The Moreys’ 2007 Santenay Les Hates – from young vines in a village-rated site just northeast of the town itself – clearly announces to the nose the three of seven barrels that were new. Fresh peaches take on a vanilla and faintly butterscotch aroma, which – mingled with mineral notes on the palate – engenders a salted caramel impression, along with peach and candied lemon rind. There is an attractive sense of lushness here, allied to sufficient refreshment; although the finish is only modestly long or interesting. I would plan to drink this within two years.
After inheriting his share of his father, Bernard Morey’s domaine (split with his brother Thomas, on whose wines I have reported separately in this issue), Vincent Morey and his wife Sophie (whose family are wine growers in Santenay) have now combined acreage and produced their first wines out of the Morey family facilities. They began harvesting Chardonnay already at the end of August, achieving potential alcohols that varied by as much as 1.5% over their five days of harvest, and chaptalizing up to a degree to arrive at 13-13.5%. He performed a light clarification and stirred the lees regularly to fatten-up the wines. As a group, this year’s collection was a bit obviously – at times obtrusively – marked by its oak (typically around 30-40% new), and richness seemed sometimes to have been bought at the price of refreshment, clarity, or site-distinctiveness. Like his brother, Vincent Morey reports that he is too short of cellar space to consider a barrel elevage that lasts longer the one year, but he supports the trend toward a longer, watchful stay in tank before the assembled wines are bottled.
Importer: Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191 and also imported by Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802