Tasted in Gevrey-Chambertin, 17 November, 2016.
This was the sixth presentation by the Syndicat of Gevrey-Chambertin for new vintage – first done with the 2010s – you will find notes from all of those previous tastings in the back-pages of Burgundy-Report. The format was the same as each year, with a long line of wines disappearing off into the horizon – though, there was just a little fewer wines this year – a mere 94 – of which I managed to bag 82 before the time was up.
Because experience tells me that a number of the grand crus are gone by the time I have finished the ‘junior Gevreys,’ this year I started with the grand crus, took a 20 minute coffee break, and then returned to start the villages. Because of that I will start my report with those grand crus, and then villages followed by 1ers.
What of the wines?
Until this tasting, the 2012s (from recent memory) were the most delicious selection that I could remember. This year, however, has outed those 2012s. The 2015s were uniformly very good samples, nothing volatile and rarely showed more than the faintest hint of reduction. All the wines tasted great, however, they also all tasted different, whether that be from terroir, or just as often, their weight of extraction and/or their weight of barrel influence. I remember many of the 2014s giving the impression of plenty of extraction – that can sometimes be seen here too in 2015, but generally a lighter hand is evident, as the raw materials easily gave up their concentration in 2015.
Effectively, the wines were far from consistent – even from the same cellar – yet, provided that you made allowances for the wine-making choices, they remained, largely delicious, showcasing the super length of flavour that is the forte in this vintage.
Part 1 – 30 Grand Crus…
2015 René Bouvier, Charmes-Chambertin
Deep, clean, faintly oaked. Lush, fresh, wide and tasty. A little licorice in the tasty finish. Yum!
Higher toned, fresher, a very attractive nose. Silky, tasty. Excellent. The best Philippe Charlopin I ever tasted(!) A great finish too, bravo!
2015 Dominique Gallois, Charmes-Chambertin
A wide nose, a little less attractive, more herb and freshness but also more complex. Very nice on the tongue, round but fresh and incisive – I like this very much and it’s a top finish too – lovely!
2015 Humbert Frères, Charmes-Chambertin
More toasty oak – as usual by this producer, but pleasant all the same. Fresher, more lithe, and floral – very fresh and actually beautifully finishing and without oak flavour – really super, and every wine has been totally different so far.
2015 Pierre Naigeon, Charmes-Chambertin
Lighter colour. Freshness, red fruit, faint pyrazine that slowly becomes floral. Plenty of volume and a very attractive strawberry fruit – more tannin texture, but all ripe. Lovely finishing flavour. Again, very different.
2015 Perrot-Minot, Charmes-Chambertin
Tighter but very silky dark fruit. Oak toast in the flavour, more transparency of fruit afterwards, extra long. Not the tastiest today, but super wine for sure.
Also a hint of pyrazine that fades into flowers. Pretty black fruits. Enveloping, fine flavour, faintly saline but sweet fruit – more structure, but the flavour is great. Super Charmes, gorgeously finishing.
More intense fruit, fresh and dark fruit with pretty, redder high tones – really super. Fresh again, a slightly volatile high-toned fruit but delicious for that, with a floral inflection. Adorable!
2015 Perrot-Minot, Mazoyères-Chambertin
A little more modest colour. Wide nose, faintly savoury and toasty. Sweeter fruit, floral fruit like whole-clusters. More stem structure (perhaps) very tasty, and very long finish – a very different beast vs his Charmes…
2015 Henri Richard, Mazoyères-Chambertin
More colour. High toned roses and red fruit (wc) – nice. Lots of structure here and some drying but very fine-grained tannin. Definitely a deeper wine. The finish is very long…
2015 Henri Magnien, Ruchottes-Chambertin
Modest colour a little yeasty nose. Sweet and easy in the mouth. Perhaps not the greatest sample, but the finish is oakily good…
2015 Pierre Damoy, Chapelle-Chambertin
Medium, medium-plus colour. A fine and fresh, half power nose – yet very attractive. Silky, and intense. Plenty of tannin but very little astringency. Also the flavours are a little tight, but potentially a great wine i think…
2015 Drouhin-Laroze, Chapelle-Chambertin
Fresh, a little floral and a lot attractive. Bright, intense, slightly narrow palate – fortunately padding out and becoming more interesting from the mid-palate. Finishing well…
A lovely depth of aroma, but essentially quite tight. Mineral – almost a first! – growing mouth-watering flavour and intensity to match. This gets better and better the longer its in the mouth – bravo!
2015 Cécile Tremblay, Chapelle-Chambertin
Gorgeous perfume, faintly floral dark fruit. The palate is a little oaky, some tannin too, becoming more open and a little chocolatey. A start that disappoints, but a more than encouraging finish – indeed, really a yum finish!
2015 Chantal Remy, Latricières-Chambertin
Pretty high tones and a good red-fruited depth – a little less wide. Sweet, fresh, lithe wine – super flavour – really, really tasty. Different to the rest, but so it should be…
2015 Rossignol Trapet, Latricières-Chambertin
Sweet and deep nose – red fruit. Wide fresh flavour slowly growing with mouth-watering complexity. This sits beautifully on the palate, despite a hint of dryness to the tannin (today…)
2015 Philippe Charlopin, Mazis-Chambertin
The nose is a little unformed. In the mouth the flavour is not at all bad, nicely wrapped red fruit. Pretty wine, but there’s nothing obviously Mazis about it.
2015 JM Guillon, Mazis-Chambertin
High tones, almost mentholated. Fresh, wide, intense, a high-toned fruit here, slowly opening with more barrel notes – perhaps too much in the mid-palate – even for a baby…
2015 Harmand-Geoffroy, Mazis-Chambertin
Fresh but a lot of oak-derived coffee aroma. Despite that, in the mouth this is very enjoyable with good volume and fine, mouth-watering flavours. It tastes great and lasts well despite the immodest oaking.
This is in a change-over mode. When the 2016s will be vinified in Nuits, the label will lose the Maume reference, to become Domaine Tawse.
A pretty freshness over tighter dark fruit. No artificial padding here, mouth-filling flavour, plenty of structure but ripe and with mounting mouth-watering flavour. Simply excellent and without artifice. Bravo!
2015 Tortochot, Mazis-Chambertin
A little lighter colour. Super depth of aroma, a little dark oak at the base. Fresh, muscular, quite silky before that tannin rises. It’s a fresher fruit here, despite a little fat. More oak in the finish, but this is showing really quite well. The nicest Tortochot that I’ve had at one of these Roi Chambertin events!
2015 Bruno Clair, Clos de Bèze
Much lighter colour than most. A deep nose, with some modest oak inflections, warm red fruit. In the mouth this is much more demonstrative than the nose or colour; complex, layered and really very tasty – excellent. Yum!
Pretty red fruit. Big in the mouth, concentrated, complex, a little more raucous structure but what flavour – fabulous and bravo!
High-toned, vibrant a little more volatile today. Super in the mouth, both volume, complexity and flavour – gorgeously flavoured – bravo!
2015 Pierre Damoy, Chambertin
Clearly a width of compelling whole-cluster rose petals and nice red fruit. Big – really a lot of volume – plenty of fresh flavour. Certainly not a wine of elegance today, but tons of fun!
Really quite a modest top layer of fine textured red fruit, but hinting at a more mineral depth. Big in the mouth vs the nose, without clear points of focus to start, but really a whirlwind on complexity – I think there’s a little more gas complicating the effect. But it’s easy today for me to say that this will be a wow!
Here is a little reduction – actually the first so-far. Wide, bright, beautiful focus and intensity – wow! This is a super thing – less obviously complex today, but its a baby…
Ooh, now that’s a beautiful nose – wide, complex, some freshness too. Ooh! – that’s big and impressive – high-toned but absolutely gorgeous flavours. Simply a great wine I think!
2015 Rossignol-Trapet, Chambertin
High toned, a growing bright red fruit below. Large scaled. A big wine here, lots of mouth-watering complexity. Really super wine, really…
The 37 villages wines…
2015 Denis Berthaut Clos des Chézeaux
There’s a nice point of herby freshness here. Much fuller and sweeter than the nose suggests. Complex and really very enjoyable. – coffee in the finish? Or maybe that’s my coffee!
2015 René Bouvier Les Jeunes Rois
A very faintly sulfutic nose. In the mouth more open and relaxed with good red fruit. No faults here, tasty, a little more rustic tannin – but probably only today…
2015 Alain Burguet Mes Favourites
A little high-toned, perhaps too high-toned today. Wide, layered flavour, again rather high-toned flavour and plenty of tannin below. But this could turn out very good.
Ooh, that’s pretty, high-toned but pure fruit. Not the widest, but really good depth of fruit flavour, mouth-watering and interesting. Yum!
2015 Chevalier (Ladoix)
Deep, dark and a little saline, otherwise tight. Big framed. Fresh tasty fruit, fine depth. I’m impressed, the best from this domaine I ever tasted!
2015 Philippe Charlopin Vieilles Vignes
A deep nose, some oak but a pleasing red-fruited top note too. Wide and fresh, slowly mouth-watering. Dark but delicious wine. Yum!
2015 Bruno Clair
Wide and fine red-fruited nose. A little high-toned today, but with a modest oak backing and sweet finish, this is really quite attractive.
2015 Drouhin-Laroze
A dark nose, a little tight. Fresh, great volume, good complexity and a slowly growing fresh fruit in the mid-palate. Plenty of tannin but a nice fresh and complex aspect about this wine. yum!
Deep, vibrant and intense fruit. Narrow, but fresh and intense, a hint of padding at the core – really a brilliant line of flavour. Excellent.
Deep and exciting. Fresh, muscular, layered. Depth of mid-palate flavour. Bravo! This reminds me of the great 05!
2015 Heresztyn-Mazzini Vieilles Vignes Les Songes
Redder fruit, a less muscled nose, no less interesting. Not so structural and more tannic, but a wide and easy complexity – very different. To wait for, but very good!
2015 Heresztyn-Mazzini Clos Village
Relatively modest colour. Red fruited, freshness but less overtly structured. A growing intensity and really a fine flavour – lovely!
2015 Jerôme Galeyrand En Blllard
A bright nose, pretty red fruit of precision. Fine intensity, a fine complexity of high-toned fruit. This is very lovely, and a very different in style too.
Hmm, even nicer, higher toned, faintly smoky complexity. Really complex and wide palate, some salinity too. But ripe, but fresh but brilliant.
This nose is deeper, and darker (like the colour) – just a brilliant invitation. Full, wide, and super complex 1er cru quality – easily!
Deep, dark, perhaps faintly mineral – nice. This is intense, big wine, freshness of dark fruit. Simply excellent – bravo!
2015 Harmond-Geoffroy Vieilles-Vignes
Deep and dark, some coffee aroma. But here is a nice line and sweetness of dark fruit – the oak shows itself in the finishing flavours, but not unattractively. Super!
Dark, like the colour of his cars. Muscular, wide, mouth-filling fresh flavour. The flavour is really changing, and certainly oak-inflected, but this has a great long finish. Well done!
2015 Humbert Frères Vieilles Vignes
Deep and dark but with fresh, higher tones. This is not bad in the mouth, there’s fine texture and a meltingly good flavour. Not as long as some, but the up-front part is really excellent!
2015 Jane et Sylvain
Pretty red fruited nose, a whole-cluster impression too – very inviting. Fills the mouth, faintly grainy but lots and lots of flavour here – massively different in style, but lovely.
2015 Pierre Labet Vieilles Vignes
A fine and wide, slightly dark nose with more limited depth. Great texture here before the oak begins to exert some strength. Lovely red fruit, a little oaked. A great sweet and attractive finish – very yum!
2015 Philippe Livera Clos Village
This nose is fresh above, toasty below. Darkly flavoured, toast on the plate too – but a freshness that grows. For my palate this will need a little bottle time, there is certainly some extraction here, yet but the weight and balance are very fine with super energy.
Hmm, dark fresher and cleaner nose – no obvious oak but a big invitation. Despite some obvious extraction, this has round, mouth-filling freshness and complexity. Simply super villages bravo! Plenty of long tannin texture too…
2015 Magnien Vieilles Vignes
Easy, high-toned fruit. Big in the mouth, freshly fruited but with plenty of structure too. The finish is super. A modest start but a great finish.
2015 Maume by Tawse
A red but reductive nose. Not the biggest in any particular dimension but really well crafted and very tasty indeed.
Fresh and dark. Wow this is big, fresh and sweetly complex. This tastes really super – bravo! Some oak in the finish, but I can’t bring myself to complain!
2015 Thierry Mortet
High tones, faint herbs, very red but pretty fruit. Good scale, not bad texture and really very tasty red fruit in the mid-palate almost a freshness of redcurrant. Quite tasty!
2015 Philippe Naddef En Songe
A nicely vibrant nose of dark red fruit. Large scaled, a little tannic texture but also a growing and bright fruit mid-palate. This gets better and better. Ending very yum.
Hmm – that’s very attractive, dark, faintly salty – yes! Big, great!
2015 Chantal Remy, Les Seuvrées
A deep nose, high-toned and intense – it needs to calm a little. Also on the palate this has good shape but the fruit has a little attack that needs to calm…
2015 Henri Richard les Tuileries
A fine and dark fruited nose – some delicacy too. Hmm, this is clearly super, lots of concentration, lots of mouth-watering dark fruit. The style of the wines seems to change a little – this being much darker with extra extraction – but this is fine.
A fine dark nose with a little salinity. Big, a little fleshy, very fine texture and lots of dark intensity. Really getting bigger and bigger. Bravo!
A fine bright and dark fruited nose. In the mouth, really good volume. This tastes excellent. Gorgeous actually – bravo!
Also a very attractive nose – dark notes – but complex, fresh and inviting. Bigger, more intensity but also a little more mouth-watering complexity. Simply perfect Gevrey!
A good and attractive nose, quite silky actually, with plenty of dark complexity. Big and intense, lots of fresh complexity. Excellent.
2015 Tortochot les Corvées
A nice freshness over sweet dark fruit – inviting. Big, round, a little deeper and a little reduced too, but very good length. Lots of potential.
High tones, floral fruit. Big and round. Lots of intensity. This is perhaps a little too fruited, faintly with licorice too, but in the end I simply want another glass. Enough said! Yum!
The ‘mere’ 15 1er Crus…
High toned a little minty. Big, sweet, a hint oak aided but really this has super drive. Lovely, long and delicious.
A little tight but there is some very pretty high-toned complexity. Big, layered and really beautifully complex. This is simply excellent.
2015 Bernard Bouvier, Fonteys
Deep and dark a little oaky but with lots of depth. Big, fresh and absolutely gorgeous. This is so tasty wine – I wouldn’t guess from where, but I probably wouldn’t really be caring!
Lighter colour, fresh red fruit though. Actually so big and intense and tasty – really surprising after the modest nose. Really super, super, bravo…
A fresh top note, good depth – pretty if not exceptional. A little tight but a lovely mid-palate definition and growing intensity. This tastes better and better and better, lovely, modestly complex but beautifully delicious.
2015 Drouhin-Laroze, Au Closeau
Fresh and very attractive dark fruit. A very fine, slightly textured tannin and really mouth-watering flavour of quite some substance. Super wine.
2015 Pierre Gelin, Clos Prieur
A little extracted impression to the fruit today. Fresh. Bright, certainly intense. Actually despite the nose this is really very, very impressive. It needs time to calm the fruit intensity – but that’s no bad thing.
2015 Harmand-Geoffroy, Lavaux St.Jacques
A deep nose, some oak inflection here. Bold, bright flavoured, lots of tannin, backed by plenty of oak. A wine that will need some time for clarity – but the substance remains impressive.
Pretty red fruit that redolent of whole-cluster. Big, fresh, indeed with plenty of fresh scale in the mouth. Faintly floral in the mid-palate too. A very young wine. But with super potential.
2015 Humbert Frères Poissenot
Last year the sample was completely reduced. This year, there are fresh top notes, though rather stewed fruit underneath. Fresh and with good volume. Really this gets slowly better in the mouth. But it’s not showing so great today…
2015 Jane et Sylvain, Les Fontenys
Fresh fruit, almost suggesting oranges. Mouth-filling, good layers (waves) of flavour. This is really quite good, getting better and better as you head to the mid-palate. Very tasty!
This nose is very nice and pretty, floral too. Big flavoured, super young wine here. This is excellent, nicely textured too. Achingly long. Bravo!
2015 Dominique Gallois, Combe aux Moines
Fresh dark fruit – nice. Big, round, lots of flavour complexity, some tannin too, but really the fruit on this sample needs time to calm. But very tasty wine despite that – en attend!
Fine, complex, very pretty high tones – this producer’s wines are showing really superbly today. Big, sweet, but fresh and complex and mobile – the flavours slowly melting over the palate, changing and very long. Super!
Pretty, dark and complex – lovely. Big, fresh, growing volume, lots of complexity and real intensity. Super!