Winemaker Notes
Very complex, persistent and deep, it requires a bit of time to fully express itself. When it is ready, it is nothing short of perfection: tight and velvety tannins, refined and ripened fruit, with a practically never ending finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Clear and bright in color, the Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques 2011 has a very suave bouquet with quite lush raspberry coulis and wild strawberry aromas, with appealing underlying minerality that will surely be enhanced with bottle age. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins and well-judged acidity. This is harmonious and svelte, generous on the finish, a lithe and nubile Lavaux Saint Jacques that is well crafted. Not quite as compelling as last year, but there's bags of potential.
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Wine Spectator
This red is rich and full of cherry, raspberry and violet flavors, yet shows a firm underpinning of acidity and tannins. Suave and silky in texture, with a lingering finish that echoes the cherry, floral and spice notes.
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Decanter
Wonderful mid palate weight with good concentration of savoury flavours that range from roasted herbs, garrigue and spices. Sweet mid palate with dark berry fruits and lingering finish.
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.”
This small village is home to the Grands Crus in the farthest northerly stretches of Côte de Nuits and is famous for some of the deepest and firmest Burgundian Pinot Noir.
Gevrey boasts nine Grands Crus, the best of which are arguably Le Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. As with all of the fragmented vineyards of Burgundy, it isn’t easy to differentiate between the two, which are situated adjacent with Clos de Bèze slightly further up the hill than Le Chambertin. Clos de Bèze has a shallower soil and if you’re really counting, may produce wines less intense but more likely to charm. Some compare Le Chambertin in both power and plentitude only to the prized Romanée-Conti Grand Cru farther south in Vosne-Romanée.
Two other Grands Crus vineyards, Mazis-Chambertin (also written Mazy-) and Latricières-Chambertin command almost as much regard as Le Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. The upper part of Mazy, called Les Mazis Haut is the best and Latricières-Chambertin offers an abundance of juicy fruit and a silky texture in the warmer vintages.
Other Grands Crus are Ruchottes-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin, Mazoyères-Chambertin, Griotte-Chambertin and Chapelle-Chambertin.
The most respected Pinot Noir wines from Gevrey-Chambertin are robust and powerful but at the same time, velvety and expressive: black fruit, black liquorice and chocolate come into play. After some time in the bottle, the wines are harmonious with bright and sometimes candied fruit, and aromas of musk, truffle and forest floor. These have staying power.