Tasted with Jean-Marie Chapier & Julien Millet in St.Philibert, 05 November 2021.
Domaine Pierre Naigeon
1, route de Saint Philibert
21220 Gevrey Chambertin
Tel: +33 3 80 33 46 03
www.pierrenaigeon.com
More reports with Domaine Pierre Naigeon
In 2020 Pierre and Sarah Naigeon decided that it was time to sell their domaine. They found eager purchasers in the form of Isabelle and Jean-Marie Chapier who also brought on-board Julien Millet to help with the winemaking. It was time to make acquaintances.
The label is unchanged as 80% of the production is exported – and that would be quite a change. 2019, like 2018 was made without sulfur. In 2020 they have returned to using a little but there’s no lack of experimentation here as there are lots of ceramic spheres – a row of sputniks – being used for some of the whites’ elevage.
The wines…
I found a super range – there’s freshness, none of the excesses of the vintage but a vin-de-garde style too – all will benefit from 3-5 years of patience – except perhaps the Coteaux Bourguignon! A great range of Gevreys here!
Everything is already bottled – done just before the harvest, as there is limited space for having two vintages sitting together:
Hautes Côtes fruit, principally gamay in this cuvée.
A full nose, slightly soft, peppery but generous. Texturally very lovely with a direct style, cool fruit, a little saline. Bravo Coteaux – easy!
2020 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
Less deeply coloured. Plenty of wc perfume – none was used in 21 with the more difficult vintage conditions. Wider, more vibrant energy, bubbling with complexity and plenty of acidity – more a red fruit dominated finish with faint bitters too. Complex and interesting – maybe the forward acid will show more in a year or two but right now this is in a good place.
2020 Bourgogne Grand Champs
From the bottom of Gevrey across the road from Crais
Much more colour. A fuller nose, of a complexity of spice and plenty of whole-cluster perfume again – a floral component is almost tending towards pyrazine. Full, layered flavour – concentrated and mouth-watering. Mineral and graphite style strength in the finish – a little structure finishing things off with some modest dryness from faintly grained tannin. That’s very young but a super and concentrated wine for the label – wait 3-5 years!
2020 Bourgogne
From two locations in the commune of Chambolle – Maladière and Athets.
Lots of colour. A smaller but beautifully, cleanly, defined and direct nose – that’s very attractive indeed. Mouth-filling – the structure quite forward and almost at odds with the clarity of the nose – but the finish is purer and mouth-watering – give this, also, 2-3 years and I think it will be an excellent and much more elegant package.
2020 Marsannay Sampagny
Plenty of colour, though a little less than the last. Some weight and width to the aroma but no lack of classy purity to this fruit. A classier structure on display here – still some dryness but no grain to this tannin. I really like the width of finishing intensity shown by this wine – that’s a very good finish – super wine.
2020 Fixin Les Herbues
Near the church of Fissey
A vertical nose – quite deep with a more overt floral top note. More structural and high-toned in style but melting its flavour over the palate. As the modest dryness faded – there’s no grain – the texture of this will show very silkily! That will be lovely in 3-5 years – the finish already is.
2020 Fixin 1er Les Hervelets
Actually Arvelets ‘with a perfect Kimmerigian soil!’
A very different nose – deep, a little mushroom impression too though that fades leaving a more wc-inflected darker fruit. Extra density but a really lovely impression as the flavour and texture meld and show through that structure – super finishing – that will be a very excellent Fixin – just don’t rush to drinking it!
2020 Nuits St.Georges Les Herbeux
From the Vosne side.
A nose that has much in common with the previous wine – just a little extra clarity and a suggestion of florals. A little reduction to start – again the style is that of the previous wine but with more scale and a little more overt dryness from the tannin. I prefer the previous wine today – but more importantly in 5 years time, I think they will be equal.
2020 Vosne-Romanée Champs Perdrix
Showing more width of aroma – a vibrant fruit, wc-inflected for sure with a strong rose impression. Direct, cool fruit, modestly drying tannin that has no grain. No simple wine here as it expands in the finishing flavours with spice and salinity. Like all the wines here – this will benefit from your patience.
The ‘foggy hole!’ An assembly of 5 different small parcels.
Ooh – here’s a nose that’s showing very well – the wc elements and fine fruit – almost in the direction of strawberries. Cool – wide, silky, mouth-watering from a concentrated centre. Long finishing with ripples of extra, extra, extra – great villages.
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Crais
More spice to this beautiful wc-inflected, perfumed, nose. Again with a beautiful texture, of velour, but a more open, slightly structural style. Some modest dryness in the finish with the last notes escaping as if sucking through sand – much nicer than it sounds. This wine needs a bit more time to show itself…
Opposite the Creux
A nose that is similar in style to the Crais yet a little more open and airy, perhaps mineral too. Extra concentration though still the volume of the last – a more overt clarity of flavour that’s delivered with supple concentration. Beautifully finishing – great villages again!
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin en Pallud
Near Mazis and Perrières
Here’s a finely divided complex of aromatic width – I’d like to be able to put my finger on more individual aspects – but it’s not that kind of nose. Again a super texture – higher-toned fruit flavour – slowly growing with a micro-grain of tannin. Growing in intensity but never aggressively. Vibrantly finishing with high-toned wc inflexions and a slowly mouth-watering style. I love Pallud but today I’d take the Corvées.
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin Marchais
Facing Clos St.Jacques
More open and more vibrant aroma here. Cool fruit again, nicely melting its flavour over the palate the concentration coming from the core but it’s never heavy. The finish has a little something extra though, persistent and impressive. Excellent wine.
The coolest part, next to Varoilles
Not the largest nose but the one with the finest clarity. Direct, beautifully silky, the tannin is like most, grainless, but here there’s almost no associated dryness. Clarity indeed a fluidity of flavour that recalls 2019. A great wine.
Les Whites:
2020 Bourgogne Aligoté La Mouille
From the Hautes Côtes de Nuits
An airy yet still quite impactful nose and quite a citrus style fruit – almost more chardonnay in style. Supple, silky, concentrated, there is little here that would have me thinking ‘aligoté’ if I tasted it blind – so I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing – but I do know that it’s delicious!
That’s a different nose, a little narrower and more classic aligoté that adds an accent of florals too. Still a wine of concentration, faintly saline and tannic. Long, slow-moving waves of concentrated finishing flavour but never a heavy wine. The last was excellent (& delicious) this is great aligoté – in its own style.
2020 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Les Martennes
An extra width of airy freshness – not a full nose but still an inviting one. A little reductive and with some structural rigour, I’d keep it a couple of years before drinking but the finish is complex and involving – I like that very much – easily the best part today.
2020 Marsannay Genelières
This now pulled out for replanting – son no more for a few years – but it will be replanted with white.
A very open higher-toned nose, almost a little aniseed complexity. Really a wine to fill your mouth – the aniseed still visible – very mineral but with a few mm of cushioning – nothing hard or jarring here but still an opulence. Wide and interesting in the finish – yum – a wine for the table I think but a very good one.
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Scellés
108 yo vines – those that died replaced by provignage, but without cutting the link to the mother (grandmother, great-grandmother) plant. This made in a concrete egg and bottled with the lees!
That’s an open and attractive nose – very yellow fruited – touched with a little mineral rigour too. Supple, mouth-watering but still cushioned, slightly saline flavour. The finish is long and interesting. That’s a lovely wine – structural but never sharp – always very tasty. A touch of tannic texture is the last thing to remember…
2020 Corton Les Grands Lolières
That’s a beautiful nose, floral and clean but supported by a clean and mineral weight. Direct, growing in weight and intensity, waves of mouth-watering flavour pushing you to drink or swallow. Really a burst of finishing flavour – slightly zesty – that’s a great finish. Baby wine – just like the reds – but so much to look forward to – simply an excellent white Corton.