2018 Gevrey Chambertin Les Corbeaux Vieilles Vignes
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Matured in 50% new oak, the 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Corbeaux 1er Cru is a wine whose extraction Bachelet told me he has reduced from 2014, as he felt the clay soils made it too masculine. It is divine on the nose, offering pixelated red berry fruit mixed with oyster shell and limestone aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with filigreed tannins, perfect acidity and more freshness and tension than it knows what to do with. This is a sleek, wonderfully proportioned Gevrey that will age effortlessly.
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Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Neal Martin
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Aromas of wild berries, cherries and dried flowers, framed by a deft touch of new oak, preface the 2018 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Corbeaux, a pretty, medium to full-bodied wine that's supple, expressive and charming—reflecting a conscious effort to tame this sites tendency to structure and muscularity that Bachelet has undertaken for several years now. Whether readers prefer the additional mid-palate volume of the Corbeaux or the more ethereal, intellectual Evocelles will be a matter of taste this year.
Vines mainly planted in the 1920s. Cool spot next to Mazis and Chambertin so usually a bit closed. Barrel sample. A half-way point between the red sweetness and lightness of Les Evocelles and the darker character of Gevrey Vieilles Vignes. Bachelet suggests that clay soils give a more ‘masculine wine’ and he is reducing the amount of extraction – less pigeage and pressing earlier. Firm, structured but just right for a different style, there’s a firmness that is the terroir expressed not the extraction overdone. Dark fruited under the structure and in balance for a long life. Persistent. (JH)