2020 Trousseau Arbois Cuvée des Géologues

Vincent Aviet produces excellent white wines, both topped-up and sous voile. I tasted four vintages of the Cuvée des Docteurs Melon à Queue Rouge, a varietal Chardonnay; these wines also possess strong aging potential. For oxidatively aged wines, readers can choose between the Savagnin Réserve du Caveau and Vin Jaune Cuvée de la Confrérie. After seven years of aging sous voile, Aviet selects the barrels that make the cut for the Vin Jaune blend based on concentration, complexity and length, while the rest go into the Savagnin Réserve du Caveau. An interesting case from the 2012 vintage involved a Savagnin foudre destined for Vin Jaune that didn’t ferment to dryness. Aviet’s late father, Lucien, decided to leave the vessel sealed and stored it in the cellar. Over the years, the CO2 produced by the slow fermentation protected the wine from oxygen. In 2018, the Aviets decided to bottle the first batch of this wine, creating the singular 2012 Arbois Réserve du Caveau Cuvée des Sorciers L'Etrange. During my visit, I had the chance to taste one of the roughly 300 magnums produced. I also requested a fresh sample from the original foudre for comparison and found them to be similar. Year in and year out, this domaine also produces some of the region’s finest Trousseau. Aside from the multi-site blend, Cuvée des Géologues, Aviet crafts single-vineyard wines, which are distinguished by an additional label on top of the main one. These include Rosière (a south-facing site, with light, gravelly soil mixed with flinty clay), Ruzard (also south-facing, with similar soils to Rosière but at a slightly higher elevation), Nonceau (northeast-facing with limestone scree soils), Les Bruyères (south-facing with soils transitioning from gravel to marl) and Poussot (south-facing, with heavy red marl from the Triassic period and almost no stones). Aviet occasionally produces a wine called Marne Rouges from the same parcel as Poussot. In 2022, he made five cuvées: Marne Rouge, Poussot, Nonceau, Ruzard and Les Bruyères, with grapes from the Rosière plot going into Les Bruyères. In some years, insufficient quantities of grapes lead to blending lieux-dits together, as seen in 2019, when Aviet bottled a Ruzard Rosière, or in 2022, with the Bruyères Rosière. Aviet explains that grapes are generally destemmed, with rare exceptions. He avoids stem-derived tannic structures so as not to disrupt the elegance of his wines. During maceration, Aviet performs only occasional pumpovers but no punchdowns. Tasting two 2023s, Trousseau and Pouslard from Les Bruyères, reveals bright red fruit and lovely freshness, with moderate flavor concentration. "The 2023s are more spring and summer wines, while the 2022s are more winter wines," Aviet notes. Indeed, the 2022 Trousseaus, compared to the 2023s, are darker, fuller-bodied and more concentrated, with better structure. Alcohol levels vary between the two vintages, with the 2023s hovering around 12.5% and the 2022s sometimes exceeding 14%, although the alcohol is always well integrated. After a devastating 2021 vintage, where Aviet lost 80% of the harvest due to frost, hail and diseases, the volumes for 2022 and 2023 have been more generous. "In 2023, Mother Nature gave us back the volumes she took from us in 2021. Stylistically, 2023 is a bit more diluted, while 2022 is more concentrated," Aviet notes. Purchasing these wines requires patience, as Aviet only sells them when he feels they are ready to be enjoyed. Occasionally, wines are released only to be pulled off the offer list and sold again in the future, like the 2019 Nonceau. Aviet mentions that the 2022 Nonceau might not be marketed for another five years or more.