Winemaker Notes
This vineyard is located on stony and marly soil favoring deep rooting. This soil gives elegant, straight and spicy wines.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Concentrated flavors of black cherry and raspberry lead off, augmented by spice, licorice and tobacco notes. Dense and muscular, with firm yet well-integrated tannins and ample fruit for balance. The lingering finish is fresh and complex. Best from 2019 through 2035. 166 cases made, 20 cases imported.
-
Jasper Morris
A brick aspect to the rim but still a good depth of colour. This wine was at first a little hard to understand. Was there something slightly bacterial on the nose? No, just a little funkiness that soon cleaned up. While there was certainly a firmness to the structure, the 2012 has eaten its oak more than the 2015. The fruit develops very well on the palate.
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.”
While Morey-St-Denis of Burgundy might not get the same attention as its neighbors, Gevrey-Chambertin to the north and Chambolle-Musigny to the south, there is no reason why it shouldn’t. The same line of limestone runs from the Combe de Lavaux in Gevrey—all the way through Morey—ending in Chambolle.
There are four grand cru vineyards, moving southwards from the border with Gevrey-Chambertin: Clos de la Roche, Clos St-Denis, Clos des Lambrays, Clos de Tart and a small segment of Bonnes-Mares overlapping from Chambolle. Clos de la Roche is probably the finest vineyard, giving wines of true depth, body, and sturdiness for the long haul than most other vineyards.
Pinot Noir from Morey-St-Denis is known for its deep red cherry, blackcurrant and blueberry fruit. Aromas of spice, licorice and purple flowers are present in the wines’ youth, evolving to forest and game as the wine ages.