Visit Cécile Tremblay, tasting the 2018s from cask

I have been very lucky regularly to visit many of the top-end producers in Burgundy. But from time to time difficulties arise and years pass without securing a visit.

This is one of the visits on which I have been waiting for several years. And finally I got the chance to visit the magnificent Cécile Tremblay!

A short background on Cécile Tremblay

Cécile Tremblay began her endeavour in 2002-03 as she took over some of the family vineyards and started to produce wine.

The vineyards originally come from the Edouard Jayer estate – the uncle of Henri Jayer. Edouard Jayer was a cooper in Nuits-Saint-Georges before WW1 and Cécile Tremblay’s great-grandfather. In 1921, he married Esther Fournier, who came from a vigneron family, and they established their estate based on the vineyards from the Fournier inheritance, then expanded their holdings over the years.

In 1950, the vineyards was shared amongst their 5 children. Renée – the youngest daughter – kept her vineyards, but they were rented out in metayage (share-cropping). Renée’s only daughter, Marie Annick, and her husband then expanded the estate while still keeping it leased to metayage until 2002.

After her studies, their daughter Cécile decided to take over the family vineyards – and this was the birth of the delightful Domaine Cécile Tremblay in early 2003.

As mentioned, the vineyards prior to 2003 were leased to other growers in metayage, but Cécile was able to take back 3 ha in the beginning, and will eventually take back more as the metayage agreements expire.

The extravagant 2018s

Cécile Tremblay makes intense and vivacious wines – they are quite extravagant with rich mid-palate fruit and a lovely, generous intensity. The 2018s have this same character – and this gives them lovely density and drive.

Cécile has managed to create finely balanced wines in 2018 – wines with rich generosity, yet also a fresh vivid balance that indicates something great is brewing here in the long run.

These are definitely generous wines, but with a sufficient cool side – relatively dark-fruited – yet with some vivid red fruit that creates tension and energy in the wines and spices up the darker fruits.

The crucial viticulture – fresh and organic

The approach at Domaine Cécile Tremblay is organic and biodynamic – the domaine was certified organic in 2005, and in 2016 the biodynamic certification was attained.

This is very important information in 2018, where the level of acidity and the pH of the wines is rather modest generally. To me there is no doubt from the countless wines I have tasted that biodynamic viticulture often leads to fresher and more defined wines – sometimes even measurably so – and this can make a crucial difference in a vintage like 2018.

The Cécile Tremblay 2018s are generous and voluptuous, yet fresh and with lovely vivacity and nerve, which is doubtlessly a result of the viticulture.

Tasting Notes for this producer

• Cécile Tremblay, Echezeaux 2014 May 24, 2016
• Cecile Tremblay, Echezeaux 2012 May 19, 2014
• Cecile Tremblay, Echezeaux 2011 May 18, 2014
• Cecile Tremblay, Morey-Saint-Denis Tres Girard 2011 March 6, 2014
• Cécile Tremblay, Vosne Romanee Vieilles Vignes 2007 January 28, 2012

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