Tag Archives: Gevrey Chambertin

A Visit with Alexandrine Roy

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“This was my grandparent’s house,” Alexandrine Roy says, “I grew up here,” as we walk down the garden to the winery. From the exterior, it appears as an ordinary residence in a side street off the D974 in Gevrey Chambertin. The fermentation vats—all stainless steel—are in a building at the bottom of the garden, and the cellars extend underneath, divided into three areas, one for stockage, and two barrel cellars. Space is somewhat limited. We tasted barrel samples from 2023.

Alexandrine Roy in her cellar

The domain is very much a family affair. “We are a very small producer in Gevrey, we have about 4 ha, it’s mostly me and my dad.” The tiny domain produces only 5 wines, including 4 village reds and a white from Marsannay, but has been considered to punch above its weight since Alexandrine Roy took over from her father in 2003, after working in New Zealand and Australia.

The white is the result of a relatively late harvest. “It’s very unlikely but we pick the Chardonnay after the reds. It’s a spot with a lot of diurnal variation and we get the best expression of aromatics and acidity by keeping the grapes longer.” The plots are in the highest altitudes of Marsannay, close to Fixin.  the wine has no malolactic fermentation and ages in barriques with 20% new oak. “This ferments in stainless steel which really keeps the profile of the place and the grapes,” Alexandrine says. It is transferred to barriques and stays on the lees with no battonage for 12 months.

There are four cuvées of Gevrey Chambertin. Everything is destemmed, and there is extensive use of new oak, generally around 50%. But it is scarcely detectable in the wines. “We make wines that are charming and approachable when young,” is how Alexandrine describes the style. The idea in winemaking is to keep things as simple as possible.

“We always have the same pickers, so we sort in the vineyard, everyone is responsible for their own basket. Destemming is 100% but there are lots of whole (i.e. not crushed) berries.” Reds spend 11 months aging before bottling (the small cellar needs to be emptied out for the next vintage). Filtration at bottling depends on the conditions.

The main cuvée is the Vieilles Vignes Gevrey Chambertin, from 80-year-old vines in two climats, Vignes Belles and La Justice, which Alexandrine purchased in 2010. La Justice comes from the top of the climat, from younger vines (50-years-old). The Vieilles Vignes shows a great transparency of red and black fruits backed by silky tannins, and to my palate its elegance seems more like Morey St Denis than Gevrey Chambertin. It is so approachable that even a barrel sample seems ready to drink. La Justice shows firmer tannins with more sense of grip on the palate, but still in that charming, elegant style.

Clos Prieur is more of a regular village wine. Located just below Mazis Chambertin, Clos Prieur has a premier cru part and a village part. “Our plot is in the village part, but it tastes like a premier cru, so I don’t mind,” Alexandrine says. The wine shows greater density, increased impressions of black fruits, with a great sense of purity, and is more overtly structured. This perhaps makes the most classic impression of Gevrey, and needs a little time to develop.

Created in 2005, Cuvée Alexandrine has an unusual basis, designed to attract attention. coming from a selection of millerandaged grapes. These are berries that remain very small because they were incompletely fertilized. They have a higher ratio of  solids to liquids, and the extra concentration lifts the quality of the wine. Sweet black fruits give a real sense of that extra concentration and character you usually get only from very old vines. This is a vin de garde that will undoubtedly benefit by aging for a few years. There are usually only 4 barriques.

Alexandrine’s cuvées show what would be called ‘range’ in the theater, from the absolute elegance of the Vieilles Vignes to the vin de garde-like character of Cuvée Alexandrine. It is fair comment that the wines taste as though they come from higher-ranked appellations than they actually do. In saying that winemaking is ‘simple,’ Alexandrine means that it follows traditional precepts with no unnecessary manipulations; but the wines are a far cry from traditional if by that you mean the old-style rather hard-edged Gevrey Chambertin that took years to become soft enough; rather these are in the modern idiom and attractively approachable.

Tasting Notes for 2023

Marsannay-la-Côte, White

Fresh nose with some herbal or savory notes. Juicy and flavorfull with quite a silky impression on the palate. Fresh but not at all aggressive. The overall impression is lively and energetic.   Marc Roy 89 Drink –2030

Gevrey Chambertin,  Vieilles Vignes
Some acidity with herbal impressions on the nose. Fresh and juicy underneath, with red and black fruits supported by silky tannins. It is very charming in an elegant style that reminds me more of Morey St Denis than Gevrey Chambertin. Transparent would be a good description of the overall impression. It is so approachable you feel you could even drink the barrel sample.    90 Drink 2026-2036

Gevrey Chambertin, La Justice
More aromatic lift to the nose compared with the Vieilles Vignes. Palate shows the same charming style but has more grip, with firmer tannins, and this is more clearly Gevrey (rather than Morey) The wine needs a little time.    91 Drink 2027-2039

Gevrey Chambertin, Cuvee Alexandrine
Significant increase in intensity and concentration compared to other cuvées. Slightly nutty impressions on palate in the background. Sweet black fruitts give a real sense of that extra concentration and character you usualy get only from very old vines. Firm tannins leave a touch of bitterness at the end; this is something of a vin de garde. It is very textured and needs some time.    92 Drink 2030-2042

Gevrey Chambertin) Clos Prieur
2024-06-03    Greater sense of density to the nose than Gevrey La Justice. Palate moves towards black fruits with some sense of spice. This wine marks a transition from the style of the Gevrey village and La Justice towards a blacker, deeper, more overtly structured character. This perhaps makes the most classic impression of Gevrey. Very pure impressions of black fruits. A litle bitterness at the end from tannic structure needs some tie to resolve.   Marc Roy 92 Drink 2028-2040

The Best Terroir is the Best Terroir

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How far can you take terroir? It seems blindingly obvious that some sites produce better wine than others: it is not rocket science to suppose that a sunny spot in the middle of a well drained slope will produce better wine than a cool, shady, damp spot at the bottom.  And I am prepared to buy the fact that slight differences in terroir can reliably produce different nuances in the wine: I was quite convinced of this by several series of pairwise comparisons in Burgundy when I was researching my book on Pinot Noir. Other convincing examples come from comparing, for example, Ernie Loosen’s Rieslings from different vineyards in the Mosel. You can’t mistake the fact that these wines are consistently different, although all made in the same way. But the unresolved question that sticks in my mind is whether different terroirs match different grape varieties or whether the best terroirs are simply the best terroirs. (The middle of that slope would probably produce better plums, apricots, or apples than the bottom.)

I was much struck by this issue when visiting Pinot Noir producers in Germany. All of them, of course, also produce Riesling; in fact, for most of them the Pinot Noir is little more than a sideline. Everywhere in Germany, Riesling is planted in the best terroirs. Those terroirs that aren’t quite good enough for Riesling are planted with other varieties. But where is Pinot Noir planted? Are there spots that are really suitable for Pinot Noir but where Riesling would not succeed? This does not seem to be the case. Pinot Noir is a demanding grape, and it is usually planted in spots that would also have made good Riesling. The best terroirs are the best terroirs, and it’s a matter of choice whether Riesling or Pinot Noir is planted there. And as for the effect of terroir on the nature of the wine, I saw similar effects on both Pinot Noir and Riesling: more minerality, more sense of tension in the wines from the volcanic soils in the north, to rounder, fatter wines from the limestone soils in the south, and softer, lighter wines from sandstone soils in the east.

Is it a general rule that every wine region has a top variety (or varieties) that take the best terroirs? Even on the left bank of Bordeaux, where you hear a lot about the perfect match between Cabernet Sauvignon and the gravel-based soils, it’s really more the case that the gravel-based soils are the best terroirs – so Cabernet Sauvignon is planted there. Merlot is planted in the spots that couldn’t ripen Cabernet Sauvignon. I’ve yet to hear a proprietor extol a vineyard for the perfection of the match of its terroir to Merlot – I suspect the match is more faute de mieux.

Are there regions that grow multiple top varieties where we could test the argument that there are terroirs that are equally good but suited for different varieties. Burgundy seems the obvious case, where the contrast is increased by the fact that Pinot Noir is black but Chardonnay is white. Isn’t it the case that the terroirs of Puligny Montrachet, Chassagne Montrachet, and Meursault, are uniquely suited to Chardonnay whereas those of (say) Nuits St. Georges, Clos Vougeot, and Gevrey Chambertin are uniquely suited to Pinot Noir?

Not exactly. The focus of the appellations to the south of Beaune on white wine is quite recent. Until the second half of the nineteenth century, Puligny Montrachet was mostly planted with Gamay, Chassagne Montrachet was almost exclusively red, and Meursault was divided between red and white wine. The area that is now Corton Charlemagne mostly produced red wine until the twentieth century.  And in the eighteenth century, Clos Vougeot’s white wine was almost as highly regarded as Le Montrachet, as indeed was a white Chambertin. Could we at least argue that the change is due to better understanding of what grape varieties are suited to each terroir. No:  it’s the economy, stupid.

When fashion has swung to and fro on red wine versus white, plantings have followed. Here’s a modern case in point. Beaune’s Clos des Mouches is one of the few vineyards that have both black and white grapes. But there isn’t any pattern to the plantings that follows details of terroirs: in fact, rows of black and white grapevines are more or less interspersed, according to what was needed when replanting last occurred. And as Chardonnay has proved more profitable than Pinot Noir, there’s been a trend towards replanting with Chardonnay.

If the best terroirs are the best terroirs, what determines the best variety for each location? Well, climate is no doubt the most important factor: heat accumulation and hours of sunshine are basically going to determine whether and when the grapes reach ripeness.  Are the best terroirs simply those where historically the grapes have ripened most reliably? On the hill of Corton, where the plantings of Chardonnay for Charlemagne stretch round to the western end of the hill, where Pinot has trouble in ripening, you might argue that the best terroirs are planted with Pinot and second best with Chardonnay, although I have to admit that they make wonderful white Burgundy.

So here is the challenge. Are there examples where two terroirs in the same vicinity give different results with two grape varieties of the same quality (and color if we want this to be a rigorous test)? If one terroir gives better results with one variety and the other terroir gives better results with the other variety, then I will withdraw my conclusion that the best terroir is the best terroir and matching grape varieties is down to climate.