This wine is the kind of wine that makes a sommelier look clever. It’s sourced from an out-of-the-way, undervalued Burgundy appellation but delivers Premier Cru quality. The domaine actually holds the wine back for an extended period before releasing it, so, not only is it favorably priced, it’s got some bottle age right out of the gate. Boom! Perfect wine list wine.
Not surprisingly, it’s a pretty perfect wine for a serious meal at home, too. Paul Chapelle started his domaine when he inherited a piece of Santenay’s “Gravières” Premier Cru in 1976, and his bottling from the site has become something of a signature—as well as a perennial value pick for us. Now with a few years of bottle age under its belt, this 2011 has shed some of its youthful edge and is starting to blossom, although it has plenty of life ahead of it. This is the lithe, ‘feminine,’ pretty side of Burgundy Pinot Noir, yet another example of a “lightweight” wine that makes a powerful impact.
Before putting together his own domaine—which now extends to Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault as well—Paul Chapelle was a consulting winemaker in Burgundy with an impressive client list: Domaine Ramonet, Paul Pernot, François Jobard, and Domaine de la Pousse d’Or were among his consultees, so he drew on a wealth of experience when he started bottling under his own name. He retired in 1995, initially handing the keys to his son-in-law, but today the estate is overseen by his daughter, Christine. She has kept the winemaking approach resolutely classic, using very little new oak for aging and generally crafting “soil-driven” whites and reds that are firmly structured in their youth.
Generally speaking, Santenay is known for floral, spicy, light-to-medium-weight takes on Pinot Noir. Located at the southern end of the Côte de Beaune, the commune is home to 12 Premier Cru vineyards, of which “Gravières”—a steep-sloping, southeast-facing cru planted to both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—is among the most famous. Chappelle’s Pinot Noir parcel was planted in 1953, and he farms according to lutte raisonnée (“reasoned struggle”) principles—only in extreme emergencies would a chemical treatment in the vineyard be employed. This bottling is aged 18-24 months in oak casks, only about 15% of which are new (rarely is there any detectable oak influence in these wines).
Chappelle’s 2011 Santenay Gravières is a graceful, balletic style of wine: lively, elegant, but also sinewy and powerful. In the glass it is a reflective garnet-red, and we found that it took a few minutes for this wine to blossom in the glass. If you’re opening this wine now, give it a rough decanting about an hour before you start to drink it and you’ll be rewarded with aromas of dried cherry, raspberry, red currant, incense, sandalwood, rose petals, and flinty minerality. On the palate the wine is as tangy as black raspberries off the bush, medium-bodied, and with enough structure to suggest a good 5-7 years of aging ahead of it before it peaks. Many hours after our initial tasting, I re-visited the remainder of this bottle and it was singing—prompting me to scramble for something suitable to pair with it. The rusticity and savor of a garlic- and herb-marinated
hanger steak was just the ticket. It tamed the wine’s acidity and brought out its savory, earthy side to boot. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. Enjoy!
