2015 Alain Hudelot Noellat, Vosne Romanee 750ml

WA89-91

The 2015 Vosne Romanee Villages has a very pure, feminine bouquet, vivid morello cherry intermingling with crushed strawberry and cold black slate. The palate is fresh and vibrant on the entry with tensile tannin, what you might call an "athletic" village cru with no fatness, rather streamlined and tensile. It is completed by a long, mineral-driven finish that is almost worthy of a premier cru. This is excellent. My visit to Domaine Alain Hudelot-Noellat with hirsute winemaker Charles Van Cannyt was one of the most amusing during my never-ending forays in and out of domaines. Hot topics of discussion included whether his recent nuptials into the Gagey family of Louis Jadot precludes either husband or wife criticizing each other's wines across the dinner table, whether opera is rubbish (or not), in addition to one very funny anecdote that's probably best I do not share. In between our jabbering, I tasted through a terrific set of 2015s that serve notice that this domaine is really ratcheting up the quality. From the entry-level Bourgogne Rouge onward, these barrel samples reaffirmed my estimation of Hudelot-Noëllat rapidly ascending to one of Vosne-Romanée's top growers by dint of the location of their vines, rather than the location of the winery that almost seems misplaced in Vougeot.