Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is very perfumed with floral, spice and strawberry aromas that follow through to a medium body with very fine tannins and a racy, refined finish. Delicate finish. Bright and beautiful. So delicious now, but will age nicely.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Ostrea is a brilliant bottle that comes from four different parcels around the village of Brochon, with some of the vines going back all the way to 1919. The name Ostrea refers to the oyster shells found in the parcels designated for this cuvée. Fermented with 30% stems and aged in roughly 30-40% new French oak, it reveals a medium ruby/plum color as well as a textbook Gevrey nose of darker currant and black raspberry fruits supported by loamy earth, bouquet garni, and assorted spices. Medium-bodied on the palate, with nicely integrated oak, it has the vintage's up-front fruit yet still brings plenty of tannic structure, good acidity, and outstanding length. It needs an hour or so in a decanter if drinking any time soon and will have another 15+ years of prime drinking ahead of it.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Ostrea is showing beautifully, unwinding in the glass with a deeper-pitched bouquet of cassis, dark berry fruit, baking chocolate, rich soil tones and warm spices. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated and mineral, this has a more structured, tensile profile than the domaine's regular Gevrey, as well as greater reserves of tightly wound fruit. As readers will remember, this cuvée derives from old vines in the commune of Brochon.
Barrel Sample: 90-92
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.