Domaine Bruno Lorenzon Mercurey Les Croichots Premier Cru 2016
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Robert
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Notes of fresh pear and honeysuckle introduce the 2016 Mercurey 1er Cru Les Croichots Blanc, a medium-bodied, elegant wine with a textural attack, a pure, crystalline mid-palate and a tangy, beautifully delineated finish. This is the most delicate, fine-boned Mercurey Blanc in Lorenzon's cellar.
The focused, intense Bruno produces focused, intense wines, tending to his farm as though he is manicuring a garden. Miniscule yields, organic farming and minimal intervention in the cellar are the norm here. Bruno’s experience working for the Tonnellerie de Mercurey allows him to select and age his own wood, then build and toast his own barrels based on the characteristics of each cuvée and each vintage. His philosophy is that the oak, or any other component, should never stand out in the wine. The results are extremely elegant wines, with intensity and personality, light in color, yet rich with dry extract. The reds have silky tannins and bright, fresh fruit flavors mingling with savory character, while the whites have astonishing mineral length.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Beloved for its deep and flavorful reds made of Pinot Noir, Mercurey is the largest and most important village in the Côte Chalonnaise of Burgundy with most of its vineyards tucked away in hillsides or stretched along the aptly-named “Golden Valley.” This valley, sheltered from the moist and cool air that funnels along at lower elevations, is ideal for ripening Pinot noir.
Mercurey follows strict yield laws, similar to those at the Côte d’Or village level, promoting the development of deep, full, concentrated and age-worthy Pinot noirs. In their youth, a chewy and rich structure supports flavors of ripe strawberry, raspberry and cherry. Age brings notes of underbrush, tobacco and cocoa.
While Pinot Noir claims the majority of Mercurey vineyard acreage, Chardonnay does grow here and produces uniqely floral and spicey scented white wines.