Tasted in Gevrey with Jane Raphanaud, 16 November 2015.
Domaine Jane Et Sylvain
9 Rue du Chêne
21220 Gevrey-Chambertin
Tel: +33 3 80 34 16 83
A domaine whose labels I was aware of for a long time, indeed, I’ve enjoyed occasional bottles for almost as long – but finally it was possible to pay a visit at 17h30 on an already dark November evening. Sylvain was making some deliveries and when he returned he was helping a friend with something so I think we may have crossed in the street, otherwise I spent my time with Jane.
The domaine began life in 1993, with 1.5 hectares of Gevrey-Chambertin from within the family, though the first vintage with the Jane et Sylvain label was 1999. Today the domaine covers 4.5 hectares, of which 2.5 is owned and the rest a mixture of fermage and metayage contracts.
Jane on the domaine’s philosophy:
“We chose to reduce the amount of chemicals in our vineyards, so it was natural that we turned to organic farming, something which met with our convictions and philosophy of wine-making. We are ‘Bio’ but not ‘biodynamic’ – it’s all manual work, ploughing in the vines and using mainly Bordeaux-mixture treatments, and only exceptionally if there’s a strong pressure will we use anything else – fortunately that’s been relatively rare. We sometimes use some whole cluster in our fermentations but that really depends on the year – there was some in 2014 and 2015.”
This domaine’s main sales markets are France, visitors, and cavistes, but some wine is also imported into the US, Belgium and Denmark…
The wines…
Nice tasty wines here – and if I had some spare cash I’d definitely be tempted to relieve the the domaine of some of their Craipillots magnums!
2014 Bourgogne Passetoutgrains
Prefer to label as BPTG than Coteaux Bourguignone, as the vine area is so vast under that latter label. Vines from below Platière and Champs Franc – about 30% gamay.
Wide fresh, interesting and with quite a pretty nose. Fresh, with nice depth, and a lovely bright width of flavour from the mid-palate. This has a super length for this label…
2014 Bourgogne
From under Les Seuvrées and again Champs Franc.
A wide but discreet nose. Wide, with a weight of appealing texture. Nose opens wider with pretty red fruit. Just a the faintest of padding, but a beautiful bright pinot fruit finish. Lovely and mouth-watering young wine…
2013 Côte de Nuits Villages
Brochon’s Queue de Hareng and a tiny part in Maizières too.
Tight aroma. A little texture of tannin, wide and intense, dark fruit, a super line of intense flavour in the finish. Very good.
2013 Gevrey-Chambertin
About 4 parcels including En Pallud and another in Brochon, Croix des Champs
Tight again. Here is a very good density of flavour, modest tannin texture, then a burst of mid-palate flavour that’s dark and very Gevrey on character.
2014 Gevrey-Chambertin
Wide and open a very pretty nose. Wide, supple, nicely textured, just a faint tannin. Long with a nicely fresh dark fruit dimension. Tasty wine.
2014 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Fontenys
Fresh, fine high tones. Supple, more intense. Not really more tannin – to start! Lovely bright flavour complexity in the finish. You’ll need to wait for the tannin texture to soften – a year or two, but it should be really fine then!
2014 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Craipillot
Only sold in magnum (80€) but this is the last vintage as the parcel has gone to another owner who bought the connected house.
Deep, round nose. Big, some muscle, but not much fat. Really rolls around the tongue with concentration, waves of flavour with a hint of pepper in the finish. Super, but buy them while you can, there’s just one barrel…