Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Three parcels aged between 50 and 90 years old provide the fruit for this exceptional grand cru red. Fresh, chalky and very complex, it's focussed, earthy and scented, easily handling its 80% whole bunches and 100% new wood. Dense, sappy and refined, this is a world-class Pinot Noir.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There are four barrels of the 2017 Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru, the wildest and most brooding of the domaine's grands crus, a wine that unfurls in the glass with aromas of rose hip, espresso roast, dark wild berries, forest floor, dark chocolate and cherries. On the palate, it's full-bodied, deep and multidimensional with immense depth and concentration, framed by powdery tannins and concluding with a long, pungently intense finish. As usual, this is more reserved, with a tighter-knit core, than either the Mazoyères or the Charmes and it will merit 15 years of bottle age. The Mazis was fermented with fully 90% whole cluster this year.
Barrel Sample: 95-97
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.