2016 Gevrey Chambertin Vieilles Vignes

The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes has an outstanding, intense, beautifully defined bouquet with blackberry, bilberry, graphite and granite scents that are very precise. The palate is medium-bodied, sorbet-fresh with ripe tannin, a very fine line of acidity. Blood orange and spicy notes furnish the finish that is more complex and involving than the Gevrey Village. This has a lot of potential. Tasted at the Domaine.

(60% vendange entier ; 29 hectoliters per hectare produced): Healthy dark red with ruby highlights. Vibrant aromas of cassis, licorice pastille and wild herbs. Concentrated, penetrating wine with sneaky density to its flavors of black fruits, violet, herbs and licorice. Offers a restrained sweetness but not yet revealing its personality. Finishes saline and alive, with a broad dusting of tannins.

The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes was matured in 60% new oak with 60% whole bunch fruit. At the moment the new oak comes through strongly on the nose, more so than the village cru, although there is plenty of black cherry and bilberry fruit behind that and subsume the barrel ageing with time. This feels a little more opaque compared to the village cru at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, layers on blackberry and crushed strawberry fruit laced with minerals that dovetail into a confit-like and quite saline finish. This is a dense "CS-J" that has great potential although it will require several years in bottle.