Chandon de Briailles Pernand-Vergelesses Les Vergelesses Premier Cru 2018
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Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
In Remington Norman and Charles Taylor's book, The Great Domaines of Burgundy, Les Vergelesses and Ile des Vergelesses are described as top sites in the village of Pernand-Vergelesses, "wines of weight and structure, capable of aging for twenty years or more." Les Vergelesses is just below Ile, lower on the slope with more clay and iron. This parcel faces east, like the best vineyards of Corton, and the 1.22 hectare parcel was planted in 1954.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A beam of bright cherry leads the way for this supple red, gathering currant, strawberry, floral and spice notes as it evolves on the palate. Wood tannins add a lightly chewy feel to the delicate finish. Best from 2023.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Les Vergelesses offers up scents of sweet red berries, smoke, peonies, dark chocolate and rich soil tones, followed by a medium to full-bodied, layered and lively palate that's bright and charming, concluding with a long finish. This has turned out very nicely.
Other Vintages
2020-
Robert
Parker
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Wilfred
Wong
At Chandon de Briailles, the vineyard management has been fully biodynamic since 2005 and organic since 1998. Claude's brother, Francois de Nicolay joined the domaine in 2001.
In the cellar, no enological products are used (except for sulfur in very small quantities), no tartaric acid, no exogenous yeasts, no tannin powder, no enzymes, etc. The Chandon de Briailles wines are quite unique in the fact that there is a negligible amount of new oak for aging and most wines are made with a whole-cluster fermentation. The domaine has cut back on its use of whole cluster fermentation since 2011 and adapts vintage to vintage. The Savigny-les-Beaune village is typically de-stemmed and the premier cru and grand cru will have up to 100% whole cluster in a sunny year (with good phenolic maturity). Fermentations start naturally a few days after harvest in open top cement tanks. Aging is carried out in used barrels (up to eight years-old) and the wine are bottled without fining or filtration. Claude likes to describe her wines as having 'no make-up', referring to the lack of new oak.
John Gilman (View From the Cellar) wrote: “This domaine is quickly becoming one of the very finest to be found anywhere in the Côte D’Or...these are great, classically styled, terroir-driven red and white Burgundies that age brilliantly, and are among the treasures to be found in the Côte de Beaune for those adventurous enough to try a few bottles.”
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Occupying the most northerly combe (the French term for a valley that cuts through a hillside) of the Côte de Beaune, Pernand-Vergelles sits to the west of and behind the hill of Corton. The most sought after whites of the village come from the slope of Pernand on the side of Corton where Pernand-Vergelles shares the Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne with Aloxe-Corton. The best red producing Cru is Les Vergelles, which overlaps into Savigny-les-Beaune. Reds here are fleshy, seductive and structured while whites are both lively and age worthy.