Welcome to Week 2 of the WineBerzerkers Weekly Appellation Tasting!
We had a great turnout for Week 1 with Marsannay and Fixin.
This week, Week 2, we will be focusing on the wines of Gevrey-Chambertin (including Brochon). If you can identify your village level as coming from Brochon, it would be great to post up the info.
As before, Cru level is of no importance. Post away with your village through Grand Cru notes.
Please include any information, suggestions, and questions into the thread.
To add a bit of background, it might be of interest to view this link by Bill Nanson on the village. I don’t intend to only rely on Bill’s work. However, there is much info gathered and wikis seem to do their fair share of referencing the profile as well.
There has been much discussion here and on eBob about Jean-Marie Fourrier’s 2001’s not aging well. I first heard disturbing reports about these wines about 2.5 to 3 years ago. So far, I have been lucky I guess, as I have not had a bad experience personally, but the reports of premature aging have been from some very experienced and very skilled tasters. My last go at the '01 CSJ was in January 2008, and that bottle delivered an undeniably grand cru experience from first sniff to last drop.
Fourrier 2001 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St. Jacques. “FS” cork. With trepidation, this bottle was Audouzed for 10 hours after a 1 oz. pour (which was tight but sound when tasted in the morning, after 30 min. of air). A light but healthy ruby, no bricking. Sweet and fresh perfume of cherries, damp earth, and wild flowers… no VA, no sous-bois, no leather. Spicy and stony in the mouth and not especially intense or concentrated by CSJ standards. This lingers on, earthy and minerally, a subtle finish with sneaky length. At the very end, it becomes autumnal and even a bit wooly, so I’ll consume my last bottle within 12-18 months. Outstanding, but not up to the level of the Exceptional bottle from 2008.
Looks like Fourrier will be getting us started this week…
2007 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru ‘Clos St Jacques’ Domaine Fourrier:
Beautiful ruby color, with an immediately open and rich nose. Fragrant dark cherries mixed with a clean soil tone that I’ve come to expect from his expression of CSJ, one of my favorite vineyards for its depth and beautiful dark and red fruits. Tannin feel is moderate and pleasing in texture - almost polished, a Fourrier trademark. Acid is in check, showing just a hint less than his Gevrey-Chambertin village cuvée yet ample enough to balance the ripe, elegant fruit. The nose just keeps giving, with the mouthfeel coming across as seamless, precise and altogether enjoyable. This is of course too young, and I have consumed an embarrassing amount of these already. Will I ever be able to try one of these with age on them? Jean-Marie is simply making some of the most interesting wines in this region, shoulder to shoulder with Rousseau.
As a side note, I have had more success with his Gevrey-Chambertin village than with those from Rousseau and Bachelet. Rousseau and Bachelet both come across more muted in more recent vintages of 06 and 07. With all 3 of these producers, these vintages are far, far too young to get a proper read on, yet quite difficult to not check in on.
2006 Domaine Marc Roy Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Prieur- France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin (5/9/2010)
I think this is closed down. No fruit apparent, just lots of soil and iron. Some acidity and noticeable tannin. Pretty good length. Clearly meant for aging and should be better in 5+ years (hopefully). (86 pts.)
R. Groffier 2001 Grevrey-Chambertin village. Once all the relatives cleared out on mother’s day, I needed something to calm down, and I figured since it was GC week, I’d rumble around in the wine cabinet here at home and find a Gevrey. Litterally the first bottle I laid my hand on was Groffier’s 2001 GC village. Decent producer, decent vintage that’s drinking well now, right village, why not?
Nice medium purple color fading a bit around the edge to a color just this side of dusky rose. Really lovely nose. A light touch of sous bois, but mostly floral smells and red fruit. But the nose promises more than the wine can deliver ultimately. It’s frankly a bit thin on the palate. Elegant, light on it’s feet, but still thin. It has more red and black fruit flavors and frankly is more Chambolle in style than Gevrey (which isn’t terribly surprising given who made it.) Nice enough, but not something I’d seek out. More of the quality I’d expect from a Bourgogne Rouge than a village wine, albeit perhaps with a touch more elegance. I’m not big on handing out points, but if I saw this wine rated much more than an 85 or 86, I’d think that they were drinking a better bottle than I am.
2001 Dupont-Tisserandot Gevrey-Chambertin
I’ve enjoyed half a case worth of these over the past few years. They were a little unpredictable, possibly due to the vagaries of PLCB storage and handling. 4 or so have been right on the money and this last bottle was fortunately in that group.
Opens with black olive tinged funk that blows off. Loads of earthy mushroom and almost Bordeaux-like whiffs of aged tobacco. The nose and palate took a few hours to shed the funk and reveal more subtle sous bois with well integrated black and sour cherry fruit. The attack is accented by tart high toned esters. Plenty of balanced acidity and a suave midpalate. There’s a relaxed persistence and smooth finish. Great with poached King Salmon. Should’ve bought a case.
1999 Serafin Pere & Fils Gevrey-Chambertin Le Fonteny
Well…CT notes all seem quite positive, so I thought I’d give this another try. Quite dark ruby. Nose promising with licorice, black raspberry, earth, florals. Still very oaky on the palate (the reason I was not enthusiastic the last time) with dark fruits, anise, blackberry, and leathery notes. Astringent, rather short finish with only modest acidity and fine-grained tannins. Not a fan. Perhaps less than perfect provenance, since two out of two bottles have shown like this. Not rated.
“Oh my.” Now say it again, this time in the manner of Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) in Bull Durham… “Oh MY.”
Domaine Serafin Pere & Fils 1988 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Cazetiers. Beautiful ruby color, just a hint of amber at the rim. Lovely pinot bouquet, cherry, earth, forest floor, plus florals and a bit of sweaty horse that blew off quickly. Complex sous-bois and red fruit in the mouth with intensity and cut. No oak intrusion in this beauty. Lingers on, stony at the end, terrific grip and detail. A clasic Cazetiers for now and the next 7 to 10 years. Outstanding.
My last bottle, purchased upon release, and I wish I’d bought 6 or 12 instead of just 3 bottles.
Medium ruby, stylish but medium-powered nose of faint spice and bright fruit, balanced body with good flavor leading to a pure mineral-infused finish. Gets better and better over the course of the evening, with the finish really dominating. Terrific purity in a stylish package. I like this a lot.
Not tasted recently, but from my last tasting 2010 and 2009:
CHAMBERTIN 2007 / Armand ROUSSEAU
full saturated, excellent forthcoming fruit, highly elegant, floral and deep, great complexity, medium body, 93p
CHAMBERTIN 2007 / Gabriel TORTOCHOT
lots of kirsch, quit full-bodied, structured, even a bit rustic, but intense and even powerful, slightly less complex (than former wine), good , 91+p
CHAMBERTIN 1988 / Gabriel TORTOCHOT
mature ruby, full of red berries, sweet with just the right amount of acidity, highly elegant, but not that powerful, nevertheless very enjoyable, 92p
I hope it is interesting enough … maybe I will open a Gevrey-bottle this week in addition.
Here’s a note from my first-ever Truchot, which I drank on Saturday night at the Inn at Little Washington (which has a pretty decent and very well priced stash of Truchot on the list, among other Burgundy gems). I may be overrating this wine because of it’s stunning nose, but so be it–this one really resonated with me. This wine is remarkably elegant and silky for a Gevrey.
1999 Truchot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes Vieilles Vignes
My first Truchot and what a beauty. The wine’s translucent, shimmering ruby color tips you off immediately that this isn’t your typical blockbuster wine. The totally profound nose is a penetrating mix of red fruits, spice, and a bit of funk. Indeed, this is one of those wines that lasts a long time on the table, because just sticking your nose in the glass is so satisfying. The palate is almost weightless, the way great Champagne can be, but at the same time intense and deep. And the fresh red fruits and lacy texture recall Chambolle. At the same time, despite how marvelous this wine is, it does not have the mid-palate intensity or cavernous depth that you expect from top-tier grand cru Burgundy. This is not a slight, though, as one should expect premier crus to perform like premier crus. And if that is the criterion, this wine is near-perfect. I suspect that the palate on this will become more expressive with time, but there’s no shame in popping one of these now. 94
Thanks Gerhard, but it does get a little tricky… like when the “s” is sometimes prounounced in Les…(layz) if followed by a word starting with a vowel or soft h. Anyone care to try phonetically spelling the rest?
Ryan,
Thanks for the note, that sounds exactly like a Truchot! In most vintages the Combottes is very near the quality of his Clos de la Roche and Charmes-Chambertin Grands Cru. At a tasting last year of Truchot 01s and 04s, I thought the '01 Combottes was the WOTN, even surpassed the Grands Cru as far as how it was drinking that night. Glad to see the '99 is drinking well. Wish I had more left from this spectacular vintage…
it is important to note that when pronouncing French, there should not be the same pauses within a word. There should be a more fluid, unbroken pushing of the word. In other words, multiple syllable words shouldn’t have deliberate breaks.
Yipes. Let’s wait a couple of weeks to open up that can of worms. “Échezeaux”, the appellation looks like it’s pronounced differently from the similar word in the commune name “Flagey-Echézeaux”.
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