2012 Gevrey Chambertin

The 2012 Gevrey-Chambertin is another beautiful village-level wine from Boillot. Layers of blue and purple fruit, mint, spices, menthol and crushed rocks are woven together in an energetic, pointed Burgundy endowed with terrific energy and brightness. This has all the makings of an overachiever in its class. The Gevrey is a blend of fruit from six sites.

The 2012 Gevrey-Chambertin Village comes from six parcels, all populated by 60-year old vines. It has a fragrant, floral bouquet that is actually reminiscent of a Morey Saint Denis. It is well defined and offers attractive red fruits mixed with a little white pepper. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red and black fruit on the entry. It has a grainy texture, quite solid in the mouth with that white pepper note reappearing towards the finish. Good matiere here – the old vines showing their currency. Having tasted with his wife Ghislaine Barthod in the morning, I returned to the same address in the afternoon to see Louis Boillot. The domaine was established in 2002 when his father split the family domaine, Louis Boillot & Fils, between Louis and his brother Pierre. Henri Boillot is their cousin. It is an interesting set up: half the cellar reserved for Ghislaine’s wines and the other for her husband’s and whilst I have a great deal of experience with the former, I was less acquainted with Boillot’s. However I am glad that I did the time to sample through an impressive portfolio that were generally balanced, refined and skilfully expressed their terroir. In common with so many other producers, the affects of poor flowering, coulure and millerandage reduced yields. His Volnay Caillerets was reduced down to just half a barrel and in the case of his Pommard Village, down to a negligible three crates of grapes that were blended into the Bourgogne Rouge. Louis also rued the fact that the decreased total number of barrels meant that the ratio of new oak is a little higher than he might have liked, and therefore after vinifying in new oak he often transferred his wines into used oak after malo-lactic fermentations. Generally, this strategy worked and most of his 2012 did not exhibit excessive levels of wood. I would zone in on Louis’s exquisite Volnay wines that seemed to put the traumas of the growing season behind them, whilst the Nuits Saint Georges is exemplary. Importer: Sussex Wine and Rare Wine Company (CA) and several importers in the UK including Lay & Wheeler, Raeburn Fine Wine, Averys and Berry Brothers.

A relatively deeply pitched nose of dark berries, plum, earth, humus and sauvage notes offers fine complexity. There is good refinement to the focused and muscular medium-bodied flavors that display a discreet minerality on the austere and saline finish. This is very Gevrey but without the rusticity. Tasted: Jan 15, 2014. Drink: 2020+