Winemaker Notes
Enjoy with filet mignon, duck and ripe cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is dense and tannic with beautiful bright fruit such as dried strawberry and mineral. Full body, chewy tannins and a long finish. Very muscular. Try it in 2020.
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Wine Spectator
Lush and fleshy for the vintage, with plenty of juicy cherry and raspberry fruit. Firmly built, this develops on the palate, leading to a long, fruit-, mineral- and spice-tinged aftertaste. Combines finesse and intensity. Best from 2019 through 2032. 20 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze Grand Cru comes from their own contract parcel and purchased fruit, cropped October 6-7, with partial whole cluster and raised for 14 months in 500 liter barrels. It appears to have more harmony than the Charmes-Chambertin at the moment, more floral in personality, to the point where it is more Charmes-Chambertin than the Charmes-Chambertin! The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, supple in the mouth, with good volume. There is plenty of red and black fruit here. although it is missing a little complexity toward the finish.
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.