Written: October 2020

Every so often the team at Bouchard Père et Fils pull out some old bottles from their stash to see how they are developing, and what might need reconditioning. Very kindly, Frédéric Weber invited me along to try the wines later in the day. He cruelly served them blind, in descending order of age. The whites were all from the same Montrachet/Chevalier-Montrachet hillside (not that we knew that in advance), while the reds were from the classic Bouchard holdings in the Côte de Beaune: Volnay Caillerets, Ancienne Cuvée Carnot, Beaune Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus and Beaune Clos de la Mousse, with which I am less familiar – or was before this tasting.

I took away two things from this tasting: how interesting the old white wines were, from vintages, which were celebrated for being exceptionally difficult, if not catastrophic; and the quality of the Beaune Clos de la Mousse vineyard, especially alongside the more structured Beaune Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus. The Clos de la Mousse is a relatively flat terrace, with a layer of limestone on top of the dense bed of clay, the limestone providing the elegance in the wines. The Bouchard family spotted the potential of this site back in 1826, but it took them 50 years to buy out all the other owners to create their Monopole.

The Beaune Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus has long been considered a Bouchard flagship. The vineyard belonged to – had been christened by – an order of Carmelite nuns, the Domestiques de la Famille du Saint Enfant Jésus, who were dispossessed in the French Revolution. Bouchard (not yet designated Père & Fils) purchased this 3.92ha vineyard which forms the plump and juicy middle sector, the filet mignon, of Beaune Grèves, in 1791, by which time they were already owners of vines in Volnay Caillerets, a first plot of which was purchased in 1775. In due course, through a Carnot marriage connection, this became dubbed the Ancienne Cuvée Carnot. Bouchard’s holding of 3.76ha makes them the largest owners of Volnay Caillerets, apart from Domaine de la Pousse d’Or.

But, first, we tasted the whites: Bouchard are by far the biggest owners of Chevalier-Montrachet, with vines all the way up the slope. One part of it looks to the naked eye to be part of Le Montrachet, being the upper section of unbroken rows dropping down the hillside from just under the small stone ‘cabotte’ building. Prior to Appellation Contrôlée in 1936 these vines were included in Bouchard’s Montrachet. Thereafter, they became Chevalier-Montrachet, with this particular block being sold separately as Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte from 1997. The Montrachet holding of 0.89ha is the southernmost in the Puligny-Montrachet half of the vineyard, facing due east. They say that the way to judge true grand cru status is if the vineyard can produce the goods year in, year out. Today it certainly did!