Jaeger Defaix
The Wines
Domaine Jaeger Defaix Rully 1er Cru Blanc Les Cloux 2022
Diam. Rully’s Les Cloux vineyard is located just south of the village, with south-easterly exposure on the sirloin cut of Rully 1er Cru overlooking the plain of Saône. Les Cloux is home to Defaix’s oldest vines, planted in 1944 on the classic clay/limestone mix found across the best sites in Burgundy. Since 2009, these old vines have been managed organically. Within Rully, Les Cloux is known for its ability to balance elegant and mouthwatering flesh with tangy grip and fine length, and 2022 delivers in spades. This 100% Chardonnay fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in older barrels (up to seven years old) for 12 months before settling in stainless steel. It’s a silky, textural wine, long and focused with a delicious salty-savoury close. Simply, a delicious and fine-value white Burg.
Domaine Jaeger Defaix Rully 1er Cru Blanc Les Cloux 2022 (1500ml)
Diam. Rully’s Les Cloux vineyard is located just south of the village, with south-easterly exposure on the sirloin cut of Rully 1er Cru overlooking the plain of Saône. Les Cloux is home to Defaix’s oldest vines, planted in 1944 on the classic clay/limestone mix found across the best sites in Burgundy. Since 2009, these old vines have been managed organically. Within Rully, Les Cloux is known for its ability to balance elegant and mouthwatering flesh with tangy grip and fine length, and 2022 delivers in spades. This 100% Chardonnay fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in older barrels (up to seven years old) for 12 months before settling in stainless steel. It’s a silky, textural wine, long and focused with a delicious salty-savoury close. Simply, a delicious and fine-value white Burg.
Domaine Jaeger Defaix Rully 1er Cru Blanc Rabourcé 2022
Diam. Rabourcé has traditionally been nicknamed ‘the Montrachet of Rully’ for the richness and power it delivers. It is a very steep site west of the village, above the highly regarded Cloux vineyard and just below the woods. The soils are mainly composed of white, limestone-rich clay. The Defaix vines are now between 40 and 45 years old. Rabourcé is always one of Rully’s first vineyards to ripen, and Defaix’s 2022 is a superb example—a wine of impressive depth and power. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and was raised in used oak barrels. Expect waves of fleshy, mouthcoating stone fruit and kernel notes with excellent intensity, culminating in a long, balanced, refreshing close.
Domaine Jaeger Defaix Rully Rouge 2022
Diam. Jaeger-Defaix’s newest red cuvée (100% Pinot Noir) comes from a small parcel of Rully village vines purchased in 2011. Sited in the Vorot lieu-dit, the 30-year-old vines have been farmed organically for decades. This well-sited parcel yields small bunches of grapes with thick skins and powerful juice. The fruit this year was entirely destemmed, and the wine was aged in seasoned oak barrels (from one to three years old) for 12 months. This is a juicy, highly enjoyable, elegant and rewarding Burgundy with cherry and violet-scented flesh and the suave, powdery mouthfeel of top-notch Pinot Noir. Great value!
Domaine Jaeger Defaix Rully 1er Cru Rouge Clos du Chapître 2022
Diam. The Clos du Chapître is a monopole for this producer. The one-hectare plot is located behind the family house and cellars within the Rully 1er Cru Chapître, enclosed by a two-metre-high stone wall. The Pinot yields here are controlled by severe pruning, de-budding and green harvesting. There is also manual sorting of bunches to keep only the most beautiful clusters of fruit. This year, the wine was aged in oak barrels (10% new) for 12 months before settling in tank before bottling.
Jancis Robinson MW has written that the wines from this site “offer proof that the Côte Chalonnaise can now field wines of serious interest to those raised on Côte d’Or wines.” As always, the Clos du Chapître delivers the expected step up from the village Rully in depth, structure and complexity, yet there’s no lack of juicy brightness courtesy of this utterly charming vintage. Complete, tense and mineral with a crushed velvet mouthfeel, this is looking great.
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