Jean Chauvenet, Robert Chevillon, Henri Gouges
Nuits-St-Georges: a singular village in many respects in the Burgundy landscape. The most annoying traffic lights in the region. Unique in that it still has no grand cru and that a bottle of its wine was buried on the moon in 1971. I wonder if it's ready yet. It is also turning into a village of change. In the last couple of years two of our favourite producers have, as a result of investment, been able to eliminate pumping of juice and wine and, in Gouges's case, move to an entirely gravity-fed system. Chauvenet is the other beneficiary of the change, with a concomitant change in the style of the wines.
One point that a few growers made was that had yields been much higher, vines would have struggled to ripen the fruit in this cool year. Christophe Drag at Domaine Jean Chauvenet emphasised this to us on our visit. He picked at between 12.5% and 13.5% natural alcohol and the wines showed a fine balance of elegant tannins and plenty of black fruit. What was noticeable was a shift to much more silky tannin.
Unusually in Burgundy, Robert Chevillon, new to us this year, have been bottling their wines for three generations now. Currently run by brothers Bertrand and Denis, they have a fine run of mostly northern Nuits-St-Georges premiers crus that complement the line-up from Gouges beautifully. The domaine is farmed on lutte raisonee lines and everything is hand-picked and destemmed before a cold soak and slow fermentation. The brothers want wines that are long and persistent in the mouth, but with elegance and all their work is towards this.
You'll all be delighted that at Domaine Henri Gouges Merlot's daughter Gwada - the pick of the litter - has joined the pack and, when allowed to, causes complete havoc. It's a good thing she's not allowed in the cellar. More importantly, the new gravity-fed system is fully in place, adding finesse to the already fine wines. Greg says it's important to note that all the farming and the work in the cellar is exactly the same regardless of plot: for instance, all the wines see 20% new oak. It's his mantra to allow the sites to be distinguishable and he's fanatic that Vaucrains, Pruliers, St-Georges should taste of themselves and not of Gouges. Of course, 2010 is the vintage to showcase the achievement of this ideal. The wines are mineral, filled with matter and long-lived. /CW
Monday 16 January
Chablis
Thursday 26 January
