Product information

Domaine Patrick Javillier Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru ‘Les Serpentières’ 2018

Pinot Noir from Savigny-lès-Beaune, Côte du Beaune, Burgundy, France

$137

$132ea in any 3+
$127ea in any 6+
Closure: Cork
Yes, you can still buy Burgundy at a decent price!

Description

Thankfully Savigny-Les-Beaune has yet to scale the stratospheric price mountains of its neighbours and still offers excellent value. Javillier’s, 100% destemmed, has fine plush tannins over beautifully perfumed red fruits, strawberries and cream with the faintest wiff of char from discretely balanced oak. Long with great persistence, excellent composure, and layers of complexing earth, mineral characters. Delicious rendition.

In stock

Check out all of the wines by Domaine Patrick Javillier

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About Domaine Patrick Javillier

Patrick Javillier and his daughter Marion are among the most respected and considered viticulteurs in the entire Cote d’Or.  This is an extremely fine address with superb wines in both colors.

The family story started in Meursault, after the war in 1945 when Raymond Javillier decided to cultivate 2 ha. of plots which had always belonged to the family.

The turning point for the estate was in 1974: Patrick received his diploma in wine studies (Diplôme National d’Oenologie) and his father handed over the estate with full responsibility for the harvest and wine making process.
Throughout the 1980s and early in the 1990s the estate never ceased to expand by the acquisition of new plots and the addition of land which belonged to the family of his wife, Catherine.

Patrick is one of the most reflective of white wine makers, the walls of his cellars and the sides of his barrels being covered in chalk where he has been developing one or another of his theories.

Patrick is a proponent of blending, believing, if you get it right 1 + 1 = 3. The proof is in the glass and he has put his wine where his mouth is!

All of his Bourgogne and most of his Village level wines are blends and mighty blends they are.

In 2005, Marion, the elder daughter of Patrick, joined the domain after studies in management and winegrowing with the responsibility for sales and the winemaking process of the red wines.

In 2011, Pierre-Emmanuel Lamy, the husband of Laurène (Marion’s sister) also joined the domain, in charge of the field work and winemaking process of the white wines.

“Admittedly, Meursault is now home to a host of over-achievers…but Javillier seems to me to be under−exposed and under−garlanded. And his pricing is not rapacious in view of how much flavour and structure he delivers.”

Jancis Robinson

In the Vineyard

For the vine to express its particular characteristics it needs to be well looked after and our principle is to practice the best adapted methods of cultivation respecting the environment.

Great care is taken in true tradition for the the field work: the vine is pruned according to the “Guyot simple” method, debudding is adapted to the yield potential of each vine and as the vegetation growth progresses we ensure the canes are properly tied and trimmed .

In the Winery

When the grapes are harvested at the set date they are sorted on picking.

The white grapes are despatched to the cellar and processed by a pneumatic press. The must is then settled and filled into casks for the alcoholic fermentation through the action of the natural yeasts and followed later by the malo-lactic fermentation.

The red grapes are entirely de-stemmed and filled into concrete vats; there follows a cold, pre-fermentation maceration, pumping over, punching and releasing all depending on the vine plot concerned and sampling of the grape juice.
Lightly pressed, the red wines are then filled into casks and closely monitored during the rest of the winemaking process.

The Javillier’s believe that long élévage on lees is vital and positive for the flavour and long evolution of their wines.

All the white wines are raised in oak casks, the number of new casks depending on the plot concerned; during the winemaking process the lees may be stirred according to the nature of the vintage. Most of the wines are taken out of barrel after a year, then matured further in tank on their fine lees. The Corton Charlemagne spends a second winter in wood. It would be difficult to find another winemaker with quite such a perfectionist attitude as Javillier, a man who approaches winemaking with the precision of a research scientist, yet is always ready to question his own success. The results are startling, more so given that he has only one tiny Premier Cru holding. Not only does he vinify parcel by parcel but also cask by cask before making the final assemblages.

The Javillier’s are perfectionists in both the vineyard and the cellar, a team that considers élévage with the exactitude and detail of a professor but still questions.

The Bourgogne Blancs are vinified as crus and have all the character of real Meursaults. The Clos from the upper slopes are steely and firm, while the beautifully balanced Tillets, Casse-têtes and Clos du Cromins have a delightful touch of honey. Javillier’s Narvaux wines derive part of their noble breeding from Perrières, their next-door neighbours.

Interestingly, the top wines such as the Corton-Charlemagne are fermented and matured entirely in one year old wood, with new barrels being used (25-30%) for the Meursault and Bourgogne vineyards on the lower slopes with more clay and less active limestone in the soil.

The 2018 Vintage at Domaine Patrick Javillier

From Burghound

Patrick Javillier described 2018 as a “vintage that gave us excellent maturities despite the higher than average yields. But this meant that you had to choose your harvesting dates with extreme care as a few days too early and the fruit wasn’t completely ripe and a few days too late and you risked making jammy heavy wines. We picked the chardonnay beginning on the 31st of August and started the pinot on the 4th of September. Thankfully the fruit was essentially spotless which enabled us to pick very quickly as there was very little sorting required.

Potential alcohols were in the 12.8 to 13.3% range and we had no problems with the fermentations. While the total acidities weren’t especially high, most of it was tartaric which doesn’t degrade during the malolactic fermentation so the resulting pHs for the whites were perfectly correct at between 3.15 and 3.25.

Overall, I find that the 2018 whites are surprisingly good and particularly so given how warm and dry the season was.” The 2018 whites were bottled between October 2019 and January 2020. Javillier rarely misses and I would agree that his 2018 whites are indeed impressive and particularly so for his two examples of Bourgogne and the range of Meursault villages wines.

Where in the World is Domaine Patrick Javillier?

Javillier is based in Meursault. This family domain covers 11 hectares of the Côte de Beaune, in Regional appellations, with the brand new Bourgogne Côte d’Or, but also AOC Village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru.

Their whites come from the parcels located in the villages of Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Savigny-les-Beaune and Aloxe-Corton.

The reds from parcels in Savigny-les-Beaune, Aloxe-Corton and Pernand-Vergelesses.

Savigny-les-Beaune is just north of Beaune and just south of Corton.

Click to enlarge🔎
Click to enlarge🔎

 

91 Points

“A slightly riper nose features aromas of dark currant, forest floor and a pretty whiff of spice. The succulent and delicious medium weight flavors possess a bit more mid-palate density before culminating in a lightly mineral-suffused, persistent and more complex finale. This is also really quite good and while the supporting tannins are a bit firmer, this too could be enjoyed on the younger side. ♥ 2024+

Burghound

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Domaine Patrick Javillier, Rue des Forges, Meursault, France

Savigny-lès-Beaune
Côte du Beaune
Burgundy
France