Berthaut-Gerbet – 2016

18.12.2017billn

Tasted in Fixin with Amélie Berthaut, 22 November 2017.

Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet
9 Rue Noisot
21220 Fixin
Tel: +33 3 80 52 45 48
www.domaine-berthaut.com

Amélie on 2017:
Everyone is happy in the Côte d’Or. I started in 2013 but it’s the first time I saw what a ‘normal’ harvest was. We didn’t get close to maximum yields but we only had one tank that was empty. It was great for the morale as we haven’t anything to sell. We even asked ourselves if we should stay closed for the ‘Caves Ouvert!’

Amélie on 2016:
​The season in the vines was so difficult because everything grew so fast – but never straight! It was like the vines were never in great shape. The frost made sure we didn’t have too many grapes, though it didn’t take away anything from the quality. There was hail here too, exactly 1 month after the frost, not everywhere but it made a difference. We have lots of small parcels, some badly frosted, others not so – still it was a half-volume harvest – like in 2015 – but that was just the drought. I didn’t taste the wines for 6 months as it was really a year, more than a vintage, to forget, but now…

The wines…

It’s still too early for Amélie to enjoy the fruit of her hard labour in 2016 – it was a traumatic vintage it seems – but it’s another seriously great result. Be very happy if you get the chance to buy any of these wines!

 

2016 Bourgogne Les Prielles
The only wine bottled – in September just before harvesting – les Prielles in Fixin – one parcel
Modest volume of aroma but there’s fine clarity of pretty red fruit. Fresh, bright, beautifully transparent. Not a wine of weight indeed weightless and delicious with almost no overt tannin.
2016 Fixin
From foudre, an assembly of 4 parcels, racked about 1 month ago…
Deeper colour. Also a modest intensity nose but again with crystalline dark-red fruit. A little more intensity wrapped in sucrosity. This is absolutely delicious, only slowly do you realise that there’s a little tannic underpinning. Great Fixin villages… floral right at the end…and long!

​2016 Fixin Les Crais
Assembled 1 month ago into tank. Deeper soil in the village with a lot of alluvial soil and small stones. ‘The emblematic wine of the domaine…’
A deeper darker colour and nose – still the aromas are quite tight though. Bright, more dimensions of flavour, the tannin doesn’t interrupt, layered in the finish with darker fruit. Lithe fresh and delicious with just a little more weight of flavour in the finish.

2016 Fixin Combe Roy
Old vines with tiny grapes – since 2013 separated from the Fixin blend – below Les Arvelets. 60 year-old vines, ‘Not clones, they are an old masalle selection and we will use this as a basis for our new plantings in future years.’ The first wine with whole-clusters – 30%
Deep, narrow, faintly floral. A little more structure, openness, dark fruit, a beautiful blend of intensity and energy. For the label, great wine.

2016 Gevrey-Chambertin
​There’s no Clos des Chézeaux as the walls held onto the frost – just two barrels of this.
A more open width of aroma, extra freshness and florals. Supple, nice depth of flavour, a little more richness of texture – every wine I’m loving I could recommend everything so far!

2016 Vosne-Romanée
More depth bit also a little reduction. More direct but a very fine line of flavour and quite overt freshness. There’s less depth of texture but suggesting more complexity – certainly towards the finish. Really as much energy as a box of frogs! – It’s nice wine too!

2016 Fixin 1er Les Arvelets
For frost and hail, this was the worst in 2016. In the end decided to replant a part in 16. ​
Quite a big nose; open, a little smoky and rather deep. A little gas, a little reduction but there really is a depth of flavour here. It needs time to find equilibrium, but it’s really great fruit, and really a persistent floral impression in the finish. To wait for but with impatience!

2016 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru
60% less of-course.
A deep, crystalline nose – though narrow. Some gas. Big in the mouth, really filling every space, a little more overt tannin, then a burst of mid palate flavour. Lots of fruit, good freshness lots of concentration – almost too much!

2016 Vosne-Romanée Les Petits Monts
5 different blocks – ‘most planted before my grandfather so we don’t know how old’ – just one small part is 10 yo. The vines were initially divided between the Gerbets and Sirugue-Gerbets, now divided in three with Amélie and two others, but Amélie is renting one of those portions back. This year ploughing the soil with a horse.
Deep, the nose a little tight and just a little reduced. Lithe, wide, mobile, growing in interest, growing in tannin, growing in ‘mouth-watering-ness’ a baby wine but with lots of character and complexity. Be lucky if you have the chance to buy some – the last drops have a fine extra floral dimension.
2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Lavaux St.Jacques
A big fresh nose with a little wood spice but that’s because there is only 1 barrel! Lovely width and texture, melting on the palate. Simply a top wine. Excellent.
2016 Clos de Vougeot
Not frosted here.
An appealing freshness and delicate floral top note. A little gas. This really fills the mouth. More structural but with no hard edges, the flavour melting from the walls of your mouth. So long….. to wait for, of-course, but I would make the time…
2016 Echézeaux
60% whole-clusters.
A big nose – there is wc complexity but more comes from the oak component. Really a brightness of flavour but wrapped in a proper structure. The oak flavour is already very well-integrated, it’s just a part of the the overall delicious complexity. Despite the oak – and it’s not a new barrel – bravo! Delicious wine.

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