Domaine Alain Hudelot-Noellat

Alain Hudelot was born in 1940, and now he expects that his grandson Charles van Canneyt will increasingly take over the domaine. Alain started working in the vineyards of Drouhin and Champy, the negociant houses of Beaune, after dropping from school at a young age.

In 1960 his father Noel gave him two plots in Chambolle-Musigny. In the same year he also married the grand-daughter of Charles Noellat. In 1977 he bought an additional 0.72 ha in Clos Vougeot, bringing the total vineyard to 5 ha, which reaches 7 ha as of today.

The vine age is kept high by systematically grubbing up and replanting. Alain dislikes green-pruning and declares that it is possible to make grand vin with healthy yields. The fermentation is done with natural yeast, with 100% destemmed grapes. Total cuvasion lasts 15-24 days, with cold maceration to extract more finesse and complexity into the wines.

Alain uses pigeage for the Vosne Romanee while remontage for the Chambolle. He also uses a variety of oak, and the wines are racked in spring with no fining and filtration. They are bottled 18 months after harvest, with the style tends to be supple and aromatic, of great elegance.

There are two village wines, a fragrant Chambolle-Musigny and a slightly more powerful Vosne-Romanee. Alain also makes excellent Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les Murgers, but is better known for the premiers crus from Vosne. The 1er Cru Beauxmonts is from the highest, steepest part of Beaumonts, with floral characters.

Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Suchots is made from 90-year-old vines with fat and depth, of silky fruit and cassis. Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Malconsorts, in which only 3 barrels are made normally, is rich and splendid in power and length. Alain’s Clos Vougeot is one of the best from that grand cru. The Richebourg and Romanee-St-Vivant are the summit of Alain’s achievements, with the former bigger and more powerful.

I have recently tasted the 2010 vintage of the Vosne-Romanee village wine and below is my tasting note:

Appearance

Bright and clear, this wine is of light ruby color, with legs.

Nose

Clean, the nose shows medium intensity aromas of red fruit such as raspberry and red cherry, sweet spice of cloves, hints of maturity notes of savory, mineral notes of earth. The wine is youthful.

Palate

Dry with medium (+) acidity, with medium (-) tannin of silky texture, the wine has medium alcohol and medium (-) body. Medium intensity with flavors of red fruit such as red cherry and raspberry, sweet spice of nutmeg, some maturity notes of savory, the wine has a medium (+) finish.

Conclusion

Acceptable quality Vosne-Romanee with a reasonable intensity on the nose though a bit on the simple side, the wine is a bit closed down and on the palate the acidity is a bit high, but fortunately the flavors overall is still fair in concentration. The finish is quite long, but definitely this wine needs more time to reveal its true potential and too young.