Gevrey-Chambertin
En Champs Bio 2016
The name has prestigious overtones, and the place itself is about as noble as they come. To say the least, Gevrey-Chambertin is where the the real Burgundy Grands Crus begin…
Origin
Gevrey-Chambertin is a large town located at the northern end of the Côte de Nuits. It boasts one of the largest surface areas under vine with no fewer than 330 hectares under production. The vines are planted at altitudes of between 240 and 280 metres. The soil is limestone-based with a high proportion of clay marlstones from the scree of the Combe de Lavaux, giving power and roundness to the wines.
"En Champs" is located north of the appellation, on the hillside of Brochon which produces some of the most beautiful Gevrey-Chambertin villages.
Viticulture
Grape variety: pinot noir
Soils: fairly lean and made up of sandy marls.
Orientation: East
Surface area under vine: 0.1621 ha
Pruning: Guyot system
Yield: 45 hL/ha
Average age of the vines: 90 years old.
Vinification
Harvest date: 2 October 2016.
The grapes were sorted a first time in the vineyard and a second time on the sorting table when they arrived at the winery.
At the winery: the grapes were completely destemmed but not crushed (they were left whole) and were gravity-fed into tanks. Maceration lasted a total of 23 days including one week of cold maceration (12°C). Fermentation used indigenous yeasts only (no additives such as enzymes or tannins were used). Infrequent punching of the cap (8 maximum).
Ageing
Maturation: aged on the lees for 16 months with no racking using a proportion of 35% new French oak barrels.
Barrels: French oak barrels that had been toasted at low temperatures for a long time for very delicate oaking.
Bottling
Bottling: in April 2018, the wine was very gently filtered before being bottled using gravity.
Number of bottles: 500 & 200 magnums.
Vintage
2016 , small is beautiful!
Small volumes, but lovely fruit overall. This is expected to be a great vintage, confirmed by the first tastings in spring. Vintage 2016 offers fine surprises with wines of potentially high quality. White wines have fine fruit aromas, with good body and will be ready to drink while young whereas the red wines are powerful, tender, concentrated and will be ideal for ageing. The harvest was one-third down on average because of the frost that struck the region on 28 April, causing a lot of irreversible damage. This was all the more frustrating as the summer was very hot and sunny, resulting in very dense berries with thick skins, promising concentration and intense wines, but with low yields.
Ageing potential: from 8 to 15 years.
Tasting notes
With a deep red colour and garnet highlights, the nose exudes notes of fresh red fruit, as well as some notes slightly musky and smoked. We advise you to open it a few hours before tasting it. On the palate, this wine turns out to be very concentrated, with good length. At the end, the tannins are silky.
