Tasted in Gevrey-Chambertin with Dominique Gallois, 31 January 2018.
Domaine Dominique Gallois
9 Rue Mal de Lattre de Tassigny
21220 Gevrey-Chambertin
Tel: +33 3 80 34 11 99
www.domaine-gallois.com
All the wines remain in barrel for the moment, Dominique planning probably April to start bottling.
In 2016 he had a lot of damage across his range of crus in bourgogne – and not just from the frost – ‘gibiers’ (wild animals) finished what the frost left in his 1er cru Goulots – so there is none. His Bourgogne normally delivers 7 barrels but, thanks to frost, there is just one. In the end Dominique describes the quantity as practically 50% of a regular vintage – even his Charmes-Chambertin was also only half a harvest. “2017 was happily a much easier vintage. 2015 and 2016 are really good, but the quantity of both is very lacking.”
Interestingly, because Dominique has a lot of old vines, he told me that he is having some success regrafting vines that have ‘died’ – it only works in the first 1-2 years since the death of the old graft, but regrafting onto the old rootstock he has a success rate of almost 90% – so this is a much better (faster) solution than repicage i.e. replacing each single vine with a new planting.
The wines…
Just a fabulous range in this vintage – and today even more impressive in 2015 – there are many new names to choose in Gevrey, but some of the older ones also deliver impeccable wines!
2016 Bourgogne Rouge
Open, perfumed, with plenty of aromatic density. Great fruit is the first impression then the wine slowly starts to melt its flavours over the palate. A supple, well textured, delicious bourgogne – but there’s not much!
11 parcels worth of fruit
Deep, impressive – really a gorgeous nose. Some wood is here, but there is extra concentration, extra width, and a velvet tannin too. Sweetly, dark-red fruited. Wait a couple of years for the oak to fade, but this is very balanced despite its voluptuous charms. Long too. Florals and precision too – yes!
2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Petits Cazetiers
A more pinched nose, but deep and with lovely precision. Extra width, extra dimensions of flavour, a little mid-palate tannin, but velvet again with faint salinity. Super finish. What a great package!
2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Combe aux Moines
About 0.5 hectares, planted in 1954. Never a high yielding plot – a good year is 8 barrels. This neighbours the last wine but with much bigger ‘plates’ of rock.
A more open nose, wider, with a practically vibrant blend of flowers and fruit – yes! A little extra volume and sweetness, slightly finer tannin, delicate, elegant but broad and complex too. Excellent!
More than 100 year-old vines – planted in 1910.
Ooh! Open, perfumed, beautiful fruit – yes! Volume, layers of expanding, melting, changing flavour. Not a wine of overt power but one of open-ended complexity and perspective – great and a finish of persistent finesse – bravo!
And some 2015s:
Wide and beautifully perfumed. Silky, complex, great villages. Long – really great villages.
Ooh what a big nose – volume, super inviting and faintly floral – yes! Fresher, more direct than the nose suggests, melting fresh flavour, practically a little mineral, complex – great again. Super impressive finishing – just a suggestion of oak in the finish, but it will fade more – great again.
Ooh, deep, vibrant, pure – it’s not a shrinking violet but I can’t bring to mind anything that smells better than this in the last few months! Big but not oppressive, really super-silky texture, fresh but sitting calmly on the palate, melting at the edges, beautifully managed volume – primary but great. Grand vin. Resonances of finishing flavour.