rather lofty 12.5% to 13.7% range. But acidity levels were higher and pHs lower than in 2015, he added. The 2016s, he summarized, "have a rare combination of ripeness, freshness and precision. The texture of their tannins is as silky as the ‘15s, and perhaps even finer.”
Boillot destemmed all of his fruit and relied entirely on remontages during fermentation, eschewing pigeages. His ‘16s spent about 18 days on their skins, including a pre-fermentation cold soak lasting 5 to 8 days. The malos finished on the early side, some before Christmas, but Boillot will not bottle his ‘16s until next March or April.
Boillot’s 2015s have delivered on their early promise. He believes that he “really triumphed” in 2015 by moving up the harvest date, adding that he took the same approach in 2017.
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2015
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"We need to start harvesting early in hot years," said Louis Boillot, who began on September 2, bringing in his Volnay Les Angles at 13.5% potential alcohol; he finished on September 7 with his Fixin. All of his 2015s will be bottled with between 13% and 13.6% natural alcohol, he added. Boillot destemmed all of his fruit in 2015 and did virtually no pigeage, as the wines "did not need anything." Still, the fermentation temperatures mounted and the wines required five or six days of further time on the skins before the temperatures descended to 20 degrees C.
Boillot described 2015 as "a richer, more intense and more elegant version of 2012, with finer, sweeter tannins than 2005--more drinkable!" The malolactic fermentations finished in the spring and the wines had been racked at the beginning of September and returned to barrels. There are some stunning wines here in '15.
00
2014
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Louis Boillot described his 2014s as "very cherry, very red fruit wines with a chiseled character, a bit like the 2006s. They have structure, fruit and acidity." Owing to the hail on the Côte de Beaune, he picked "in several parts," beginning as early as September 11 in his Volnay Les Angles, but he noted that very little selection was needed for underripe grapes. Indeed, a few of his wines from hailed-on fruit were quite concentrated and tannic in November, and Boillot may fine a percentage of each of these cuvées to soften their tannins. He also told me he did no punchdowns at all for his wines from the Côte de Beaune. Grape sugars at harvest were around 12% and Boillot chaptalized about half a degree.
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2012
2013 - 2017
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This is a gorgeous set of wines. Like his wife, Ghislaine Barthod, Boillot likes to pick on the early side. In some vintages, the wines have felt on the edge of full phenolic ripeness, but not in 2012, where the wines have fabulous depth and a level of silkiness in the tannin that elevates them. Boillot has a number of parcels in the Côte de Beaune, where yields were tiny, and that is of course reflected in the low production of the wines. Rain during flowering and hail were significant. The vintage also claimed the 2012 Pommard, the only barrel of which ended up in the Bourgogne. I also tasted the Pommard Les Croix Noires, but it was too reduced to get a clear read on.
00
2012
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Louis Boillot was not the only vigneron to note that the best Cote de Beaune wines in 2012 are likely to require longer aging than those from the Cote de Nuits owing to their uncanny concentration."The Cote de Nuits wines are fresh and taut," he told me, "but the Cote de Beaune wines are even deeper in 2012, even if they don't have quite the same vibrancy."Boillot compared 2012 to 2002 in its salinity but added that the '12s have better ripeness and fruit.His crop levels were down 65% on the Cote de Beaune.Despite the hail storms of 2012 and the fact that these wines had not been sulfured since the end of August following the malolactic fermentations, Boillot's 2012s stood out in November for their extraordinary purity of fruit--especially those from the Cote de Nuits.
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2009
2014 - 2022
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Louis Boillot remarked that he and his wife Ghislaine Barthod were the first to harvest in 2009, but the last in 2008. In 2009 Boillot was concerned with losing the singular expression of site, hence his decision to pick on the early side. The 2009s were made from 100% destemmed fruit, as is the custom here. New oak reached a maximum of 25-30%. Boillot is among the growers who prefers the 2008s to the 2009s, which he describes as more faithful and transparent to site.
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