Winemaker Notes
Chambertin is the wine of Kings. He is masculine, powerful and well built. Vigorous and firm, well-structured and very dense. With great persistence in the mouth. Aromas of chocolate, licorice, and red berries.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Succulent cherry, raspberry and rose aromas and flavors are framed by vanilla and toasty oak in this majestic red, which is concentrated, yet lithe and fruity, with an intense sappiness to the texture. Beautifully balanced and long, this soars on the complex, mineral-infused aftertaste. Best from 2025 through 2050.
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Decanter
If you're a fan of this grand cru bottling - and which Burgundy lover isn't? - there's a lot more to go around this year, with a record-equalling 46 barrels. The resulting wine doesn't have the concentration of 2015 or 2016, but it's still a spicy, focussed, refined wine with deftly integrated 100% new wood, tangy acidity and caressing tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Revisited from bottle, the 2017 Chambertin Grand Cru is showing beautifully, soaring from the glass with expressive aromas of sweet red berry fruit, smoked meats, coniferous forest floor, mandarin orange and peonies, framed by a deft application of cedary, spicy new oak. Full-bodied, sumptuous and enveloping, its velvety attack segues into an ample core of succulent fruit, concluding with a long and resonant finish. This is likely to be both deceptively approachable young and notably long-lived, offering a broad drinking window.
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Jasper Morris
Clear bright light to medium purple. A sensual and even slightly smoky nose. Unusual but not at all unattractive and I am sensing a density of fruit, with brisk red berry notes, filling the palate. I think this will only improve with time. 95 and growing
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.