Domaine Ghislaine Barthod
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
Ghislaine Barthod harvested her small crop, 35% to 40% down on 2009, from 24th September over 5 days. She feels that the wines are riper than 2002, our suggestion for a comparable vintage. We tasted on a day shrouded in mist when everything seemed dank and dour, so it is more than likely that Ghislaine’s wines will turn out more lively and fragrant than reported below, when the structure appeared to dominate.
Bottle 12 x 75cl1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
Ghislaine started picking on 1st October, for one week, bringing in grapes with a natural alcohol level of 12.5 to 12.8. The fruit certainly tastes properly ripe though there is a beguiling freshness behind to keep the saliva flowing. Volumes are a fraction better than last year.
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
As always, Ghislaine gives a very thoughtful, un-mediatised version of the vintage: it was a cool damp summer, there was some rot, sorting was necessary, but afterwards the fruit was healthy. She began picking on Sunday 14th September, when the grapes were just ripe, and still had very good acidity. Ghislaine may be modest about her wines, but we think they are fabulous this year!
Ghislaine Barthod's domaine originates in the 1920s with Marcel Noëllat whose daughter married Gaston Barthod, a soldier stationed in Dijon who came to buy some wine and got the girl as well. He gave up military life for the vineyards in 1960. His daughter, Ghislaine, and her partner Louis Boillot bought their current premises overlooking 1er cru Les Feusselottes in 1986. Though they share the team who work the vineyards for both of them, the vinification and commercial aspects of their businesses are kept completely separate. Ghislaine's father Gaston died in 1999, yet effectively Ghislaine had been making the wine for the last decade or so.
The grapes are destalked, allowed a brief cool soak, then fermented with more punching down than pumping over. Barrel maturation does not rely on new oak, with no more than 30% for the premiers crus. The wines are usually bottled after 18 months, after one racking.
The strength of the domaine is the range of Chambolle wines, with eight separate premier cru bottlings. While each wine displays the idiosyncracies of its particular terroir, the overall effect of tasting at the domaine is to come away with a palate coated in sensual Chambolle fruit. There is an adorable Bourgogne Rouge as well, from the Bons Bâtons vineyard across the main road. Ghislaine Barthod's wines are always supremely elegant and harmonious and display admirable concentration and length. The best examples can age gracefully for up to twenty years.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director and author of the award-winning Inside Burgundy comprehensive handbook.