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  • Burguet's Dark Side of Gevrey: Insider's 100-yr-old Vielles Vignes

    Burguet's Dark Side of Gevrey: Insider's 100-yr-old Vielles Vignes

    Finding Gevrey Chambertin that strictly relies on old vines is rare. Fourrier and Bachelet are famous for this. Vielles Vignes (old vine) bottlings can have different age criteria based on producer, and for this we must be surgical in selection. When it comes to Burguet's 1910-planted vines in Gevrey Chambertin we're talking about the real McCoy.

    Today, I'm happy to offer the 2016 Burguet Gevrey Chambertin Mes Favorites Vieilles Vignes for $84 per bottle, and down to $79.75 on 4-Packs.

    It was Denis Bachelet's importer, Becky Wasserman, who introduced me to the Mes Favorites cuvée from brothers, Eric and Jean-Luc Burguet. Visiting the village's top restaurant Rôtisserie du Chambertin last year, again this house bottling proved to check all the boxes for my kind of secret cellar treat.

    Taking cues from icons Fourrier and Bachelet, these 100-yr-old vines produce tiny, millerandage clusters that benefit from 100% de-stemming and gentle extraction. The counter-punch between these concentrated dark wines and the silky, underlying mineral threads is why the purest wines of Gevrey garner so much attention. In the minuscule, but monumental 2016 vintage, Burguet flaunts Gevrey's most black-fruited and dark earth persona.

    Alain Burguet is famous for starting this domaine from the ground up in 1974, a true rarity in Gevrey Chambertin where inheritance and marriage are the keys to owning 100-yr-old vines. In the late 90's Alain's two sons began to take over and implement some changes with an eye toward showing an even more polished, transparent, and forest floor personality of this grand village known for muscularity. Terroir focus through low new oak, low sulphur, native yeast ferments, and minimal extraction have all been keys in this domaine's rise.

    Burguet thrills me in capturing the grandeur of the village that's home to nine Grand Crus with its black plum, game, and scorched earth notes. While Gevrey's top bottlings fetch record amounts, it's diamonds in the rough like Mes Favorites that discerning Burgundy fanatics turn to for the greatest secret values.
     
    "A more deeply pitched array offers up notes of dark currant, plum, earth and a hint of the sauvage. As is usually the case there is a bit more size, weight and richness and much more minerality present on the medium weight flavors that exhibit good power on the slightly more complex finish that is presently somewhat youthfully austere. This is worth checking out."
    - Allen Meadows of Burghound (January 2018) 
     
    "Plum, chocolate and spice all run through Burguet's 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Mes Favorites Vieilles Vignes. With a huge core of fruit and notable depth, the Favorites comes across as quite dark and concentrated."
    - Stephen Tanzer of Vinous (January 2018)
    Posted by Alexander Rosen

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