First post – I have been a long time reader, and have thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience, thank you all.
My question relates to villages level burgundy from the Gevrey–Chambertin area, and comments made in Burghound in Jan 2003 that most wine of this level is ‘often highly variable and except from the best producers, is frequently rather disappointing if not downright poor’. What are the producers that are producing the best villages wine in this area? What sets their wines apart from other producers in similar locations? Is it better technique, less clay soil?
Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.
Best regards,
David Morris
Bump - Inquiring minds want to know. Yes, I know that there is a lot of Gevrey land that runs east across the N74, but would that land have been classified unless it wasn’t capable of producing good grapes?
Fourrier
Maume
Drouhin (not as good as Fourrier by a long shot but still good)
Come quickly to mind.
This post made me realize I don’t drink much village Gevrey.
Humbert Freres and Christian Serafin each make a Gevrey VV that is pretty nice.
With village level wines in general I’ve had the best results from domaine bottled wines. They own the parcels, which are probably rather small, and probably vinify with the same care and expertise as their higher level wines. A single vineyard (often the case) will also retain more indivduality and character. So Rousseau, Burguet, and Bachelet fall into this category.
Negociants will typically blend wines from a number of sources, as it is more cost effective to produce a higher volume. Here you have to consider the style and quality level of the negociant in general, and probably stick to the better vintages as well. The old standbys - Jadot, Faiveley, Drouhin should be good, as well as Laurent, Girardin, and Potel probably. It’s always a case of buy one, try one, before investing any more in any given wine!
Also - pay attention to breathing time and serving temperature. With mature Burgs I always use the slow-O approach now, i.e. pull the cork 5 hours beforehand, enlarge the surface area a bit by taking out a small initial taste, and let breathe in (and serve from) the bottle. But with a young Burg a decant is probably in order, followed by 60- 90 minutes breathing. I like carafes fir their moderate surface area. Too much air tends to “dumb down” the wine, making it lose vitality and complexity. And a cool serving temp firms up the fruit and structure, but too cold and you get less nuance, and more noticeable tannin and acid in a young wine especially.
Louis Boillot’s Gevrey-Chambertin ‘Les Evocelles’ is a very nice single vineyard village wine. His straight Gevrey is also nice, but lighter and simpler.
I’ve had good luck with various J.Roty bottlings as well. J-M Guillon and Dom. Marc Roy are others that I’ve had limited but good experiences with.
Village Gevrey from the negociant half of Dujac, the Dujac Pere et Fils label, has been good for me as well, without the cost of Estate Dujac.
If you want to talk leaders, you have to include Rousseau, although pricing for their Gevrey is of course not at the regular village level.
FWIW, though I’ve regularly bought villages wines from Nuits, Chambolle, Vosne and Morey…and others…I’ve almost never bought much Gevrey villages. (The Gevrey villages tend to have lieu dit, names to them). One exception is the 2001 and 2002 Patrice Rion “Clos Prieur”, a villages lieu dit. Not sure I’ve bought any others in the last 15 years, thinking about it, other than a couple from Hubert/Romain Lignier in the '90s, and some Maume before that.
Not sure what it tells me, except the 1er and grand crus are safer bets than villages in this particular commune.
Thanks for all the producers names.
But what sets them apart from other villages producers in Gervrey-Chambertin, besides their obvious talent? It seems that vineyards located east of the main road N74? have a larger red clay component and are inferior to the more limestone rich land to the west. Are Fourrier’s and Burguet’s holdings in the more favourable locations?
Regards,
David Morris
As Paul mentioned, Domaine bottlings tend to be ‘kick down’ wines that can be composed of higher quality wines that didn’t make the cut or parcels of younger vines which the domaine doesn’t think make the cut yet for a higher quality level. This is one general explanation for why these bottlings can tend to be of higher quality.
For more detailed information on producers you should really consult a known reference book on Burgundy, it could answer your questions in greater depth.
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Wicked Cool!
Some favorite Gevrey Villages:
Bachelet VV
Serafin VV
Lignier Michelot ‘Cuvee Bertin’
Burguet
Fourrier
Can’t go wrong with any of these…
Burguet’s “Mes Favorites” is usually the only Gevrey villages bottling I buy.
A different village, but I opened a Morey village wine tonight, 2002 Gérard Raphet Morey St. Denis. very fresh, little color development, ample fruit with a slight spicy note to the finish. very good.
Most of my village wine is from gevrey, primarily Bachelet, Fourrier, and Rousseau (I’m omitting Mugneret-Gibourg as we all know that’s really young vine Ruchottes). Frankly, apart from M-G’s vosne, the only other village wine I buy with any frequency is Chambolle, although with the recent high prices of Roumier’s and Mugnier’s village bottlings, I expect those purchases to drop off dramatically.
Maybe I’m spoiled by my long-time love of Bachelet, but I’ve always thought of gevrey as being one of the better sources for village wine.
With some bottle age I think Mortet wines are worth looking for as well, esp. in the last years.
I have long enjoyed the village and lieu dit (Clos Prieur) Gevreys from Domaine Rene Leclerc. Rene’s son, Francois, has been making the wines for several years and now has his own label, Domaine Francois Leclerc; I recently tasted and greatly enjoyed a 2009 Francois Leclerc village Gevrey.
One word review of the Rene and Francois Leclerc Gevreys: Tender.
