Winemaker Notes
The Chambertin Clos De Bèze has an intense purple color with a fragrance of small red fruits and liquorice on the nose providing strong aromatic majestic quality. On the palate the attack is balanced, clear, sound and rich. Its melted, spicy and precise tannins offer roundness and lightness on the finish. With a hint of rose, this elegant wine suggests its sensuality. A wine to be laid down.
Pair with rabbit in mustard sauce, moussaka or ripened cheeses as Morbier.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru was made from two cuvées, one destemmed and the other not, so that there is around 30% whole bunch. It has a very well-defined bouquet with outstanding tension and focus. The palate is pure and silky smooth, more red fruit than black, very harmonious with very well-integrated new oak (80%). This is the best that the domaine has ever made. Period. Chapeau Nicolas and Caroline.
Barrel Sample: 96-98 -
Wine Spectator
Rich in black cherry and black currant flavors, a velvety texture and tannins, this red shows youthful harmony, yet will need time to reveal its charms. Elegant and succulent, featuring a long, spice- and mineral-infused finish. Best from 2023 through 2045.
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.