Goisot - Gondonne 2019

Actually, this was supposed to be a two-bottle post, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. However, the first truly porous cork of my wine-drinking career quickly put a damper on that plan. Eventually, though, it had to happen that we would encounter such a terrible cork. After all, over the past few years, more than just one or two bottles of wine have been delivered to our doorstep by the mail carrier. And the piece of tree bark in the red wine was truly the worst piece of tree bark so far. By a wide, very wide margin. Already leaking in the box, completely soaked through, visible channels throughout, and a wonderful vinegar smell that didn’t spare the contents of the bottles either. Shit happens. Of course, it’s a shame about the wine, but seeing a cork like that was also quite interesting. What remained for the post was the Chardonnay. Its vines grow on limestone in the Gondonne vineyard, which is Burgundy, but in the Côtes d’Auxerre appellation southwest of Chablis, somewhat away from the rest. I first encountered Domaine Goisot in my favorite wine podcast, WRINT Flaschen. That’s been almost exactly three years now, and since then we’ve had Goisot wines on the table every now and then, and it’s been really nice every time. This off-the-beaten-path location also has the advantage that the wines are still relatively affordable. The Goisots have been farming their vineyards organically since the 1990s and now biodynamically. The wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation and is then aged in used wooden barrels.

At first, there’s hardly any fruit on the nose. Instead, lots of creaminess, herbs, and some stone. Then comes mango and a few light nuts. The better half says cashew, and since nuts only serve as a basis for pesto for me, I gladly rely on her sense of taste. This is again one of those wines that are incredibly deep and complex and at the same time very restrained. Being loud in a very quiet way is also a quality though. And that’s how it tastes too. It has real drive, structure, and power, yet the Chardonnay is soft, velvety, and harmonious. I’m sure the wine is still at the beginning of its development. But it’s already so round, so balanced, that nothing is missing or you would need to wait.

There was quite a lot going on, so we actually forgot that the wine was waiting in the fridge. Every glass stopper that comes our way as a bottle closure is kept and can then serve as a refrigerator stopper for such bottles. That’s actually quite practical. And also rather rarely porous. So we skip day two and go straight to the third evening with this bottle, which was open but sealed with glass over the two days. For many wines, this is the day when a lot happens. Not so here. Because really, not much has changed. As expected, the wine smells a bit more mature. There’s more structure and more stone fruit and less exoticism. It’s still restrained, and there are no edges. This is more of a structural wine than a fruity one, which lives mainly from the mouthfeel and not so much from the smell. On the back of the tongue, a mixture of apple peel and core, a lot of acidity in the middle of the tongue, and the feeling of salty sea air on the lips. I really enjoy that.

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