Jean Marc Vincent - Puligny-Montrachet Corvee Des Vignes 2022 (750ml)
Price: $145.00
| Producer | Jean Marc Vincent |
| Country | France |
| Region | Burgundy |
| Subregion | Cote de Beaune |
| Varietal | Chardonnay |
| Vintage | 2022 |
| Sku | 8773 |
| Size | 750ml |
Vinous: 91-93 Points
The 2022 Puligny-Montrachet Corvées des Vignes has quite a backward bouquet that demands coaxing from the glass: wax resin lanolin and light red apple scents. The palate is where its energy really lies. It has fine tension and lovely texture with yellow plum and stem ginger. It is rather linear toward the finish which seems very precise. Great salinity here. Excellent. (Drink between 2026-2040)
Jasper Morris: 90-92 Points
A full mid yellow. Jean-Marc has crushed these grape
Wine Advocate: 91 Points
The 2022 Puligny-Montrachet Corvée des Vignes offers up aromas of sweet yellow fruit apple blossom and freshly baked bread followed by a medium to full-bodied ample and satiny palate with lively acids and a chalky finish. As usual it's an excellent example of the appellation. One of Burgundy?s most exciting small domaines is hiding in plain sight. You simply have to be sufficiently adventurous to drive to Santenay; for it?s here Jean-Marc Vincent crafts some of my favorite wines in all the Côte d?Or. Today the vignerons of glamorous Vosne-Romanée and Gevrey-Chambertin are increasingly experimenting with higher canopies working with ultra-lightweight engines that drive between the rows instead of heavier tractors that straddle them. But Jean-Marc Vincent has been working like that for more than a decade. And as his winemaking becomes ever more accomplished with each passing year I sense that we?re witnessing a producer entering his prime. Until recently however Burgundy lovers might have been forgiven for thinking that the Côte de Beaune ended at Chassagne-Montrachet. Importers and wine writers alike seldom ventured further south to explore Santenay: even this publication reviewed fewer than 100 wines from this commune in the first decade of the millennium. It wasn?t always like this. Blessed with a thermal spa and rare casino Santenay enjoyed considerable 19th-century prosperity. Several of its climats were considered prestigious ?tête de cuvées.? And it was here in the 1870s that Jean-Marie Duvault-Blochet matured the wines of Romanée-Conti in his two-story cellars. But things began to go wrong when growers started to plant over-productive selections of Pinot Noir toward the end of the century?a trend exacerbated by phylloxera?and the Beaune négociants decided to promote other brands. Today one of the Côte d?Or?s largest wine-producing towns languishes in comparative obscurity. Jean-Marc Vincent didn?t grow up intending to make wine. His grandfather a formative influence was a vigneron and Jean-Marc still remembers racking barrels and tasting with him from a silver tastevin during his holidays at the age of nine. ?With my grandfather I tasted old vintages such as 1929 ?45 ?47 ?59?those memories inspire me today!? he reminisces. But his father was a chemist so the family?s vines were rented out from 1970 onward; and when his grandfather died in 1997 Jean-Marc was living in Alsace. ?It was the era of globalization where no one wanted to stay in the village where they were born and do what their grandparents did. But when my grandfather died and we were faced with selling the domaine or taking it over I had to do it for the sake of his memory? he explains. ?In 1998 we took over the domaine? Jean-Marc continues. The early years were challenging: neglected for the better part of 30 years by the Vincents? tenant the vineyards required extensive work including new trellising. ?Luckily Anne-Marie my wife is from a farming family in the Charolais? Jean-Marc jokes ?so she understood the world of agriculture. No one else would have tolerated this life!? Their first steps were conventional: Jean-Marc studied and received an enologist?s diploma and started out farming chemically which was the norm in those days. But that didn?t last long. ?It was actually my father as a chemist who advised me against using chemical products!? remembers Jean-Marc. A rapid transition followed which saw the domaine convert to essentially organic methods in 2003. Around the same time he opted to use small caterpillar-tracked engines (what the French call a ?chenillard?) instead of heavy over-row tractors to cultivate the soils and apply treatments while trimming the canopies by hand with shears. Soon Jean-Mark was putting in 250 kilometers per year on foot during the growing season. Around the same time he embarked upon another labor-intensive initiative: high-density plantings. In 2001 Olivier Lamy had planted a parcel of his Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Derrière Chez Edouard at a density of 30000 vines per hectare?three times the already-high average of the Côte d?Or. In 2004 Jean-Marc having heard about this project attempted his first high-density experiment himself. In such vineyards intensified inter-vine competition results in smaller more concentrated clusters with a higher skin-to-juice ratio producing more intense structured wines. Today all the domaine?s new plantings are high density. ?But considering how much work I was putting in? he remembers reflecting ?I didn?t think my wines were as superior as they should have been.? So Jean-Marc was looking for the next step that would result in a qualitative change. It came when he met Bruno Lorenzon in 2007. Lorenzon visited Santenay to learn about Jean-Marc?s small caterpillar-tracked engines; and when Jean-Marc reciprocated making the trip down to Mercury he was struck by Lorenzon?s higher canopies. ?I realized I?d been trimming my canopies too low. Vines with higher canopies produce smaller more open grape clusters and the soils stay cooler thanks to the shade retaining more water in dry vintages.? Higher canopies were soon adopted wholesale at the domaine. In the vineyards today Jean-Marc has found a winning formula. The big project that?s now underway is replanting replacing drought-susceptible and degenerating rootstocks with more resilient material; replacing coarse selections of Pinot Noir with massal selection Pinot Fin; and planting at higher densities. He?s reconstituting the vineyards in other words for the next 30 years and beyond. Recent evolutions in the winery however have been of notable importance. In this regard Jean-Marc has benefited from an informal group of likeminded vignerons including Olivier Lamy Thomas Bouley Bruno Lorenzon David Croix Charles Lachaux and Nicolas Rossignol?names that readers of these pages will be familiar with. Tasting together and sharing constructive criticism they?ve provoked progress that might not otherwise have taken place. Jean-Marc credits Thomas Bouley for pushing him to harvest his Pinot Noir later beginning in 2017. ?Santenay is susceptible to rot and I think I was often picking my reds just a few days too early? he reflects. He has also changed his barrel suppliers. Bottling practices have been considerably refined. And Jean-Marc is now working with sulfur dioxide solution produced in-house rather than commercial petrochemical sulfur solution. His approach to pressing white grapes has changed too seeking more dry extract and lees. ?I thought I knew how to make wine but we ended up starting again at square one in many respects.? These recent developments mean that Jean-Marc Vincent is producing wines that realize more and more entirely the potential of his exemplary viticulture. His 2022s rival and in some cases surpass his 2020s as his finest vintage to date. ?Since there was a rupture when the vineyards were rented out between my grandfather and I? Vincent ruminates ?I never really felt I was from Santenay??yet it is at this address that Santenay finds its finest contemporary exponent. Published: Jan 30 2025
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