Value-priced red Burgundies from the great 2014 vintage keep over-delivering—especially when coming from an established and talented family like the Mortets. For more than two decades, Thierry Mortet (the younger brother of late Denis Mortet) has pushed tirelessly to deliver organically farmed, small-parcel Burgundy to your table and it hasn’t once let me down.
He has achieved this extreme value by looking outside of the box and tracking down vineyards from outlying communes like Daix, the source of today’s wine. Located a short drive north of his winery in Gevrey-Chambertin, his 2014 “Cuvée Les Charmes de Daix” is simply stunning for the price, showing impressive body and purity of fruit in its youth. Usually with ‘Bourgogne’-level bottlings, you’ll find grapes from many different communes blended together, but this bottling—from six parcels totaling just one acre, all within Daix—is a customized and site-specific as Bourgogne Rouge gets. This is what Thierry Mortet brings to the table, and for less than $30 at that: a finessed red Burgundy of exceptional depth and purity that begs to be consumed on a daily basis while having the raw materials to drink beautifully a decade from now. Although overall production of this cuvée is obviously low, we managed to find enough to share with you today: If you’re looking for a top-quality red Burgundy to purchase by the case (as I do), we’ve got you covered!
Domaine Thierry Mortet was formed 26 years ago following the retirement of his father, whose eight-hectare estate in Gevrey-Chambertin—Domaine Charles Mortet & Fils—was dissolved and the land divvied up between Thierry and his older brother, Denis. Currently, Thierry, who studied enology and viticulture in nearby Beaune, manages seven total hectares throughout the villages of Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Couchey, and Daix. While the wines of this late, legendary Denis Mortet continue to garner worldwide acclaim and are considered to be some of Gevrey’s finest, Thierry, too, holds his own—especially in the value-per-dollar department. This Bourgogne-level bottling is among the best out there, plain and simple.
For his “Cuvée Les Charmes de Daix,” Thierry leases six tiny parcels totaling just over one acre within the quaint commune of Daix. This type of lease—extremely common throughout France—is called “en fermage” and they are long agreements (nine years minimum) that come with the right of automatic renewal if desired. In the vineyard, Thierry has been Certified Organic for quite some time and is currently transitioning to biodynamic viticulture. His small crew constantly plows the soils and manually tends to the vines, be it for de-budding, pruning, or leaf stripping. The soils here are a rocky mixture of clay and limestone and vines are as old as 40 years. All grapes are hand-harvested at yields that come in well below the appellation limit and grapes are twice sorted—once in the vineyard and again in the winery. The clusters are 100% destemmed and see a steady pigeage (‘punching-down’ of the cap of grape skins) regimen during a natural yeast fermentation in stainless steel vats. After aging 11 months in French oak that has been used at least once (typically one to three years), the wine is bottled.
In the glass, the 2014 “Cuvée Les Charmes de Daix” displays a deep ruby red core with slight pink and garnet highlights on the rim. Dipping your nose in the glass immediately rewards you with black and red cherry, pomegranate, orange zest, wild raspberry, purple and red flowers, aniseed, red licorice, damp clay, crushed stones and various baking spices entwined with subtle smoky undertones. The palate provides ample amounts of bright and pure fruit, with hints of blueberry trickling in toward the finish. Though alcohol is a modest 12.5%, the wine is anything but light-bodied, thanks to a solidly structured core of tannins and acid that mesh with astounding fruit purity. Expect to be impressed by the depth here because this a gorgeous red Burgundy that raises the bar for “standard” Bourgogne level wines. I recommend consuming this in large Burgundy stems now and over the next 3-5 years with a brief 15-minute decant prior. If kept perfectly this wine will drink well beyond the next decade so don’t be afraid to age some long term. Pair this with a dish that won’t overshadow its generous fruits—Jamie Oliver’s take on duck rillettes is always a safe and delicious bet. Enjoy!
