2014 Chablis Clos des Hospices
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Tasting notes
Tasted blind at the Burgfest annual tasting, Moreau's 2014 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos des Hospices has a clean and precise bouquet with flint and chalk aromas complementing the citrus fruit. The palate is fresh and vibrant with plenty of salinity, great tension and poise. It just delivers everything that a Chablis Les Clos should, offering hints of fresh ginger and a pinch of white pepper on the finish. This is an outstanding Chablis that will give immense pleasure. I initially thought that the regular bottling of their Les Clos would be the pick of the two, but now in bottle, the Clos des Hospices seems to have decided that it should be the "guv'nor". I would still afford it another two or three years in bottle.
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Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Bright medium yellow. More powerful but less expressive on the nose today than the "regular" Clos, with nectarine and peach flavors lifted by gingery high tones. Then riper and fatter on the palate but backward, with the nectarine fruit showing superb intensity but less mineral character than the Clos. These vines are planted on deeper soil lower down on the hillside, which explains this wine's fuller body. Firmly structured wine with a phenolic, almost tannic impression on the back end.
Much more closed than the classic Chablis (as well as the 2015 Clos des Hospices) but smells deeper and richer. Fleshy and rather powerful on the palate, with citrus and stone fruit flavors intensified by soil-driven minerality. The extremely long, resounding finish shows a slightly tannic quality. This wine may take even longer to mature than the classic Clos. (The Moreaus also poured me a taste of their 2003 Clos des Hospices from magnum, an utterly distinctive wine with white truffle and olive tapenade aromas and flavors and a remarkable freshness for a hot-vintage wine bottled with just 2.8 grams of acidity. "The wines' tannins protected the 2003s against oxidation," noted Fabien Moreau.)