Wimbledon Wine Cellar: The Best Selection of Fine Wine in London
Neal Martin, Vinous:
Cyprien Arlaud is too often overlooked among the coterie of Burgundy's biodynamic winemakers. That might be because his style of wines does not fit the tropes of "transparency" or "red fruit", but rather these are more structured wines that err toward black fruit and that demand bottle age.
Pulling up outside the winery, the rather undeveloped exterior is tarmacked over with brand-new electronic gates. It takes five or ten unfortunate minutes to work out how to enter. There are a few teething issues. Once inside, much of the extension and construction work appears completed, with a new ground-floor tasting room awaiting the painter and decorator. Arlaud escorted me down to the barrel cellar and commenced with a summary of the 2022 growing season.
"It was a dry growing season, warmer than usual. For the Village, we now use cover crops as they are on more clayey soils that can become compacted. This means we are getting less stress in the vines. One of the main challenges was the heavy rain in June that brought some flooding, and this accelerated the vines' vigor. The rain was less here in Morey-Saint-Denis than in Gevrey, but we still received 100mm of rain in one hour.
Fortunately, I don't have vines where the heaviest rain fell, so I didn't suffer any erosion, perhaps because of the way we have plowed the soils by horse for over 19 years. Now, we plow early in the morning to avoid the heat and also according to the moon. Also, we did more tressage in Clos de la Roche and green harvest. The team had to be gentle with the vines so that they would be less stressed. I started picking on August 29. I think the wines are developing how I expected after tasting
them from vat."
Among his Grand Crus, habitually, I prefer the Clos Saint-Denis over the Clos de la Roche, and in 2022, there is no change, albeit a whisker between the two. They both represent wonderful, exuberant Grand Crus oozing pedigree. Both are a step above his Bonnes-Mares this year. His range of Morey-Saint-Denis is amongst the best, alongside, I would say, Virgile Lignier's (Lignier-Michelot) and Laurent Lignier's. They showcase the finest lieux-dits, such as Les Ruchots and Les Blanchards. As I mentioned, these wines don't tend to show their best when young and benefit from several years of bottle aging.
Wines available January 2025
*ALL PRICES IN BOND*
Parcel of 12 includes:
Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru x3 (96-98 pts, Neal Martin, Vinous)
Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru x3 (92-94 pts, Neal Martin, Vinous)
Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru, Les Ruchots x6 (93-95 pts, Neal Martin, Vinous)
Score: 95-97, Jasper Morris, MW, Inside Burgudy
From the upper part of Les Treux. Glowing purple. The nose is discreet. The palate does the Echezeaux latticework thing with lots of detail, and exceptional length. Goes on dancing, tiptoeing, across the palate for a long time. Just one barrel. The fruit stays with me.
Wine Safari Score: 94-96/100 Greg Sherwood MW. A very classy regal expression with an intricate aromatics of violet perfume and ripe berry fruit notes, all punctuated by a subtle, spicy, dusty minerality.
Wine Safari Score: 93-95/100 Greg Sherwood MW. A deep dark broody expression showing all the latent power and muscle of Clos Vougeot. There are layers of dark spicy plum, bramble berry fruits and a smoky wood ember nuance before a limestone minerality.
(85-87) Neal Martin
The 2022 Bourgogne Roncevie has commendable fruit concentration on the nose, with black cherries and bilberry fruit. The palate is well-balanced, and the 10% new oak neatly integrated. It is quite sweet, with touches of blackcurrant pastilles towards the finish. Fine.
Wine Safari Score: 91-92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW. Made from a blend of three separate plots, this Nuits is deep, dark and broody, a very serious offering with layers of savoury black fruits and a smoky graphite minerality.
Wine Safari Score: 91-93/100 Greg Sherwood MW Sourced from the Aux Communes plot, the nose shows savoury red and black berry fruits, some earthy hints, and a classic Asian five spice complexity over a subtle struck flint reduction notes.
Wine Safari Score: 92-93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW An alluring, exotic aromatics of black currant, black plum, musk and pink flowers before more traditional dusty mineral limestone notes. There is a lovely breadth and depth of flavour in the mouth, creamy fine-tuned mineral tannins and a long, fresh, harmonious finish.
Wine Safari Score: 93-95/100 Greg Sherwood MW. A very sophisticated wine whispering true class and pedigree. The aromatics are delicate, intricate and wonderfully perfumed with notes of violets, rose petals, red cherries and pink musk.
Wine Safari Score: 92-94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW. Deep, expressive and very classy, the nose shows perfumed spicy rose petal notes before meatier red and black fruits over crushed limestone, struck flint and a certain sapidity.
(89-91) Neal Martin The 2022 Chambolle-Musigny Village, aged in 10% new oak and completely de-stemmed, has an attractive bouquet demonstrating a little more nuance than the Morey Village. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly chewy tannins on the entry.
(89-91) Neal Martin The 2022 Gevrey-Chambertin Village is what you might call the most transparent of Arlaud's Village Cru, with lifted wild strawberry and raspberry fruit and a little more tension and delineation.
(92-94) Neal Martin The 2022 Morey-Saint-Denis Aux Chesaux 1er Cru is very delineated and harmonious on the nose, with blackberry and wild strawberry fruit, crushed rock and light dried rose petal scents from the whole bunches. The medium-bodied palate has a fresh, saline entry, beautifully structured with gentle grip.
Wine Safari Score: 92-93/100 Greg Sherwood MW. A blend of two village parcels En Seuvres and Clos Solon that sees 10% new oak, this 2022 shows seductive, exotic aromatics of red plum, red currant jelly and smoky earthy cherry hints. The texture is incredibly pure and polished, seamless, showing great balance and harmony.
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