Tasted in Fixin with Amélie Berthaut, 16 November 2022.
Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet
9 Rue Noisot
21220 Fixin
Tel: +33 3 80 52 45 48
www.domaine-berthaut.com
More reports with Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet
Amélie on 2022:
“I’m really happy. We didn’t make our plan – I don’t think we ever will! – but I’m still happy, despite the heat and dryness and some hail too in Fixin-Gevrey – and there wasn’t a lot left after the triage for those parcels.”
Amélie on 2021:
“2021 is the lowest volume ever, right after 2020 which was the highest! We had less yield than in 2016 but I’d say that 2021 is similarly bad to 2016!”
2021 was the last vintage where the vines were harvested here under the old Mercier / Domaine de Chézeaux metayage contracts. These now revert to the new owner – Charles van Canneyt. Though Amélie managed to buy some Gevrey villages and the small 0.13 ha parcel of Lavaux St.Jacques that her domaine has been working since the 1980s.
The wines…
For all the positives that I bestow on the 2021 vintage – in the right hands – generosity would be a rare one. Here you will also find the generosity to add to all those other positives – there are many complete wines at this address in 2021 – the difference between excellent and great was paper-thin on this day – so well done!
From Amélie’s mother’s side, planted by her grandfather. Vines above Vosne on the plateau – there’s 10 ha in this plot and currently, 4 ha are here in this domaine. 60-year-old vines
Hmm – that’s an ample nose, quite generous and attractive. Sweet, supple – rather concentrated – great Bourgogne – you might not even guess it’s a 21! Some coffee complexity here too.
2021 Fixin Les Crais
Deeper soil in the village with a lot of alluvial soil and small stones. Bottled yesterday. There was a lot of frost damage here.
This nose a little more direct and vibrant but with a fine width of pure red fruit. This has such an engaging complexity – broad, delicious, mouth-watering wine with a few mm of cushioning too. Beautiful!
Also bottled 1 day.
Ooh – more complexity of aroma here – superb! More direct, cool fruit, vibrantly complex – a hint of oak but frankly who cares? This is downright brilliant. Bravo!
2021 Vosne-Romanée
From 3 different vines, two in Reas and one Rivière. Always blended but with separate elevage.
That’s another beautiful nose. Round and attractive. Round, gorgeous, mouth-watering wine. Superb – again!
2021 Gevrey-Chambertin
An extra beam of direct aroma here – lovely and different. A little extra structure with a different, more mouth-watering, style to this flavour – almost seamless – just a little finishîng structure to remind you of the experience. Beautiful wine again…
2021 Fixin 1er Les Arvelets
Ooh – different again – not the largest nose but with clarity and a creamy nuttiness – very attractive. Open, super-interesting a modest frame of tannin but not a cliché Fixin. Delicious, long and perfectly formed.
A beautiful, seamless, nose with such a fine integration of floral notes. I like the structure here – more architectural than the previous wines. Supple, creamy from the oak. A fine grain of tannin but without dryness. Beautiful wine, again infused with violets in the finish.
2021 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 aged 10. 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. ‘It’s very special for us, not just because it’s so well placed, but some of the parcels pre-date my grandfather – and of course, all is done by hand as we can’t get a tractor in there. For two years some work with a horse, have the ‘troye’ from Switzerland – and it’s a bit too physical for half a hectare. I still use it for ‘amusement’ but in a small parcel.’ Amélie likes the wine but given the position and age of the vines can’t bring herself to say that she makes a great wine here – ‘you know it’s next to Richebourg, so…’ 8 barrels but 4 go back to the family.
Here’s a higher-toned freshness of aroma. Much more direct, cool and showing fine balance. A narrower wine and a completely delicious wine too but not the same generosity as the others today. I’d still be a buyer – if I found some!
3 parcels; Treux and Quartiers de Nuits, plus some Champs Traversins higher near the wood. It may be 3 parcels but of old vines, so only 2.5 barrels.
Ooh – rounder more expressive aromas here – another beauty. Wide with more intensity – supple, decently concentrated. Growing in stature AFTER you swallow, before slowly fading into the distance. Another top wine.
And something for the road?:
2020 Fixin 1er Les Hervelets
A small parcel high in the vineyard near the wood, it’s a sandier soil up here. ‘My freshest 2020!’
Extra open, showing tons of complexity – and relatively to the 2021s – tons of colour too. Deep aromas, slightly floral, slightly green. Nicely fluid for the vintage but a different animal to the 21s. There’s some well-submerged structure but make no mistake – it’s here!