Head south from Dijon, and the urban sprawl begins to make-way for vineyards in the area of Chênove.

Very soon, and on your right-hand side, you will meet the first sign-post to a well-recognised appellation, this is Marsannay.

Continue south and you meet Fixin and then comes Brochon – a place you may be forgiven for not having heard of, because its most decent wines are typically sold under the label of its more famous neighbour from down the road – Gevrey-Chambertin.

Like most of the double-barrelled village (appellation) names, its wine is usually discussed in a shortened form – Gevrey – so what should you expect from a bottle from Gevrey?

Let’s ask Kermit…

Nice one Kermit! Already itching to get at your corkscrew? Relax, first take in a little of the village’s topography.

Imagine a great rock hillside, cracked on one side and then, over centuries, wedged, slowly teazed apart and weathered, this is the Combe de Lavaux.

Over the centuries there has been a gradual ‘alluvial wash’ of rock and mineral-laden material from the mouth of the Combe, fanning out to cover a narrow band of sloping ground before delivering its material into the plateau. Right in the centre of this ‘fan’ lies the village of Gevrey-Chambertin though until 1847, when by the royal decree of King Louis-Philippe it was allowed to append the name of it’s famous grand cru, it was known as Gevrey-en-Montagne.

A satellite view of Gevrey-Chambertin, the Combe de Lavaux to the left. Link

With over 3,000 inhabitants the town of Gevrey is relatively large but seems split into three main areas; there’s the busy collection of houses, businesses and domaines set on the RN74, then, higher-up there’s the area near the Marie with shops and cafés, finally, and higher still, there’s a bunch of older dwellings near the 13th century church and the Château de Gevrey – pictured in the introduction above – the old centre of the village.

I well remember the cutting remark of the (non-French) wife of a well regarded Gevrey vigneron, who, when asked where in Gevrey-Chambertin the community centre actually was, tersely remarked “wouldn’t there first need to be a sense of community(?)” – Ouch!

There are (of-course) a range of styles and qualities from the ~540 hectares under cultivation:

In the commune of Gevrey, 405 hectares take the appellation of ‘Geverey-Chambertin’, 20% of which are the 26 ‘Gevrey-Chambertin’ 1er Crus. In addition, there are ~85 hectares containing the 9 grand crus of Gevrey – each of which are entitled to their own appellation. Just to the north of Gevrey lie 100 hectares in the previously mentioned village area of Brochon, ~51 of these hectares go into the Gevrey total – many are excellent – the remaining 49 hectares have the Côte de Nuits-Villages appellation.

It’s easier to see here.

The various classifications are uncharacteristically (for Burgundy) well separated, and it’s all down to geology; north of the Combe (and the village) lie a majority of the twenty six premier cru vineyards, they are planted on Bajocian Ostria Acuminata marls mixed with red alluvia and slope wash – to you and me, that’s red clay soil. There are no grand crus here. To the south of the village lie the nine grand crus, planted on hard Bajocian crinoidal limestone with shallow soils – still characteristically red. Satellite premier crus can be found here, clinging to the coat-tails of some grand cru appellations. The quality drops off quickly as you head east into the alluvial plain i.e. towards the RN74 and the railway line beyond; the soil is still red, but you have to go much, much deeper to reach the bedrock.

As with all large communes, quality is uneven – an unknown label of Gevrey-Chambertin is as dangerous as any from Puligny, Vosne or Pommard – the label of a known grower is its passport of authenticity. Put another way – variability equals poor bottles. Much of this variability is down to the large amount of vines planted on the ‘wrong’ side of the RN74 on the heavy clay of the flat alluvial plain. Occasional areas such as Bourée’s Clos de La Justice can please, but much of the rest disappoint. With the exception of Chorey – where expectations are anyway lower – Gevrey is the the only area with such a volume of communal classed vineyard beyond the RN74.

Whilst there may be the occasional vine of chardonnay or pinot blanc in any vineyard, officially, only one vine type may be planted and that is pinot noir. Things were less regulated at one time though:

Communal or ‘villages’ Gevrey-Chambertin follows on the coat-tails of Pommard as one of the most variable locations for good wine. For Pommard, much of the lesser quality can be avoided by making sure that you concentrate on bottles showing an actual lieu-dit or climat on the label – for two reasons that is less of a solution for Gevrey-Chambertin:

1. There are 69 potential ‘climat’ names that could appear on a label for villages Gevrey – who can know them all?
2. No other appellation has as much villages classified land – Meursault comes close with 305 hectares, but Gevrey has almost 360, 310 of which in Gevrey plus another 50 in Brochon! It’s also not just the vast area that’s the problem, rather the inappropriate position – or rather classification – of a large portion of those vines on the eastern side of the R.N.74 that would be better classed as ‘bourgogne’.

The take-home message is, when looking for communal Gevrey-Chambertin, your mantra must be: reputation of producer, reputation of producer, reputation of producer. The addition of a climat name on a label may instil a small addition of confidence – but not much given the diversity – or rather the suitability of many of those climats. I include at the end of this page a table of as many lieu-dits (or named climats) as I could find – though it’s only 64 of the (apparently) 69 approved names. There are a number of climats which you may recognise as premier crus e.g. La Bossière, Clos Prieure and La Romanée, these are indeed also premier crus, but some part of all these vineyards is only classified as ‘communal’.

Let’s split the communal vines into 3:

1. Those vines close to the Grand Crus to the south of the village
2. Those vines in and to the west of the village from the Combe and into Brochon
3. Those vines in the east of the village and beyond

Communal appellation Aux Ételois to the left and grand cru Griotte-Chambertin to the right

1. Those vines close to the Grand Crus to the south of the village
These typically lie at the base of the slopes and in sight of, if not always kicking-distance of the grand crus. Some (see above) are separated from grand crus by only the simplest of walls or paths. Typically softer and more approachable than their grand and premier cru neighbours you can find many worthy wines. The R.N.74 runs quite close to the grand crus, so there are a number of plantings also on the other side of the road. I would say that they are more successful than those further to the north and east of the village discussed in point 3 below. In the case of recommended producers I include them in brackets after the name of the climat:

• To the west of the R.N.74, Bel Air (Charlopin-Parizot, Taupenot-Merme), Carougeot (Frédéric Esmonin), Les Cercueils, Champs Chenys (Roty), Clos Prieur Bas (Frédéric Esmonin, René Leclerc, Patrice Rion), Aux Échezeaux (Fourrier, Michel Magnien), Les Épointures (a large % of Dugat-Py’s Coeur du Roi, Ponsot’s Cuvée de l’Abeille), Aux Ételois (Maume), Jouise (Frédéric Esmonin), En Pallud (Maume), and Vignes Belles
• To the east of the R.N.74: La Burie, Le Fourneau, Pressonnier, Reniard (Burguet), Roncevie and Les Seuvrées (Fougeray de Beauclair, Michel Magnien)

2. Those vines in and to the west of the village from the Combe and into Brochon. These vines start in the mouth of the Combe de Lavaux and follow the line of the hillside into Brochon. When compared to the vineyards located around the grand crus and certainly the those to the east of Gevrey, here you will find more structure and often more density – they tend to need more time in the cellar – but that’s not a negative. Certainly good wines can be found here, even the vines located in the village can give a real and intersting expression of pinot noir.

• Billard (Burguet), La Bossière, Le Carré Rougeaud, Champ, En Champs (Geantet-Pansiot, Camille Giroud), Les Champs Perrières (Fourrier’s Gevrey VV), Clos des Chézeaux (Berthaut), Combe du Dessus, Combe de Lavaut, Le Créot, Les Croisettes, Les Évocelles (Louis Boillot, Charlopin-Parizot, Dugat-Py, Vougeraie), Les Évoselles, Les Gueulepines, Les Jeunes Rois (Geantet Pansiot), Les Journaux, La Marie, Meix-Bas, En Motrot (older bottles of Denis Mortet), La Romanée, En Songe, Aux Vellé, Villages, En Vosne

3. Those vines in the east of the village and beyond
There are some interesting and tasty wines produced from vines within the village; Miex des Ouches, Clos Tamisot and La Brunelle spring to mind, there is at least some small slope and bedrock here. Move further east, and in particular over the R.N.74, onto the flat, deep-soiled alluvial flood plain and we clearly have a topography that goes against everything established for fine burgundy. It’s not just that the soil is deep and rich, it’s that the limestone is missing and the minerals from the rock are so diluted – though the soil mainly retains the iron-red colour found on the slopes. Here you would need a strong pair of binoculars to find ‘neighbouring’ premier or grand cru sites! About the only exception I can make is for the vines of La Justice; Clos de la Justice in the case of Pierre Bourée, and a number passable bottlings of La Justice by Burguet, Charlopin-Parizot and Vougeraie.

The problem is that you will rarely find any of the following climat names on bottles, rather the label will likely say only ‘Gevrey-Chambertin’. The vineyards I include in this group are:

• To the west of the R.N.74: Baraques, La Brunelle (Roty), Charreux, Combe du Bas, Aux Corvées, Les Marchais (Faiveley), Mévelle (Gelin), Pince-Vin, Sylvie, and Clos Tamisot (Damoy)
• To the east of the R.N.74 there is a massive 115 hectares that include: Champ Franc, Les Crais, Craite-Paille, Creux Brouillard, Croix des Champs, Grands Champs, Grands Rayes, La Justice (Bourée, Burguet, Charlopin-Parizot, Vougeraie), Es Murots (Frantin), La Platière (Guyon[Vosne]) and Puits de la Baraque

If you don’t want to play the climat spotting game, then let me suggest a few producers of communal Gevrey to look out for:

• The ‘Old Hands’: Denis Bachelet, Bruno Clair, Fourrier, Gallois, Armand Rousseau
• Some ‘recently improved’: Louis Boillot, Sylvie Esmonin, Humbert Frères, Lignier-Michelot, Vougeraie

Appendix of Gevrey Cummunal Climats

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