Domaine Jean Grivot
Prices:
Étienne Grivot reports better yields in 2014, about halfway between the miserable crops of the previous four vintages and what would count as a very good year. The grapes are de-stemmed but preserved fully intact using the newest model of destemmer. They were totally healthy in 2014 and Mathilde Grivot describes the wines as being accessible, fresh, yet still complex. We would add that they are – yet again – amongst the finest of the whole Côte.
Bottle
£69.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 4cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
A late cycle all the way though, in 2013 Etienne started picking from 5th October. After conferring with his aunt Jacqueline Jayer, he noted that 2013 shares the same harvest dates as 1978 and also that in both vintages there were very few pips in the grapes and they were fully ripe. Low sugar levels, ripe skins and good acidity should lead to fine wines with excellent keeping qualities.
Bottle
£125.00
Étienne Grivot reports better yields in 2014, about halfway between the miserable crops of the previous four vintages and what would count as a very good year. The grapes are de-stemmed but preserved fully intact using the newest model of destemmer. They were totally healthy in 2014 and Mathilde Grivot describes the wines as being accessible, fresh, yet still complex. We would add that they are – yet again – amongst the finest of the whole Côte.
Étienne Grivot reports better yields in 2014, about halfway between the miserable crops of the previous four vintages and what would count as a very good year. The grapes are de-stemmed but preserved fully intact using the newest model of destemmer. They were totally healthy in 2014 and Mathilde Grivot describes the wines as being accessible, fresh, yet still complex. We would add that they are – yet again – amongst the finest of the whole Côte.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Étienne Grivot reports better yields in 2014, about halfway between the miserable crops of the previous four vintages and what would count as a very good year. The grapes are de-stemmed but preserved fully intact using the newest model of destemmer. They were totally healthy in 2014 and Mathilde Grivot describes the wines as being accessible, fresh, yet still complex. We would add that they are – yet again – amongst the finest of the whole Côte.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Etienne Grivot describes his 2012s as having glamour on top of the sophistication of 2010. He notes also the generosity of fruit married to perfect acidity in 2012. It was no hardship tasting our way through his range. One minor added sophistication in the Grivot cellar is an amendment to his barrel regime – he now specifies an extra long chauffe to his barrels, though without going beyond his usual medium toast. High prices but fabulous quality.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Etienne Grivot describes his 2012s as having glamour on top of the sophistication of 2010. He notes also the generosity of fruit married to perfect acidity in 2012. It was no hardship tasting our way through his range. One minor added sophistication in the Grivot cellar is an amendment to his barrel regime – he now specifies an extra long chauffe to his barrels, though without going beyond his usual medium toast. High prices but fabulous quality.
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
A late cycle all the way though, in 2013 Etienne started picking from 5th October. After conferring with his aunt Jacqueline Jayer, he noted that 2013 shares the same harvest dates as 1978 and also that in both vintages there were very few pips in the grapes and they were fully ripe. Low sugar levels, ripe skins and good acidity should lead to fine wines with excellent keeping qualities.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
This has been one of the most exciting cellars in the whole of Burgundy for the last few vintages, a fact which is beginning to be reflected in the pricing. The significant reduction in crop this year, which Etienne Grivot ascribes more to the extreme winter cold than poor flowering, is also a factor. Etienne has been working hard to refine the tannins in his wines, and has surely succeeded in 2010, by producing wines of great energy but with suave, sophisticated finishes. These are brilliant wines that unfortunately, are in short supply.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director This domaine continues to deliver exceptionally high quality wines and is surely now one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Vosne-Romanée. The harvest began on 31st August in 2011 and that is the earliest ever at this domaine. Etienne Grivot was happy to pick at 12 to 12.5%, seeing no value in waiting and losing acidity. The wines have a dramatic tension to them in youth and will certainly age exceptionally well.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director This domaine continues to deliver exceptionally high quality wines and is surely now one of the brightest jewels in the crown of Vosne-Romanée. The harvest began on 31st August in 2011 and that is the earliest ever at this domaine. Etienne Grivot was happy to pick at 12 to 12.5%, seeing no value in waiting and losing acidity. The wines have a dramatic tension to them in youth and will certainly age exceptionally well.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Very pretty and precise on the nose and a massive yet weightless density on the palate. This wine is effortless with lots of fresh spice, flowers and poise.
Laura Atkinson, Private Account Manager
This is a very elegant, yet restrained and savoury Vosne-Romanée. With excellent length, it is tightly knit too with just enough tannin and good acidity. This will take nourishment from further maturation and will surely be a superb village Vosne-Romanée.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
A late cycle all the way though, in 2013 Etienne started picking from 5th October. After conferring with his aunt Jacqueline Jayer, he noted that 2013 shares the same harvest dates as 1978 and also that in both vintages there were very few pips in the grapes and they were fully ripe. Low sugar levels, ripe skins and good acidity should lead to fine wines with excellent keeping qualities.
A beautiful mid-purple colour with a gracefully elegant nose. This is amazingly silky in the mouth, with generous red fruit and well-integrated acidity. This absolutely confirms Etienne’s optimism for the vintage.
Oh my! Jean Grivot is on great form this year, as ever. His wines have taken on an ethereal quality in 2009 and it really shows in the ever-popular village Vosne-Romanee. Silk, perfume, generous glossy redcurrant and raspberry fruit make this a choice for the vintage. Haunting!
(Stuart Rae, Cellar Plan Account Manager)
A gently restrained, elegant bouquet with attractive black fruit notes. This Vosne-Romanée from Jean Grivot is a wine of pure class more than obvious seduction, with an impressively long finish.
(Jasper Morris MW, BBR Buyer)
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Etienne Grivot held off until 10th September because he felt the tannins were not quite ripe before then. Sugar levels never rose too high and acidity levels are good. When asked to describe the vintage, Etienne opined that 2015 has “charm and sensuality up front, energy behind; a charming but sophisticated vintage”. The vintage continues a superb recent run from the Grivots, with Etienne as éminence grise and Mathilde taking increasing responsibility during vinification.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Etienne Grivot held off until 10th September because he felt the tannins were not quite ripe before then. Sugar levels never rose too high and acidity levels are good. When asked to describe the vintage, Etienne opined that 2015 has “charm and sensuality up front, energy behind; a charming but sophisticated vintage”. The vintage continues a superb recent run from the Grivots, with Etienne as éminence grise and Mathilde taking increasing responsibility during vinification.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
Etienne Grivot held off until 10th September because he felt the tannins were not quite ripe before then. Sugar levels never rose too high and acidity levels are good. When asked to describe the vintage, Etienne opined that 2015 has “charm and sensuality up front, energy behind; a charming but sophisticated vintage”. The vintage continues a superb recent run from the Grivots, with Etienne as éminence grise and Mathilde taking increasing responsibility during vinification.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Etienne Grivot and his wife Marielle (Patrick Bize's sister) took over from his father in 1990, making him the 5th generation of Grivots to make wine in Vosne-Romanée. In the 1930s it was one of the first domaines to bottle and sell the wines themselves.
The Grivots go back a long way in Burgundy. Indeed two previous generations of Grivots have married girls of the same surname. Jean Grivot, whose name continues to appear on the labels, took over from his father in 1955 and handed on to his son Etienne in the early 1980s.
Etienne, married to Marielle Bize from Savigny, has been through a number of incarnations as winemaker here. When he took over, his father’s style was for gentle, graceful wines which perhaps were a little weak in the lesser vintages. Etienne wanted to produce something more concentrated and started working with the controversial oenologist Guy Accad from 1987 to 1992. These wines showed too much the hand of the winemaker and/or his oenologist, disguising at least in the wine’s youth the terroir.
In 1994, a difficult year but a breakthrough vintage at the domaine, Etienne began to find his own voice and made a range of very fine wines given how poor the weather was. Since then he has not looked back, and a drive to reduce yields and fine-tune his work in the vineyards and cellar since the mid-2000s continues to drive quality upwards.
Recently big strides have been made on the viticultural front. Etienne has bought a Chenillard caterpillar tractor to work some of the more inaccessible vines, and has hired a horse, Pirate, to plough his Richebourg, Echézeaux, Beaumonts, Brulées, Suchots, Boudots and some village Vosne vineyards. He is not a fan of training the vines too high, or of leaf-plucking on the south side, as he prefers a long, slow ripening period.
The grapes are 100 per cent destalked, though with some experiments where stalks are retained, and the fermentation allowed to start naturally, with a little punching down before this starts. Thereafter there is no more pigeage – ‘I don’t like to mix the physical (punching down) with the spiritual (fermentation)’, in Etienne’s words. Thereafter there is one pumping over per day before the wines go to barrel once fermentation has finished. Four tonneliers are used so as to avoid the signature of any one. Etienne prefers the wood from the Allier, Tronçais and Bertranges forests, and now buys some of his own wood.
There is an average age of 45-to 50-year-old vines across this 15ha domaine which covers 22 appellations (18 red) with holdings in Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Clos de Vougeot, Echézeaux and Richebourg. Etienne produces a range of stunning wines which possess real depth and class. In answer to a question over the secret of his success, he confides "there's no recipe, it's very personal and as a result it's very frustrating as one's never content".
These are very personal and undeniably fine wines, with dramatically aromatic notes of red fruits, becoming denser up the range.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director and author of the award-winning Inside Burgundy comprehensive handbook.