Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Seductive, this offers refinement and class. Unfolds its pure violet, raspberry, cherry and mineral flavors with graceful ease. The silky texture matches seamlessly with the vibrant, finely grained structure. Leaves an indelible mark on the finish. Best from 2014 through 2030.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Chambolle-Musigny Charmes offers an inimitable, ingratiatingly sultry bouquet of flowers, fraise des bois, red currant, smoked meat and sea breeze. Carnal, salty, savory, soy-like flavors and fine inner-mouth floral perfume ally themselves with this Chambolle’s ripe but faintly tart red fruits on a precociously silky palate, and the wine finishes with polish, penetrating and invigorating brightness, distinct chalkiness, and salinity. Lower-tone red meatiness emerges increasingly as this wine takes on air, but still it is among the most luminous, insistently red-fruited, and least noir Pinots of the vintage. It should prove well worthy of 5-7 years in the cellar. Surprisingly, given the quality, this came into Gambal’s possession as (three barrels of) young wine, not as grapes. Range: 91-92
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.”
Chambolle-Musigny represents the charm of the Côte de Nuits district of Burgundy. But you’ll find that term mainly in reference to the vineyards in its southern stretches, which border Clos Vougeot: the Grand Cru of Le Musingy and in part, its neighboring and most exceptional Premier Cru, Les Amoureuses. Some producers argue for the primacy of Les Amoureuses and its eligibility for Grand Cru status given its wines can sometimes surpass other Grands Crus.
Le Musigny ranks on par with the most acclaimed Grands Crus for Pinot Noir: Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg, Chambertin, and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. It is also the only Grand Cru in Côte de Nuits for Chardonnay. All of the others are in Côte de Beaune.
This village can in fact claim only two Grands Crus vineyards and—in the context of breaking down the minutiae—they are markedly different. Bonnes-Mares, the other one at the far northern end above the village, bordering Morey-St-Denis, offers power, strength and great aging potential. But Chambolle-Musigny includes a nice handful of exceptional Premiers Crus, as noted above with Les Amoureuses as the finest. Le Fuees and Les Cras are other noteworthy Premiers Crus.
Overall, a top Chambolle-Musigny offers pure aromas of violets, dark cherry and damp earth, coupled with a velvety elegance, supple mid-palate, an abundance of black and red berry, and finesse and power through a long and fine-grained finish.