2015 Gevrey Chambertin Petite Chapelle

(60% vendange entier ; 100% new oak for this wine and the rest of the Dugat crus): Deep red-ruby. Wild aromas of blackberry, licorice, violet, leather and game scream out Gevrey-Chambertin. Very concentrated purple fruit and licorice flavors show a bit less early sweetness than the Evocelles Vieilles Vignes, but this wine is deeper. Finishes with more obvious tannic bite and an element of salty minerality. Less harmonious today than the Evocelles. Loïc Dugat noted that this wine, which comes from three parcels of vines, all at least 60 years of age, has been getting denser in recent years.

The 2015 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Petite Chapelle comes from three parcels of vine that are an average of 70 years old and contains a little less whole bunch fruit than the other cuvées, between 50 and 60%. It feels a little "distant" at first, although it soon begins to open and offer a mixture of red and black fruit, chalk and limestone, later more blue fruit surfacing. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe black fruit, the new oak absorbed well and allowing tension and energy to flow through the sorbet-fresh finish. I would just like a little more persistence here, but otherwise this is very fine.

50-60% whole bunch, 100% new oak. Very heady. Neat and tidy on the palate but perhaps it could do with just a little more definition and freshness. A little brutal. Solid! Chunky! Bulging with muscles. But admirably long. (JR)