Gevrey Chambertin Grand Cru

A stunning, almost ethereal bouquet announces this rich, rounded and sensual wine, yet there is a pure and precise backbone underlying the charm of the fruit and an exceptionally long aftertaste. Fabulous!

David’s deft hand has produced an elegant Charmes- Chambertin, which is very prettily perfumed, with fine raspberry fruit. Everything is as it should be structurally, with neither acidity nor tannins impeding the succulence of the fruit; this has an agreeably persistent finish.

Tasting with David Croix at Camille Giroud is always a pleasure, especially so this year as the range of 2014s is delicious. David feels that the wines are all about drinkability and balance rather than exceptional power. His theory is that the great start to the growing season kept the vines healthy through the cool, damp summer.

There was 70 percent whole-bunch this year, with the main trunk of the stem having been cut away to keep only the ripest wood. This wears its 100 percent new oak very lightly, offering a hedonistic peony and violet perfume on the nose, with a deft and delicate touch in the mouth. A wine which comes to you. Drink 2023 2033.

Thibault continues to keep himself busy, having bought more vineyards in Moulinà-Vent. In the Côte d’Or he waited until 13th September to pick, feeling that the skins were not ripe until that point. He describes the vintage as transparent, where each vineyard’s identity is clearly visible, and one where those with large yields will not be able to hide. In the Beaujolais, hail was again a significant factor, reducing the average yield for those wines he made to an eye-watering 8hl/ha. The damage was so bad that it cost more to pick the grapes than he will make on the wines, but he felt a duty to harvest and vinify the fruit. With careful use of the vibrating sorting table, he was able to carefully select only the clean fruit and has made exceptional wines.

Attractive, medium-deep purple in colour, this has a backward, highly concentrated nose, with the detail still to come. There is dark fruit, some spice, all really built around the concentration of fruit, which just stretches out in endless fashion. Very tight. The aftertaste is completely magisterial and at last the detail of the fruit begins to come out, with some blueberry notes. A little moment of glory! Drink 2025-2040.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

Nicolas and David Rossignol report a healthy crop in quality and quantity, though a little reduced in the Grands Crus. They began on 7th September, using around 50 percent whole bunches, and avoided any punching down during vinification as there was no need to search for extraction, preferring a daily pumping-over and aeration. As ever there is only a modest use of new oak and sulphur levels are kept low. They have made unquestionably brilliant wines this year.

The very first nose gives a suggestion of just how good this wine is – simply oozing class. Concentrated fruits of the forest are woven in between garrigue spice notes and a touch of lifted perfume which floats above. The palate is intense and concentrated but with sublime elegance and some spicy, exotic touches to the finish. Cool and mineral with some classic Mazis herb notes. Drink 2025-2032.

Our relationship with Domaine Tawse goes back many years, to the days of Domaine Maume, which was purchased in 2012 by Canadian Moray Tawse. Since then there have been shrewd additions of vineyards in Beaune, Savigny and Volnay, the winemaking has moved to MarchandTawse’s facility in Nuits-St Georges and a bright, affable English winemaker by the name of Mark Fincham has been installed. Having previously made wine at Domaine du Pegau in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Mark is realising his dream of making Burgundy. The vineyards are worked organically and biodynamically, often with the help of a horse. The style here is clean, precise and terroir-driven.

Mark feels the 2017s are simply lovely wines, with real freshness and a focus on red fruit. For the reds, he de-stemmed a larger proportion than in the past, feeling that the stems were slightly less ripe than he would like, particularly in the cooler Gevrey vineyards, and could impart some green character. All the vineyards are already certified organic, but they are in the process of obtaining biodynamic certification too. This was the first vintage made entirely in the cellars in Nuits, having left the Maume property in Gevrey shortly after the 2016 harvest.

Bottles of this product are discounted by 30%. Price shown includes saving.

Carel was only able to get to two-thirds whole-bunch for this wine. The harvest by his supplier was quite late, but that has added an extra layer of opulence to the wine. This is a very fine Grand Cru, intense without a beat missed – spring flowers with allspice, a hint of graphite and wonderful lift. Drink 2026-2032

With a range that spans both Côtes, Carel observed that the red vintage is about pretty, balanced, fresh fruit. The reds south of Beaune are generally lighter than the north, where there is better phenolic intensity. Carel puts the whites on a par with 2014, but the raw material is healthier and so the wines are purer. He rates 2017 as one of the best white vintages in the last decade. Stylistically, Carel’s preferred direction for reds is towards whole-bunch and he confesses he would always do 100 percent if he could (and this year he often has).

Beautifully aromatic wild strawberries on the nose are followed by a supple, richly concentrated palate of real finesse and harmony. Lives up to its reputation as the King of Burgundy.

Mazis-Chambertin (9.10ha) lies at the northern end of the group of Grands Crus, closest to the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, and is divided into two parts of which Mazis-Haut sits on the same rock formation as Clos-de-Bèze, while Mazis-Bas is on slightly deeper soil with some influence from the Combe de Lavaux, both in terms of soil make-up and temperature. It is a predominantly brown soil with a few stones. The underlying rock is in the form of fissured slabs through which the roots are able to penetrate.

Olivier Bernstein buys grapes from Les Mazis- Haut which are blended in with the production of his own vines in Mazis-Bas. The oldest vines are 80-years-old. Very pure, glowing purple colour. The nose shows such beautiful precision, it is almost electric. Arguably the most vibrant of the wines with an excellent fruit acid balance and exceptional persistence.

It shows less of the puppy fat of the vintage but more sophistication. Absolutely magical on the palate with classical distinction and great persistence.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director The wines of Burgundy – perhaps more than any other region – are a product both of place but also of people. With individual vineyard plots often split amongst countless producers, the terroir expressed in a wine can be unusually specific; equally the style of the winemaker can be readily discerned when tasted against his neighbours.

Back in 2007, Jasper Morris MW – Berry Bros. & Rudd’s Burgundy buyer, who lives in the region for most of the year – heard whispers about a new producer, whose wines were said to be universally impressive. Jasper duly sought out Olivier Bernstein and tasted his portfolio: “It was terrifically exciting to come across a brand-new quality producer in the Burgundy market, and to taste wines of such class from his very first vintage,” says Morris.

“Now, five years on, Olivier has matured into a confident player with his Premiers and Grands Crus wines of the Côte de Nuits.” Since Berry Bros. & Rudd first offered Bernstein’s wines with the 2007 vintage, Olivier’s reputation in the UK and worldwide markets has steadily grown. We are delighted that the 2012 vintage – unquestionably Bernstein’s most refined and well-composed offering to date – will be available to the UK market exclusively through Berry Bros. & Rudd.

A marvellous adornment to the range in 2012. The first surviving reference to Chambertin dates to the 13th century, when Guillaume de Grancey swapped some vines in Champ Bertin with the Abbey of Cluny in 1276. They key to quality is the bedrock of calcaire à entroques from the Bajocian period. Here too the vines are 60-years-old. Deep purple with a very dark centre. There is a sense of imperial majesty here alongside the grace of Clos de Bèze.

It makes a marvellous contrast! The nose is much more backward but the palate delivers an explosion of very vigorous fruit. The huge weight of raw fruit will require a longer elévage. This is exceptionally vibrant and will repay keeping.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director

The wines of Burgundy – perhaps more than any other region – are a product both of place but also of people. With individual vineyard plots often split amongst countless producers, the terroir expressed in a wine can be unusually specific; equally the style of the winemaker can be readily discerned when tasted against his neighbours.

Back in 2007, Jasper Morris MW – Berry Bros. & Rudd’s Burgundy buyer, who lives in the region for most of the year – heard whispers about a new producer, whose wines were said to be universally impressive. Jasper duly sought out Olivier Bernstein and tasted his portfolio: “It was terrifically exciting to come across a brand-new quality producer in the Burgundy market, and to taste wines of such class from his very first vintage,” says Morris.

“Now, five years on, Olivier has matured into a confident player with his Premiers and Grands Crus wines of the Côte de Nuits.” Since Berry Bros. & Rudd first offered Bernstein’s wines with the 2007 vintage, Olivier’s reputation in the UK and worldwide markets has steadily grown. We are delighted that the 2012 vintage – unq

To have only four barrels of Grand Cru from 1.6 hectares could be soul-destroying, but Nicolas and David discuss it with a smile, thinking of innovative ways of marketing such a miniscule quantity. But this wine is the distillation of 2016: pure, fresh, alive, ripe, delicious and, with Chambertin’s grace overlaid: profound. Drink 2025-2040.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

The domaine was created through the marriage of Jacques Rossignol of Volnay with Mado Trapet from a noted family in Gevrey-Chambertin. Their sons Nicolas and David Rossignol have managed the domaine since 1990, moving subsequently to biodynamic farming. The first experiments started in 1997 with their Chapelle- Chambertin, followed by conversion of the whole domaine in 2004. Vinification includes a small proportion of whole bunches, while the trend in recent years has been to look for an increasingly elegant expression of Pinot Noir. It’s a remarkable cellar this year, with brothers Nicolas and David radiating calm and understanding. As elsewhere, this was a very challenging vintage for them, especially in Beaune, the village Gevrey vines and Le Chambertin. Containing the mildew required an incredible amount of work by hand. Their biodynamic strategy seems to have paid off though; after a slow start to the range, the impression was of incremental qualities. Intensity, not density. Nicolas and David referred us to Nono, Love and the Soil by Gaston Roupnel, a novelist born in Gevrey.