Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Combottes 1er Cru is very convincing on the nose, a mixture of red and black fruit, forest floor, hints of crushed limestone and orange zest. So much vigour. The palate is medium-bodied with beautifully integrated oak, fine-grain tannins, taut and linear with a sublime, quite persistent finish that you just want to keep drinking again and again. Outstanding.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Jasper Morris
A bright brisk crimson colour. The fruit on the nose has a little more energy, probably a touch riper than Chatelots. Beautifully balanced on the palate where the riper fruit is matched by fine acidity. There is almost a velvet touch to the texture, while the purity remains deeply impressive. Drink from 2026-2033.
Barrel Sample: 91-94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Sensual and perfumed, the 2021 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes offers up aromas of dark berries, cherries, petals, raw cocoa and spices, followed by a medium to full-bodied, supple and enveloping palate, concluding with a long, perfumed finish.
Barrel Sample: 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.”
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.