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eParker: The La Tache 2011, picked on 5 and 6 September at 27.49hl/ha, has a wonderful bouquet that is quintessential La Tache: very complete and harmonious, beautifully delineated, succinct at first then with aeration, blossoming with brambly red berries, apple blossom, minerals and a touch of sous-bois. The palate is medium-bodied with immense purity and delicacy on the entry. This La Tache is extremely focused, velvety smooth in the mouth and although not as complex as the 2010, it has a beguiling femininity that will seduce at ten paces. It is extremely long in the mouth but politely does not outstay its welcome. Divine. 1,514 cases produced. Drink 2017-2040.
Wine Description
The Story
Well-cared for vines, strictly controlled yields and as late as possible harvest produces an aromatic and opulent wine. Deeply coloured, La Tâche develops a palate of extraordinary aromas of dark fruits, truffle and spices.
Rich and concentrated, its bouquet releases infinite tones that melt in the mouth to form a lovely ensemble – always exceptional, even in the difficult vintages. Hence in 1950 and 1951, it was the only wine in the domaine that was bottled.
Like many other Burgundy properties, the parcel La Tâche was originally connected to a monastery. It was then owned by two different families, one of which was the Joly de Bévy, who were dispossessed during the Revolution.
Later owned by the Basire and then the Liger-Belair families, the remaining part of La Tâche was purchased by the emblematic Domaine de La Romanée-Conti in 1933, joining the other mythical crus of Grands-Échézeaux, Échézeaux and Richebourg. From this vintage, La Tâche, solely
owned by one single domaine, became a ‘Cru Monopole’.
It is of course rare, producing 20,000 bottles per year, and is highly sought after by wine connoisseurs around the world, particularly in Asia.
La Tâche remains more accessible in price than the iconic cru of the domaine, DRC, yet it is also regarded as an icon with legendary status.
Buying a bottle of La Tâche, even in a lesser vintage, not only provides an extraordinary pleasure when opening the wine, but, if not opened, will give a certain guarantee of a comfortable appreciation in the medium term.
Romanée-Conti lies on brown limestone soils 60 cm deep with a major clay component. Romanée-Saint-Vivant has similar but deeper (90 cm) soils. Higher up, La Romanée occupies a markedly sloping site (12%) and the soil texture is less clayey. La Tâche and La Grande Rue share brown limestone soils, rather shallow at the top end with deeper rendzinas lower down. The same is true for the Richebourg, depending on slope and aspect. The underlying rock is hard Premeaux limestone dating from the Jurassic (175 million years BC).
Lying between Flagey-Échezeaux (home of the ÉCHEZEAUX appellation) and Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vosne-Romanée occupies a middle position in the Côte de Nuits. The vines grow at altitudes of 250 to 310 metres and face east or, in some cases, slightly south of east. Vosne-Romanée, the central jewel in the necklace of appellations which is the burgundian côte, is not content with holding a mere four aces but boasts a total of six Grands Crus, each one famous the world over. A thousand years ago, it was the Cluniac monks of Saint-Vivant de Vergy and the Cistercians of Cîteaux who first realised the value of these very special plots of land.
One of these vineyards takes its name from Prince Conti who lost his heart to it in 1760. Romanée-Conti is one of the wonders ofthe world and has always been a singly-held entity. Next door to it, Romanée-Saint-Vivant recalls the medieval monastery of the Hautes-Côtes which is currently undergoing restoration and which is linked to it by its own path. La Romanée, La Tâche and La Grande Rue are also singly-held entities, as is Richebourg, whose mere name is enough to fill a glass.
These Grands Crus frequently give good results from long laying-down. As a general rule, they shouldn't be drunk under about ten years of age but sometimes they will be aged up to 20 or 30 years. Each appellation has its own distinct personality depending on its year of production and on the stage it has reached in its development. These flamboyant red wines fully express the subtlety and complexity of the Burgundian Pinot Noir grape. Their colour is a dark ruby turning crimson with age. Their wide-ranging bouquet is divided among small red and black fruits, violet, spices and, with time, underbrush. On the palate, this wine is well-defined with a powerful body. It is delicate, sensual, frank and full.
In addition to their powerful structure and exceptional longevity, these great wines develop tertiary aromas of truffle, underbrush, leather and fur. It goes without saying that strong-flavoured meats will do them justice : furred or feathered game, braised, in sauce, or simply grilled. Wild-fowl (eg Peking duck) or a nice cut of roast veal will be gently enveloped by the close-packed but elegant tannins of these mighty Pinot Noir wines.
Serving temperatures : 15 to 16 °C.
Wine Information
2011 Vintage
2011: "Never more than this year - in spite of the some forty-six harvests I have experienced since my beginnings as a winegrower in Burgundy - have I felt and understood the importance of luck and gamble in the success or the failure in the face of a vintage".
At the time I am beginning to write this traditional report, trying to describe the broad outline of the vintage just after the harvest, the North wind that we had been expecting since May is back, bringing full sun and fresh nights, offering a wonderful end of season, enhancing the autumnal colours of the vineyards and intensifying the scents coming out from the wineries where the wines are fermenting. When today the vigneron awakens in these blessed mornings, he cannot help thinking of what the 2011 harvest would have been if April had not been hotter than July and had not led the vineyards to an ultra-early vegetative cycle in which they were permanently ahead of the seasons.
2011 seems indeed to give credit to those who talk of a climatic change or at least of a climatic disorder.
The vegetative cycle of the vineyards was marked by an outstanding earliness due to very high temperatures in early April. Those unusual temperatures were associated with drought conditions that were also unusual in Spring.
The vineyards like heat and drought. They were prosperous until the flowering, with no attacks from their usual enemies: mildew and oidium - and progressed quickly and harmoniously. There was only one drawback: under the sudden effect of a few very hot days, quite a few berries "roasted" in the sun.
By the very early flowering - the mid-flowering occurred on May 20th, at around the same time as in 2003 or 2007 - we saw a complete change in the weather with dominant winds from the West and South bringing rain and storms. The North wind, which is usually accompanied by beautiful dry weather, was never there, even though it blew on Palm Sunday, April 17th, and, should have been the prevailing wind of the year, if we trust the old saying.
But it is well known that gods do their utmost to deceive us, humans - Homer repeats it throughout the Odyssey - and the vignerons, like poor Ulysses shaken by elements, had to cope with those chaotic conditions that lasted in May, July and August in the form of sudden alternations of cold, rains, heat, sometimes scorching, followed each time by violent storms.
In this general context, the Côte de Nuits was spared. Rains were not as frequent as in the Côte de Beaune. For instance, Nicolas Jacob, our vineyard manager, and his young team managed to protect the vineyards from mildew and oidium all through the Spring without too much difficulty. They did the ploughing and organised all the vineyard works in time, while keeping exclusively to biological treatments. In 2011 especially knowledge, experience and tenacity were put to the test for months in order to win the challenge.
But the ultimate enemy was on the look-out: botrytis indeed did not take much time to appear. Rains had provoked abnormally big berries and at veraison (which spread out over three weeks) micro-cracks and even bursts had formed in the loose skins.
Fortunately, the low temperatures in July slowed down the vegetative cycle and the development of botrytis. Botrytis indeed likes damp heat, but stops its action as soon as it is cold. This cold phase was favourable as it strengthened and thickened the skins of the grapes.
By August 15th, there was a complete "change of scenery": hot and stormy weather set in with very high temperatures, almost scorching, and the maturation of the grapes accelerated. Thanks to the reserves of water retained in the soil and the luminosity favoured by still-long days, photosynthesis functioned at full blast and the production of sugars increased very quickly while acidities fell, both in a spectacular manner.
The vintage was taking a totally different direction, far more qualitative. This came as a relief to us.
Of course the storms, that regularly accompanied the return of heat, provoked anguish. Some places in Burgundy were hit by murderous hail storms, but the Vosne area was spared. We should have seen a spectacular progression of botrytis, but that did not happen thanks to the thickness of the grape skins and to the quick return of the sun after each storm.
During that time, the Côte de Nuits profited from the heat and was not much affected by storms. By late August, even if a good part of the advance that had been gained in the springtime was lost as the weeks went by in June/July, the grapes were approaching full maturity. The vineyards were reaching the end of their cycle but we were aware that if the storms had kept on coming back after each period of heat, the botrytis might explode and we ran the risk of losing the crop.
Never more than this year - in spite of the some forty-six harvests I have experienced since my beginnings as a winegrower in Burgundy - have I felt and understood the importance of luck and gamble in the success or the failure in the face of a vintage.
Wanting absolutely to wait until the grapes are fully ripe is the first rule. Doing it at the risk of losing the crop is the second one. Both are linked and both played their part to the fullest in 2011. 1) We had to wait beyond reason in order to pick ripe grapes. 2) We were lucky not to have any storms or humidity during the entire harvest, whereas those unfavourable conditions were everywhere around us and could have caused an explosion of botrytis should have they lasted 2 or 3 days more. The gods were at our side again.
We began the harvest in Corton on Friday September 2 and in Vosne-Romanée on September 5th. The weather was hot and dry, but uncertain, and we feared the pessimistic weather forecast for the following days. Thankfully the harvest proceeded from September 5th to 13h without any rain at all during the day.
In early September, the mildew had "bitten" the upper leaves of the vineyards and autumn colours were beginning to appear everywhere. There were also many berries that had roasted in spring, "figgy" berries that we had absolutely to keep for their richness in sugar and also an unusual number of green berries that had not changed colours.
Needless to say how important and difficult the work in the vineyards was this year. The harvester who cut the grapes that went their way to the winery had a major job: like a miner filtering the gravel by the river's edge in the hope of finding gold, he was asked to follow rules that are different every year and pick up the material, i.e. grapes that the fermentation in vats would transform into Romanée-Conti, La Tâche... the gesture of the harvester is the last selective and qualitative human gesture before the grapes go into the vats with their definitive qualities and defaults.
The harvesters were given clear instructions this year: let fall the berries that had roasted in spring, cut with clippers the parts of the grapes that had been affected by botrytis and most important, as it required judgement and experience, leave behind the vines bearing big or unripe berries where botrytis had largely developed. Those vines were harvested in a second passage at the end of the "big harvest".
Of course, the final touch to the sorting was accomplished in the winery where the grapes, before falling into the vats, passed by a team of 14 people assigned to reject what might have been neglected by harvesters. It should be noted that the vibrating table, set this year at the head of the sorting table, eliminated an impressive quantity of ladybugs and larva!
Due to the delicate sorting, the picking was not rapid and lasted until September 13th in hot weather with the threat of storms and rains hanging over us every day like a sword of Damoclès... that never arrived.
That is why I would like to stress again the importance of luck in the success of a vintage. If the grapes had been wet, even if only after one storm, the crop would have been lost in the twinkling of an eye. But on the contrary, the dates we had chosen to harvest were the right ones and we can thank the gods for giving us a mild end of season... and the possibility to harvest perfectly ripened grapes.
We must admit that the reduction of the crop, due to the attacks from the botrytis and other enemies of the vineyards and of the grapes, was significant in 2011, despite the defences we used. It should be around 30%. But this reduction is also a factor of quality. It has to be looked at like the result of a natural thinning: while the yield is reduced, the quality of the grapes is increased. In 2011 we would never have reached full maturity if a part of the crop had not been eliminated by botrytis or "roasting".
It rained more in the Côte de Beaune where the Montrachet was hit by hail in July, but the damage was not too serious. The veraison of the Chardonnay was late and the berries resisted better to the rainy period in early August. The botrytis had less impact than in the Côte de Nuits until September 3rd when a storm in the south of the Côte de Beaune resulted in many berries turning sour. We harvested earlier than expected, on September 6th, and the grapes that we picked were wonderfully golden with a 10% percentage of noble botrytis.
The vineyards were harvested in the following order:
Corton ........................................ September 2
La Tâche ..................................... September 3-5-6
Romanée-Conti et Montrachet ..... September 6
Richebourg .................................. September 7-8
Romanée-St-Vivant ..................... September 8-9
Grands-Echezeaux ....................... September 9-10
Echezeaux ................................... September 10-11
The vinification went without any particular problems. The only necessity was to cool down the grapes that were harvested in the sun and arrived warm at the winery, but of course we have modern methods to control temperatures. Bernard Noblet and his team were constantly on the watch. Their work was not easy: when the harvest takes place in warm conditions indeed, the vats tend to ferment all at the same time and it is essential to guide them on the way and rack off at the right time. Fermentations were especially long: 21 to 24 days with a good increase of temperature.
Devattings have just finished. The wines are full of "fruit". They already show some seduction and deepness, but also a lot of finesse. 2011 should be more in terms of elegance and purity rather than of power, even though it is too early to give a definitive opinion.
Vintage 2011
Burgundy 2011
'We are beginning to get spoilt with all these fine vintages', said Lalou Bize in October 2011. 'We are very happy with our 2011s.' 'Much better than we had expected,' said Denis Bachelet. 'Lots of colour and fruit, together with good acidity and souplesse.'
Yes. It would appear that Burgundy has done it again. And if views are not quite as enthusiastic in Chablis and in the Côte Chalonnaise, at least in the Côte d'Or (and particularly in the Côte de Nuits) we have another big one to follow 2008, 2009, and 2010. Nature is smiling on the Burgundy lover.
Weather Conditions
Burgundy suffered the worst of its winter as early as the end of November/beginning of December. It was cold and grey, and there was quite a bit of snow. It continued cold but drier in January, but a little warmer in February and March, and then in April, just as in 2007, summer arrived with a bang. In temperatures which climbed into the low 30°s bud break started early and the devemopement of the shoots was rapid. One thing was already clear: barring catastrophe the harvest would be early. This fine weather continued into May.
June was pleasant enough, without being really warm, and July cool and wet. Even August, except for the occasional pair of days, lacked heat until the middle of the month. This came just when it was required, and while there were three days of wet weather just as the harvest was due to start in the Côte d'Or (August 24-26) these were the only periods of anxiety to worry the growers. September continued dry and warm, enabling the Hautes Côtes and other late pickers to finish their collection at their ease.
Of course rarely does a summer season go by without some hail damage somewhere in Burgundy. Rully has received the worst of it this year, being blitzed on the 8th of June, and then, and more seriously, on July 12th. Decimated is frequently an over-exaggerated term, but that is certainly what parts of the vignoble looked like. There were several frost attacks in Chablis in the spring, plus hail damage there too on 29th June, which has affected the size of the harvest in Fourchaume and neighbouring grands crus. Overall, it was wetter in Chablis that in the Côte d'Or – and it seems also to have been drier in the Côte de Nuits than the Côte de Beaune. Both these factors underlie the relative success of these three areas.
The Wine
The white wine crop looks to be healthily-sized; if anything a little more plentiful than the average, growers talking about having produced 45 to 52 hectolitres per hectare in the Côte de Beaune. The fruit was healthy, pHs were around 3.10 - 3.15, and fermentations have been quite rapid. Some suggest slightly lower levels of alcohol than 2009 or 2010. Where red wines of equal reputation are made in the same cellar it seems that there is more satisfaction with the red wine results than with the white.
The red wines are even better in the Côte de Nuits. The crop is not large, there being less juice in the grapes than they promised, but this has led to added concentration. Alcohol levels are at a natural 11.5° - 12.5°, so the wines will not be too heavy. The colours are encouraging and there is plenty of fruit.
We need now (I wrote in November 2011) to wait patiently until the wines are tastable. Someone said to me long ago that you need to hold back and give the wines six weeks after the malos were complete before you can attack them with confidence. Only then, when the CO2 content has sunk to half, can you properly experience the mouth feel, the physical aspect of the wine.
One thing, though, is already clear. Two thousand and eleven Burgundy is a success.
November 2012
Twelve months on, with the wines now well post malo and ready for tasting, what do we make of the 2011s? The whites are following a pattern which seems to have arisen in previous years: very pleasant, reasonably fresh, obligingly fruity, but without real backbone, depth and staying power. Drink them soon. Don't, I suggest, be prepared to spend the high prices today asked for premier cru Puligny unless you have tasted them first and are convinced they will be better in 2020 than 2015. Go for Rully instead.
The reds, lighter than the 2010s and less exotically rich than the 2009s, are delicious. They may not have enormous backbone, but there are many which have a delightful purity of Pinot fruit – and pure Pinot is one of the world's most seductive vinous aromas. They should not take too long to come round. But while delicious then, I do believe they will last, at least in the medium to long term. Yes, at least in red, 2011 is a success.
January 2013
Prices are beginning to be released as I write. The high prices for the 2012s seen at the Hospices auction are bound to have its effect. But this seems to more evident among the already pricey, more fashionable wines and domaines. The polarization between simple (perhaps better rephrased as unpretentions) Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits grand and top premier cru is continuing. Many, particularly the white wine growers, have kept to their 2010 prices. More have raised their demands by five to eight percent, which means that British wine merchants can hold to last years prices, as the rate of exchange has improved. A few are increasing by 15 or even 20 percent as growers view the tiny amounts of 2012 in their cellars.
by Clive Coates MW:
