Wine & Spirits - October 2020 - 63

FOCUS: BURGUNDY
91 | Maison
	 Roche de Bellene

$96

2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes ^
Savory and grounded in the classic musculature of Gevrey-Chambertin, this is black and
juicy enough to fully saturate its mineral tannins. It's a clean wine with a firm architecture
to the structure and touches of greenness in
the tannins that will develop into complexity
with time. § Loosen Bros USA, Salem, OR

MARSANNAY
278072

92 | Château de
	Marsannay

$115

2016 Marsannay Clos du Roy ^ Along with
Longeroies, Clos du Roy is considered one of
the top vineyards in Marsannay. The active
limestone in Clos du Roy is often challenging
for the vines, but it seems to have invested
this wine with a mineral purity and power
to supercharge its deep black-cherry finish
so that it lasts with a long afterglow. § Terlato
Wines Int'l, Lake Bluff, IL
278069

92 | Domaine
	 Aurélien Verdet

$90

2017 Marsannay Champs Perdrix ^ Aurélien
Verdet owns half a hectare of Champs Perdrix, the vines planted in the mid-1980s on
a patch of Comblanchien limestone. It produced a wine with a high-toned freshness in
2017, the luscious softness of its cool fruit
gaining briskness from the limestone abrasion of its acidity. The tannins are spicy, sustaining the light, airy feel of the wine, not getting in the way of all its savory flavor. § Terlato
Wines Int'l, Lake Bluff, IL
278018

90 | Château de
	Marsannay

$100

2016 Marsannay Les Longeroies ^ The black
fruit of Les Longeroies places this wine on
the elegance spectrum between Rioja and
Coteaux Champenois. Its lean black-currant
flavors have an herbal depth-one taster
compared the spicy complexity to a firegrilled tomatillo. Cellar this for a few years,
then serve with braised wild duck. § Terlato
Wines Int'l, Lake Bluff, IL

MOREY-ST-DENIS
278105

96 | Frédéric Magnien

$100

2017 Morey-St-Denis 1er Cru Ruchots ^ Our
tasters approached this wine directly after
Magnien's Herbuottes. After their unanimously positive reaction to that wine, there
wasn't much to say about this premier cru
other than "Wow." Magnien purchases this
fruit from vines at the top of the slope at

Ruchots where it borders Clos de Tart to the
west and Chambolle's Bonnes Mares to the
south. Like the Herbuottes, this wine ages
in a mix of clay amphorae (in this case, 56
percent) and older French oak barrels (44
percent)-and it is certified organic. What
excited me most about this wine was its
energy, a presence strong enough to feel like
it was coursing through my body. The texture is supple, with no single element standing apart, and though the wine doesn't taste
like any fruit that exists in the world, it's completely fruity. This wine sustained its freshness for five days, until the bottle was finally
gone. Performing beyond its premier-cru
status, this is a grand cru of Frédéric Magnien's own design. § North Berkeley Imports,
Berkeley, CA
278091

93 | Frédéric Magnien

$65

2017 Morey-St-Denis Herbuottes ^ This
is just completely seductive wine. Its magnetic pull draws on a host of small details,
coming together in a Morey that glows with
energy. It starts with the fact that Frédéric
Magnien is based in Morey, which is always
a good sign when considering what amounts
to the institutional knowledge he brings to
his wine: He grew up with these vines. This
wine comes from a parcel just below the premier cru Les Charrières, its soils deep and
rich in limestone and clay. Made from partially destemmed fruit spontaneously fermented in stainless steel, the wine aged in a
combination of French oak barrels (37 percent) and clay amphorae (63 percent). With
no new oak to suppress or enrich it, this
Morey reaches deep into the primitive sense
of smell: After providing hints of dark cherry
and plum flavor and heady scents of roses
and game, an earthy essence remains on the
breath, rising to another level. Perhaps due
to its experimental aging regime, this wine
began to crash three days after the bottle was
first opened, showing hints of volatility. But
what it delivers up to that point is extraordinary. § North Berkeley Imports, Berkeley, CA
278070

92 | Domaine Bertagna

$200

2017 Clos St-Denis Grand Cru ^ The tension
of limestone acidity drives this wine, holding its broad, earthy fruit to an elegant line.
It keeps the drinker at a distance, offering
glimpses of fruit behind dark black-cherryskin tannins. There's a cool rain of strawberry
flavor, a hint of stewed tomato, a spice note
of star anise. Like the night sky, the wine
makes no concessions to modernity. You'll
have to wait a decade or more for its star to
rise. § Taub Family Selections, Boca Raton, FL

278035

90 | Gérard Raphet

$75

2018 Morey-St-Denis Vieilles Vignes
Cuvée Unique ^ The vines at Raphet's parcels in Clos des Ormes and the premier cru
Millandes are 60 years old or older, yielding a
wine that's concentrated and saturated in its
warm red-cherry flavors and round tannins.
It's mouthfilling and complete, needing age
to show the complexities of flavor inherent
in the spice of the tannins. § North Berkeley
Imports, Berkeley, CA

NUITS-ST-GEORGES
278080

93 | Maison Evenstad

$150

2017 Nuits-St-Georges Les Lavières Les
Bas de Combe ^ While the style of Evenstad's
Volnay might appear more modern and
ripe-more parallel to Domaine Serene, the
Willamette property owned by the Evenstads-this Nuits is an old-fashioned Burgundy. Its fruit and tannins are completely
engaged, sour cherry and wild strawberry
enmeshed with a kind of stunning mineral
power. The earthy intensity of the finish feels
like a small plane at liftoff. § Evenstad Estates,
Dayton, OR
278061

92 | Domaine
	 Bouchard Père & Fils $110

2013 Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les Cailles ^
The black fruit of Nuits comes across here
with tense, slightly underripe highlights of
rhubarb and strawberry. It's a wine of the
night sky, rather than the sun, with a mineral pull to the tannins that needs long hours
of air to recede into a more gracious and
refined structure. Built to cellar. § Maisons &
Domaines Henriot, NY
278065

92 | Maison Evenstad

$150

2017 Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les Didiers ^
A black beauty from the south of Nuits in
Prémeaux, this is bursting with red fruit,
seriously structured, holding that fruit in
rich compression, its volume turned up
high. That richness begins to pour out of the
structure with a day of air, the tannins feeling open and airy as the flavors flow from
cherry blossoms to cherries to mineral earth.
Decant a bottle to serve with prime rib. § Evenstad Estates, Dayton, OR
278066
WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2020

63
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Wine & Spirits - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2020
