Domaine Ghislaine Barthod

A lovely purple, this has a really classic nose of a justripe vintage: cherry kernel, plenty of fruit, good length and follow through. This will make a classic bottle in five years.

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!

Les Gruenchers displays a fuller and more sensual nose compared to Baudes, quite wild strawberry in character, with plenty of density and a more tannic structure. Only two and a half barrels made, alas.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director

These wines all reflect the magical Barthod house style of perfumed energy, while each one retains the differences of its terroir. Ghislaine started relatively early, on 22nd September, and reports that vinification was straightforward compared to the viticulture. Her yields are 15 - 20% below the small harvests of 2010 and 2011, so overall a meagre half crop in 2012. Or to put it another way, one whole crop missing across the three vintages.

Given that the sugar levels are not high in 2011, Ghislaine Barthod expected something lighter this year. However, the wines have come out with good texture and density. While accessible in the medium term, they show an attractive freshness and energy which puts them into a different class from the attractive 2007s. Chambolle-Musigny has done well in 2011, since the style of the appellation appreciates the fresher aspect of lower alcohol levels.

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With lovely lifted red fruit, this is really pretty and attractive beneath, with the welcome freshness of the vintage shining through.
Jasper Morris MW,Berrys' Burgundy Director

This deep purple, star-bright Chambolle-Musigny from Domaine Barthod has the magical Chambolle perfume, is deliciously heady with sweet cherry fruit and leads to an admirably persistent finish.

Denser than Beaux Bruns, but then it borders Grand Cru Bonnes Mares. This is altogether more four-square and tannic and substantially rewarding. Drink from 2015.

Red Wine Of The Vintage
Ghislaine's very fine range of wines is on a roll and the 2008s are showing beautifully across the board. Les Cras stood out, with its dark fruits and elegant, yet taut, tannins which together promise so much for the future.
(Tom Cave Cellar Plan Manager)

Ghislaine’s Les Cras has a real density of fruit, despite being the most restrained wine in the cellar. With dark, crunchy fruit, fine tannins and a real length of flavour, this offers excellent long-term potential.
(Jasper Morris MW, BBR Burgundy Buyer)

Vivid, crisp purple colour with a vibrant, yet also sensual nose. Bright and delicious, even quite forward, the fruit and the flesh more in evidence than the acidity. Really dancing, superb in fact, from this less well known Premier Cru.
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.

Made from 65-year-old vines, this is the usual glowing purple colour, a softer fatter style of wine than Châtelots, always gourmand always graceful. Dark red fruit, kept fresh by the touch of acidity of the vintage.
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.

Bright purple, and with a touch of reduction, this is lean up front, yet builds very nicely to the back. It hovers on the cusp of red and black fruit with a crisp minerality behind.
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.

Rich, friendly purple with an attractive perfume, this is tight and concentrated, the fruit balanced by quite high acidity which will soon resolve into the heart of the wine. This is very backward but highly promising, especially given its provenance from the Bons Bâtons vineyard. Drink 2020-2025.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

With prices in Burgundy still rising, even if often for understandable reasons, the appellations Bourgogne Blanc and Bourgogne Rouge are great places to look for affordable wines. You get the opportunity to drink wine from a top winemaker, from vines which are adjacent to the famous villages, and which will be accessible earlier. The 2005 Bourgognes Rouges are still delicious and youthful more than 10 years later, but most wines have been drinking well for a few years now. 

Rich, imperial purple with lively, dark raspberry and some cherry notes, it is mouth-filling. Still quite firm at the moment, the wine has a little touch of attractive oak and a notable concentration of fruit. Drink 2020-2028.
Jasper Morris MW, Buyer of Wine

Picking began here on 4th September and took five days in incredibly easy conditions. The thick skins on the grapes and the ease with which the colour emerged meant that it was important not to go chasing the tannins, according to Ghislaine, so she used pumping over rather than punching down. All bunches were de-stemmed as usual. The crop is, once again, slightly on the small side.

The challenge in a frost-hit vintage is to manage the concentration that comes from the inevitably low yields. In a village like Chambolle, the wine must not be too heav y. Here the wine seems to have the weight of a Premier Cru, because of the concentration, but not the complexity. But what it does have is razor-sharp definition. Only 19 barrels from an expected 35. Drink 2020-2028.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

Ghislaine Barthod’s domaine originated 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 Premier Cru Les Feusselottes in 1986. Though they share the team who work the vineyards, the vinification and commercial aspects of their businesses are kept completely separate. The domaine’s strength is the range of Chambolle-Musigny, with eight separate Premier Cru bottlings. It is hard to know whether Ghislaine has triumphed this year because of, or despite, the difficulties of the vintage. The quality she has produced is superb, perhaps due to the meanness of her yields, but tragically there will be hardly any of this glory to share. Chambolle was the hardest hit by the frosts in the Côte de Nuits and, in most vineyards, she has lost 50 to 60 percent of a normal crop, in some cases 75 percent and, in Combettes and Chatelots, there is no wine at all. For each wine, we have itemised the scale of the loss.

To be fair, there is a little more wine here than in the village, as the lower vineyards were less touched by the frost; but, being from the Bons Bâtons vineyard, which is higher than some village land, there were still important losses. This wine paves the way for the quality ahead: it has a delightful, primrose-scented nose, a medium-weight palate and some ripe but, naturally, slightly bucolic tannins. Drink 2020-2026.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

Ghislaine Barthod’s domaine originated 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 Premier Cru Les Feusselottes in 1986. Though they share the team who work the vineyards, the vinification and commercial aspects of their businesses are kept completely separate. The domaine’s strength is the range of Chambolle-Musigny, with eight separate Premier Cru bottlings. It is hard to know whether Ghislaine has triumphed this year because of, or despite, the difficulties of the vintage. The quality she has produced is superb, perhaps due to the meanness of her yields, but tragically there will be hardly any of this glory to share. Chambolle was the hardest hit by the frosts in the Côte de Nuits and, in most vineyards, she has lost 50 to 60 percent of a normal crop, in some cases 75 percent and, in Combettes and Chatelots, there is no wine at all. For each wine, we have itemised the scale of the loss.

Carnage here: there are only six barrels versus a usual 15. But this is so fine: with a luminous colour, it is beautifully subtle yet intense and composed. It’s more on the mineral end of the spectrum at the moment. Ghislaine and I discussed suitable adjectives: distinguished, aristocratic, intellectual. She vouchsafed she had never seen a vintage like this in her career, and only the quality of her terroir was able to manage this level of ripeness with such freshness. Drink 2025-2035.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

Ghislaine Barthod’s domaine originated 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 Premier Cru Les Feusselottes in 1986. Though they share the team who work the vineyards, the vinification and commercial aspects of their businesses are kept completely separate. The domaine’s strength is the range of Chambolle-Musigny, with eight separate Premier Cru bottlings. It is hard to know whether Ghislaine has triumphed this year because of, or despite, the difficulties of the vintage. The quality she has produced is superb, perhaps due to the meanness of her yields, but tragically there will be hardly any of this glory to share. Chambolle was the hardest hit by the frosts in the Côte de Nuits and, in most vineyards, she has lost 50 to 60 percent of a normal crop, in some cases 75 percent and, in Combettes and Chatelots, there is no wine at all. For each wine, we have itemised the scale of the loss.

Pure mid-purple, this is a baby Chambolle from Les Bons Bâtons. The wine is seductive, with fresh crunchy acidity, but not too much for the fruit with which it is steadily integrating. Lovely finish.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director