2016 Gevrey Chambertin Brunelle
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Cuvée La Brunelle, which comes from vines directly outside the tasting room, has a generous fleshy red cherry and strawberry scented bouquet that opens beautifully in the glass. The palate is well balanced with fine tannins, lighter than the Champs-Chenys, but with a harmonious and precise finish that is strangely reminiscent of a fine Vosne-Romanée. Seductive! Tasted at the Domaine.
Critic scores
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Neal Martin
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The most immediately charming of Roty's lieux-dits this year, the 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin La Brunelle exhibits a pretty bouquet of ripe cherries, cassis, wood smoke and toasty new oak. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, ample and velvety, with juicy acids, rich tannins and a stony but expansive finish.
(from a good full crop, like the 2014, according to Pierre-Jean Roty; from a very warm site featuring complicated alluvial clay and calcaire soil with lava and rocks): Dark red-ruby. Blackberry and boysenberry aromas are slightly blocked by gamey reduction. Then sweet and distinctly unaggressive in the mouth, with purple berry flavors complicated by an element of dried flowers. Finishes with fine-grained tannins and lingering salinity. Not especially fleshy or concentrated but conveys lovely early balance and suppleness.