A taste of many 2014 wines - village to grand cru - from Gevrey Chambertin

Roi Chambertin, Gevrey Chambertin
Tasted Thursday, November 12, 2015 by PanosKakaviatos with 1,150 views

Introduction

2015 Burgundy may be getting the lion’s share of media coverage, but professionals who travelled to Burgundy during the Hospices de Beaune weekend in November 2015 gave positive reviews to many 2014s that were also assessed at a special tasting of Gevrey Chambertin the Thursday before the auction.

“Media magnet vintages like 2015 get the buzz, and that actually confuses the picture,” said Berry Bros. & Rudd Burgundy buyer and wine author Jasper Morris. “We should be talking about 2014, as it is coming to market.” 2014 is “beautiful” for whites, and a thoroughly good vintage but no as regular for reds, Morris added.

Others not directly in the business, like me, share Morris' assessment. Take for example positive reviews by American wine writer Michael Apstein: “I was truly impressed by the quality of the red Gevrey Chambertins, from village through to grand cru,” he said. Although village level wines were not always very regular, wines from producers such as Bouchard Pere & Fils and Sylvie Esmonin, were delicious with bright red fruit. Higher-level premiers and grands crus were “more regular in quality, and certainly should present excellent price/quality ratios,” said Munich-based wine educator and consultant Stefan Metzner.

As you can read in these notes - some are the first 2014s evaluated here on Cellar Tracker - from an excellent tasting put together at Le Roi Chambertin in Gevrey Chambertin, you can find some excellent village level wines as well as fine showings from the upper echelons. I erred on the conservative when it came to scoring.

It is true that 2014 whites are particularly excellent, as I had posted in Cellar Tracker for example notes on a recent master class at Bouchard Pere & Fils, and I will post at a later date my impressions of other fine 2014 whites that I tasted over the Hospices de Beaune weekend. But one should also look with interest at the reds. Burgundy prices have been going up, up and away, but more favorable exchange rates between the pound and the euro and the dollar and the euro mean that price pressure will be buffeted. Time to re-examine Burgundy 2014, especially if prices do not go up too much more.

Flight 1 - First flight of village level Gevrey Chambertins (8 Notes)

Some excellent wines here, in particular the 2014 Domaine Pierre Naigeon Gevrey-Chambertin (92 pts) and the
2014 Domaine Taupenot-Merme Gevrey-Chambertin

Flight 2 - Second flight of village level wines (11 Notes)

More very good to excellent wines. In this flight, I had a coup de coeur for the 2014 Sylvie Esmonin.

Flight 3 - This was perhaps my least favorite flight, but still some good wines (6 Notes)

Flight 4 - A flight of premiers crus, which I maybe underestimated. (12 Notes)

Lovely wines here, most in the "90s".

Flight 5 - Finally, the grands crus. I did not taste all of them at the event. Some were hard to evaluate, being so young. (9 Notes)

Coup de coeurs for the 2014 Domaine Bruno Clair Chambertin-Clos de Bèze (94 pts) and the
2014 Domaine Taupenot-Merme Mazoyères-Chambertin (94+ pts).

Closing

Many thanks to Le Roi Chambertin for inviting me to taste.

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