Vertical of Clos Henri Vineyard

Two days ago we have done a vertical of the Clos Henri wines (Clos Henri and Bel Echo ranges)- first wines were made in 2003. So no crazy old bottles full of dust, but a very interesting line up of wines to enable us to learn about the evolution of our wines and understand better our terroir (yes, i work at Clos Henri Vineyard), and how to improve our work in the vineyard.
Who was part of that tasting? our winemaker, our viticulturist, the viticulturist from our french parent company (owners and winemakers in Sancerre - Domaine Henri Bourgeois), the viticulture consultant from France, and myself.

Tasting notes in two words (comments on the Clos Henri only for today):

Clos Henri Sauvignon Blanc

2008: just bottled, has a great concentration (ripe fruit harvested before the heavy rains - no dilution for us!), great texture and minerality, floral. Objectively, a great drop! But patience, the release is in January/February.

2007: very good balance, again good minerality and nice freshness that holds it all. Nice textured sauvignon.

2006: less expressive than the others, more subtle, but again very nice minerality and very elegant.

2005: our little favourite (after the 08!), wonderful expression of sauvignon, generally good balance and minerality, with still nice freshness. Slight honey suckle starting to show.

2004: it's round, round round, complexe. The less mineral of all. Bit more honeysuckle showing.

2003: to our pleasure, still fantastic, showing incredible honey and roundness. To drink in the next year.

Globally, we achieved an elegant style of sauvignon with great texture and minerality, and they evolve nicely gaining in roundness and getting honeysuckle aromas.

Clos Henri Pinot Noir

2008: not part of the tasting as it is not yet bottled indeed! [But blend tastings recently done, were actually showing a great fruit. With blocks from the hillsite on clay showing particularly good concentration and complexity. And block from the stoney soils showing nice finesse, little red fruit, natural smokiness]

2007: our favourite. Great balance, vibrant, complex, nice freshness, supple tannins still that need a bit of time to soften a bit more. Very elegant. Release only in few months as well.

2006: dark fruit, spices, round and bit more volume. Supple tannins, well integrated.

2005: again a little favourite (after 07), fantastic to drink now, but has the structure to go on ageing. Great integration of the oak and tannins. more volume again. Savoury, spices, begining of truffle notes.

2004 and 2003: although they were showing beautifully in their first year or 2 and promising great future, well it is just too bad to say that they weren't up to our expectations anymore. Not much more fruit, the wines looked a bit tired. We attribute it to maybe the young age of the vines at the time. We did 2 barrels of 03, not much more of 04.

Globally, nice fruit, and apart from the 03 and 04, great structures and nice evolution of both the structure and the aromas and volumes in mouth. The part of wine in new oak has been decreasing year after year, good choice there as well.

We generally want to improve the alcohol content in the wines (experimentations in the vineyard) and keep elegance in the styles. But we were all very satisfied with what has been done so far, and the potential we see for the future.

Objectively again, lucky me to be working there!