Wine & Spirits - October 2021 - 69

Burgundy
described it as " a solid village wine with great
fruit-delicious, uncomplicated. Put a chill
on it and drink it outdoors. " § Vintus, NY
GEVREY-cHAMbERTIN
93 | Pierre Gelin
$90
2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos de Meixvelle
^ Pierre Gelin expanded his family's
domaine in Fixin by purchasing vineyards
in the neighboring village of Gevrey-Chambertin.
He had been farming Clos de Meixvelle
since the 1940s, and replanted it after
buying the monopole in 1952. The vines,
now 70 years old, are farmed organically
by his grandson Pierre-Emmanuel, and the
concentration of their fruit is apparent in the
lovely freshness and density of this Gevrey.
It's a wine of power and elegance, with red
and black fruit woven into the silken texture.
A village-level wine to cellar as you would a
premier cru. § Winebow, NY
90 | Frédéric Magnien
$85
2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Jeunes-Rois ^
Magnien gets this fruit from 60-year-old
vines farmed organically on an east-facing
slope in Brochon. The wine has an herbal
scent and blueberry flavors, with tannins
that taste of iron. It's intriguing, needing a
few years in bottle to integrate. § North Berkeley
Imports, Berkeley, CA
90 | Moillard
$70
2019 Gevrey-Chambertin Beauversant ^ A
clean and fragrant Gevrey, this is a comfortable,
fruit-driven wine. That sweet blackcherry
fruit meets earthy, woodland mushroom
notes of umami-a ripe wine ready
this autumn for mushroom risotto. § Advantage
Int'l, Doral, FL
90 | Remoissenet
Père & Fils
$92
2018 Gevrey-Chambertin ^ This is a domaine
wine, from 12 parcels where the vines range
in age from 20 to 50 years. This wine's blackcherry
flavors are perfumed, almost lush up
front, then they disappear behind potent tannins
that are as hard as nails. It's a Gevrey
that requires cellar time. § North Berkeley
Imports, Berkeley, CA
GRANDS-EcHEZAUX
96 | Domaine
Mongeard-Mugneret $264
2018 Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru ^ This
is a wine that lives up to the two grands in
its name-a wine with beauty in the tannins
you can sense in each breath, a beauty that
stays with you, cajoles you to contemplate
another sip. In all honesty, our panels were
either confused or disappointed by a number
of the grand cru wines from the most
recent vintages in Burgundy (which is why,
for this issue, we asked Jasper Morris MW to
report on the areas of the region benefiting
from the changing climate). Vincent Mongeard
farms 3.5 acres of Grands Echezeaux
as part of the family's domaine. This site, balancing
the moisture-holding capacity of clay
over limestone, offers a nuanced wine from
2018, the fruit of vines ranging in age from 40
to 68 years, the wine treated to new barrels
and completely resisting any overt influence
in its scent or its tannins. The wine is gloriously
ripe, brisk and racy. § Vineyard Brands,
Birmingham, AL
MOREY-ST-DENIS
93 | Frédéric Magnien
$85
2018 Morey-St-Denis 1er Cru Clos Baulet
^ The fruit of 40-year-old vines organically
farmed in deep, stony soils in the center of
Morey-St-Denis, this is an earthy premier
cru, seeming to get its vibrant intensity
directly from the ground, from dark earth
taking in the sun. Stay with the glass and it
begins to show hints of plum skin and blackberry
seeds as the tannins open up. A powerful
2018, this will reveal more details and
subtleties with five years of age. § North Berkeley
Imports, Berkeley, CA
91 | Frédéric Magnien
$85
2018 Morey-St-Denis 1er Cru Clos Sorbè ^
Based in Morey-St-Denis, some of Magnien's
most compelling wines come from the village.
This one, organically farmed in the village
center, grows on eroded white limestone
rock. It offers a classical scent of the northern
Côte des Nuits while presenting deliciously
ripe fruit in perfumed black cherry notes,
dark blueberry and spice. While it shows
some restraint, and will benefit from aging,
it feels completely open now. § North Berkeley
Imports, Berkeley, CA
NUITS-ST-GEORGES
90 | Domaine
Philippe Gavignet
$110
2019 Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les Chaboeufs
^ Of the three acres Philippe Gavignet
farms in Les Chaboeufs, half were planted in
1950, the rest in the early 1990s. It's a stony
plot with a mix of limestone and clay. His
2019 is as black as obsidian, a tannic Nuits
with the darkness of the night sky. Air brings
out glimmers of red fruit and game, suggesting
this has a strong future ahead. § North
Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA
HAUTES-cOTES-DE-NUITS
88 | Dom. Sires de Vergy $22
2020 Hautes Côtes de Nuits (BEST BUY) ^
This is a black wine suppressing its strawberry-scented
fruit behind powerful tannins.
Those tannins have a foresty, resinous pine
note and some bitterness that needs grilled
meats. § Advantage Int'l, Doral, FL
COTE DE BEAUNE
bEAUNE
94 | Domaine Chanson $154
2019 Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches ^
Chanson's five-acre parcel of pinot noir at
Clos des Mouches grows in clay marls over
limestone. It's immediately brisk and bright,
with several tasters describing it as " old-fashioned
Burgundy, " pointing to the cool vegetal
tones of the tannins and the clean cherry
highlights. The tannins are powerful and
confident, as if to guarantee the wine's ageworthy
credentials. Built to last. § Vintus, NY
93 | Domaine Chanson
$73
2019 Beaune 1er Cru Clos du Roi ^ Chanson's
domaine includes 7.5 acres of Clos
du Roi, about a third of this cru, just above
town on the north side of Beaune. The wine
in 2019 is both powerful and graceful, with
a sweet note of hibiscus tea and dried cherries.
It strikes elegant high notes, with appleskin
acidity and touches of mint to buoy the
deeper spice of the tannins. Marked by Burgundy's
contemporary climate, this still has
robust potential to age. § Vintus, NY
93 | Vincent Girardin
$61
2018 Beaune 1er Cru Les Aigrots ^ Located
halfway up the slope, neighboring Clos des
Mouches, Girardin's Aigrots fruit is packed
with energy in 2018. There's a complex weave
of mineral tannins, rosemary and tobacco,
black cherry and cherry blossom, some of
it delicate, some of it intense. The tannins
are black enough to feel tarry, a mark of the
wine's youth, a good reason to forget it in the
cellar for at least five years. § Vineyard Brands,
Birmingham, AL
91 | Domaine Chanson
$76
2019 Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Marconnets ^
Ripeness and warmth captured this wine's
dried-cherry fruit, leaving the wine to focus
on its structure, intense in the middle, graceful
in the end. It needs age to find completion,
and the clean length of the wine suggests
it will. § Vintus, NY
Oc TO b ER 2021
WINE & SPIR IT S
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Wine & Spirits - October 2021

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