Robert Groffier

It is a privilege offer the Domaine Robert Groffier wines. Young Nicolas Groffier, grandson of Robert, has at his disposal some of the Côte’s finest holdings, including a large swathe of Amoureuses. Nicolas joined his father Serge in 2006 and over the last decade has been fine-tuning the style of the wines whilst remaining loyally faithful to tradition and family know-how. Whole bunch fermentations have gradually increased and new oak percentages decreased. Rarely using more between 15% to 25% for his Crus except the Clos de Bèze, which is a small cuvée and is aged in new barrels only. Employing whole bunch fermentation can be tricky to get right, in lesser examples wines can show evident rusticity, but such is Nicolas’ rigour, precison and know-how that his wines show nothing but purity and vibrancy. Ageing is rarely more than 12 months in oak with finishing and natural clarification in tank, a process designed to avoid fining and filtration but minimise oak impact. 2016 was a successful vintage for Groffier, both in terms of quantity and quality. Picking started on the 27th when berries and bunches were both fully ripe. As for the healthy-sized crop, Nicolas puts this down to his late-pruning and old Cordon de Royat-trained vines, meaning that budding was later, missing the 26th April frost by a week. Nicolas himself considers 2016 a very classic balanced vintage “that reminds me of 2013, with a touch of the generosity of 2014.” A brilliant array of intense, refined, energy-filled.

2017 Vintage

“A vintage for pleasure and a vintage for keeping” is Nicolas Groffier’s summary of 2017 , adding “its a nice compromise between 2015 and 2016. A ripe approachable vintage with some class to it as well. “Whole bunch fermentation has been used to great effect here, between 15% to 100% depending on the cuvée, adding sapidity and drive to the naturally soft sweetness of the vintage. A well-structured and, above all, energetic range of wines that, from the elegant Seuvrees to the dense, brooding Bonnes-Mares, each reflect the vineyard origins loudly and clearly.

2018 Vintage

Nicolas Groffier terms this vintage “A luminous 2015!” Indeed, so shimmeringly bright are these 2018's you practically need sunglasses to taste them. Harvest began on the 27th August and lasted until the 1st September, thanks to the help of a 60-strong picking team. The highest natural alcohol levels registered 13.4. “as we look for digest, 13 degree wines not 14 degree ones.” After picking Nicolas felt it essential to cool the crop down to five degrees and cold soak the wines for four days, to keep freshness, build aroma and stop fermentations from running away too quickly. The average yield here was 40hl / ha, which Nicolas felt helped “de-contract and de-stress” the wines i.e. they had plenty of juice and freshness in them. The generic level wines were destalked, the village underwent 20% whole-bunch fermentation, then for the rest between 50% and 100% depending on the cuvée. All wines will be bottled, as usual, towards the end of the year to preserve their freshness of fruit. A quite remarkable vintage here, these are some of the brightest, raciest wines we tasted. They offer beautifully pure, light, jewel-like red fruits yet do not lack for intensity of length of flavour. One of the great collections of 2018.

2023 Vintage

As ever, our November tasting with Nicholas Groffier took place in the tank room. Since 2006, Nicholas has decided against a second winter in barrel for his wines, preferring to assemble them ready for bottling before Christmas. It’s not always the easiest time to decode the wines, and they can often be a little more reticent to show their charms than their peers at the same moment. And yet the one element that is never in any doubt is their energy. With plenty of in-bottle examples to prove the method works, it’s increasingly obvious that this technique allows the Groffier parcels, some of which have been in the family for over two centuries, the maximum room to shine. And shine they do. With sensational holdings in exceptional vineyards – many of which amount to single plots of around a hectare – and a tendency to prune late, the Groffiers have been able to maintain high average vine age across their holdings. In the detail-oriented world of Burgundy, these holdings – not just the vineyards themselves, but their plots within them –are the things that move this domaine from the very good to the truly great. As evidenced by these 2023s, this is a domaine whose output is the equal of just about anything being made in Burgundy today and I think it’s fair to say that we can now count Nicolas Groffier as one of the region’s great vignerons.