Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
The vintage produced a wine with lushly ripe plum fruit touched with rose petals and spice. The texture retains surprising freshness despite the heat, and features firm tannins and a very classic feel. Truly top quality. Dujac enjoys a significant holding here, with 1.16ha between Latricières and Clos de la Roche - by far the largest in the appellation. Yield was down by almost 30% due to the heat in 2020, yet the result is marvellous.
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James Suckling
Rich dark berry and black plum aromas, plus olives, tea leaves, peach pits and roasted mushrooms. Medium- to full-bodied, meaty but agile, with firm yet seamless tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes allies texture and tension to compelling effect, wafting from the glass with aromas of cherries, plums, sweet spices and coniferous forest floor, framed by a deft touch of new oak. Medium to full-bodied, ample and enveloping, it's fleshy and layered, with vibrant acids and powdery structuring tannins.
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Jasper Morris
The 2020 Gevrey-Chambertin Combottes has a relatively low proportion of stems at 63% whole bunch vinification. Dense dark purple. Blood red peaches on the nose, reasonably sumptuous, slightly drier tannins, smooth and quite plump. Perhaps there could have been greater length in the aftertaste.
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.