Hudelot-Noellat, a Favorite Producer

What a great lineup! An assortment of nine bottles of various Hudelot-Noellat Cotes de Nuits across vintages. Other than trace TCA in one bottle, these wines were consistently enjoyable, special even, top to bottom. That's hard to pull off in a Burgundy tasting!

This is an affordable [relatively, I mean for Burgundy, so not really but ...] producer everyone of us seems to love.

• 2010 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Vosne-Romanée 89 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée

  A floral, slightly angular nose. Smooth and gentle in body and spice with a premature finish. Approachable, substantive, and unobtrusive, especially as compared to the 2010 Hudelot-Noellat (same vintage and producer) Chambolle-Musigny. Drinking great now -2024

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• 2010 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Chambolle-Musigny 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny

  Spicy dark fruit bouquet and an aggressive palate to match. The texture's nice but the ride's a bit rough for me. Tastes younger and more seductive than the 2010 Hudelot-Noellat (same vintage and producer) Vosne Romanee by its side, and tosses you harder in its waves as well. For me, the appetizer course is too early to lose this much enamel.
  
  Scored this an 89 at the beginning of the night but taking the last sip at the end it had really improved, staying fun and edgy, very long and speedy.
  
  Super for the price, I'd let this settle down and chill a couple more years Decant now or wait. 2021-2030.

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• 2002 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Murgers 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru

  Ready to drink! Incredible bouquet of wild weeds, bugs and bees. Smokey.
  Smooth and flirtatious then exciting structure, with sprinkles of funk and warm iron. A toe-curling wonderful bottle and my WOTN. Catch this at peak! Ideal now-2021 but no reason to expect a steep decline immediately thereafter.
  
  What this had over all the others is that with everything it gives it never skirts off the rails; it gives and gives and never overdoes it in any direction.

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• 2009 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les Murgers 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru

  Nose is gently dark and spicy. Some real depth; nice and round but with suggestions of something a little rotten-ripe on the palate and finish. Something not perfectly complementary. Showing its youth, this calms down and gets less jumpy after some air, and while I wouldn't call this refined, by the end of dinner it had really evolved and gotten sexy in the glass becoming sweeter and growing friendly with its fruit. The oak treatment is beautiful in the way you taste just a kiss of real wood instead of something sweet interfering with the grapes. Let this breathe if you open one now, or hold a couple years. Best 2020-2029

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• 2008 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Clos Vougeot 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru

  Dark as night. Gorgeous, dangerous bouquet of berries, beef blood, and dandelions. High acid that relaxes with air. This is not too young . Totally appealing juicy and nice. A deep clear cherry licorice candy. now-2025

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• 2012 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Vougeot 1er Cru Les Petits Vougeots 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vougeot 1er Cru

  Dirty sexy bouquet. Yow! Those scents changed and changed and changed. Not easy though; a swamp monster. For the first hour, the tannins were a little unripe on the finish and they stayed with you unfortunately. There seemed be be a ceiling to the flavor. But this really opens up and certainly shines with food. Got better and better until the bottle was gone. Wonderful. Let it breathe today or hold a couple of years. 2020-2032

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• 1997 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Romanée St. Vivant

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Romanée St. Vivant Grand Cru

  Campfire; bacon fat. Super complex and fascinating but not subtle. Rich, deep Espresso. Almost Syrah-like. Tomato paste, ground coffee, ground cocoa.
  
  The only bottle we opened early (>1hr before drinking) and maybe we shouldn't have. Remained very intellectual throughout but by the end was no longer desirable. The nose stayed exciting but the fruit started to deteriorate suggesting this is at end of its best years. Drink now.

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• 2002 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaumonts Flawed

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru

  Just slightly corked: only the more tca-sensitive were put off by it. Still showed some round, dark beautiful fruit. But was clamped and inconsistently muted. At times during the night the must seemed to blow off but then it'd be back. I wonder if Sycamore's 12/26/15 bottle had a tad of the same flaw. I bet a clean bottle of this would be great and best enjoyed over the next few years.

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• 2011 Alain Hudelot-Noëllat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru

  Available already, as compared to some of the 'better vintages' explored tonight. Long and sour, with a dip in the middle almost like the '09 Hudelot-Noellat Murgers. Apparently this vintage had a ladybug problem but it seems to have been balanced out by the charactersitics of this special vineyard. Smelling this next to the '97 RSV was fascinating, this clearly so much younger but similarly savory. now-2023.

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Thank you Chris, Jim (who helped source but could not make it), Ross for organizing, and thanks everyone for a special night of great conversation, thoughtful and often hilarious (Errol) commentary, and delicious, memorable wines.

Such consistency says a lot about a producer. Hudelot-Noellat offers wines that shined across the board without ever being heavy handed or over extracted. Pure, memorable wines.