Harmand-Geoffroy has long been one of my all-time favorite estates in Gevrey-Chambertin, and today’s 2014 is a perfect example as to why: The value-for-dollar this Premier Cru bottling delivers is simply unbeatable. This estate is a one-stop-shop for all things Gevrey-Chambertin, from village-level all the way up to Grand Cru, and if you wanted to pick a domaine whose wines exemplify classic Gevrey character—woodsy, meaty, masculine expressions of Pinot Noir—this would be it.
And yet, despite their long-rooted history in the village, their “who’s-who” of prime vineyard holdings, and the remarkable consistency and longevity of their wines, their prices have remained surprisingly reasonable. Shockingly so, in fact, in the case of today’s Premier Cru “Lavaux Saint-Jacques” which often performs at a Grand Cru level. If you are a Burgundy collector, you may well have already stopped reading, because you know the stars are aligned here—vintage, vineyard, producer, and price are all spot-on. The only way it gets better is if you jump up to Grand Cru, but then you’ve probably doubled the price without doubling the quality. Our allocation is small, so take what you can before this investment-grade stunner disappears!
[**Please note: This wine is arriving from New York and will ship from our warehouse the week of October 8th.]
Lavaux St. Jacques is a Premier Cru vineyard positioned at the mouth of the Combe de Lavaux, a narrow, snaking valley that runs west out of Gevrey-Chambertin and up into the forests above. It’s a relatively cool site because of the funnel effect of the combe, but also a site with a full-south exposition that collects all-day sun. If there’s a Lavaux Saint-Jacques ‘profile’ among the myriad bottlings that exist out there (there are more than 30 owners of this 9.5-hectare vineyard), it tends to lean toward darker fruit and a sinewy, muscular structure—not always as rich as the nearby Grand Crus but generally a powerful, woodsy, very ‘Gevrey’ expression of Pinot Noir. Harmand-Geoffroy’s interpretation is, in this regard, textbook. English writer Remington Norman, one of the world’s leading authorities on Burgundy, writes in his defining text, The Great Domaines of Burgundy, “The Harmands’ touch is clearly mastery. Their wines are all too attractive young, but age well.” I couldn’t agree more; since 2009, when Gerard Harmand passed down control of his estate to his son Philippe, the domaine has been on a roll, making cleaner and more polished wines than ever before.
In recent years, the Harmands have focused their resources on improving consistency at their property. In 1998, the family built a more modern winery, which coincided with a shift toward cleaner, less rustic wines. The property is organically farmed without chemical fertilizers, insecticides, or herbicides, which the family feels interrupt the natural life cycles of the vineyard. Today’s wine comes from Philippe and Gerard’s .7-hectare holding in Lavaux Saint-Jacques. The Harmand’s vines in this parcel were planted between 45 and 95 years ago, making their vines some of the oldest in the vineyard. Soil here is rugged limestone and marl which, when combined with the advanced vine age, produces wines of impressive concentration and depth. Consequently, Harmand-Geoffroy is bottling some of the meatiest and most masculine wines in Gevrey, according to my palate. Grapes for this bottling are hand-harvested and de-stemmed before undergoing a five-day cold soak. Fermentation lasts 2-3 weeks before the wine is racked into a mix of mostly neutral small barrels along with a few new barrels. The wine rests for a year and a half until bottling without fining or filtration. The entire process lasts 3.5 years, culminating in the release of a mere 75 cases for the US each autumn. Needless to say, this is a very rare and limited wine.
Having spent most of this year offering a slew of (very good) 2015s and ’16s, it’s always nice to return to one of my favorite recent vintages for red Burgundy: 2014. The extra aging this wine received is undoubtedly starting to pay off, as it begins to knit together and really show off its impressive depth, balance, and exceptionally perfumed aromatics. In the glass, it’s a concentrated garnet-red extending to the rim, with woodsy aromas of black cherry, wild strawberry and blackberry, damp violets, black mushroom, grilled meat, crushed rocks, and lots of underbrush. There is definitely Grand Cru-level depth and structure here, and it doesn’t get more “textbook” Gevrey-Chambertin than this—my desire for some boeuf bourguignon is downright Pavlovian when I taste this wine. If you open a bottle soon (and there’s no way you’ll be able to stay away), decant it about an hour before service in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees. Remaining bottles, if not readily consumed soon thereafter, should be cellared and revisited over the next 15+ years. Don’t worry, it’s got the muscle, and the refinement, for the long haul. There’s no better value anywhere in Burgundy. Cheers!
