When I think about the wines of Jérôme Chezeaux, I think about the difference between buying meat from a local artisanal butcher versus paying top-dollar (often for lesser quality) at Whole Foods. I love great food and great wine, so much so that I’ll make the extra effort to find the best, most authentic products. And what makes today’s Nuits-Saint-Georges especially satisfying is the fact that I’m not paying for marketing when I buy a bottle. It’s not ‘brand recognition’ I’m responding to—it’s impeccable, hand-crafted quality.
It wouldn’t be accurate to describe Chezeaux as an “under the radar” producer because his wines have been staples of one of the US’s best Burgundy import portfolios (that of Rosenthal Wine Merchant in New York) for more than 25 years. Better to call Chezeaux an avatar, one who has held the line on price even as his wines have reached new heights of purity and precision. Today’s wine is from the beautifully positioned lieu-dit (named vineyard) “Les Charbonnières,” where Chezeaux farms less than a hectare of heirloom vines exceeding 80 years of age. Les Charbonnières is surrounded by Premier Crus on two sides and it most definitely performs at that level; it’s the ultimate in savvy Burgundy-buying and poised for a long evolution in your cellar. If you’re more interested in substance than flash, Chezeaux must be on your hit list.
[**PLEASE NOTE: This wine is available as a pre-offer and will take 2-3 weeks to arrive in our warehouse before it can be shipped.]
The Les Charbonnières vineyard is in the village of Prémeaux-Prissey, which neighbors Nuits-Saint-Georges to the south and contains several elite vineyards that fall under the Nuits-Saint-Georges AOC catchment (including two Premier Cru monopoles: Mugnier’s “Clos de la Maréchale” and L’Arlot’s “Clos de l’Arlot”). Les Charbonnières sits just downslope from the acclaimed Premier Cru “Au Corvées” and adjacent to the Premier Cru “Les Grandes Vignes,” and, for a time, Jérôme blended his old-vine fruit from the site into his ‘village’ Nuits-Saint-Georges bottling. He started bottling it separately starting in 2011, on the strong encouragement of importer Neal Rosenthal, who describes the Chezeaux lineup thusly: “While the wines have always been honest and delicious, the last few vintages show a level of finesse and precision which—in a just world—would vault them into the top ranks of the Côte d’Or’s elite.”
Now assisted by his daughter, Lyse, who is fresh off a series of international internships, Jérôme’s characteristic humility and focus has been a constant, as have his exceptionally reasonable prices—which haven’t moved much in recent years, despite a string of successful vintages. Overall, the family farms 12 hectares of vineyards across several villages, including their home base of Prémeaux, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Vougeot and Vosne Romanée, employing the ‘lutte raisonnée’ (“reasoned fight”) approach—organic practices are followed except in dire emergencies. Chezeaux’s red wines are fermented on indigenous yeasts and aged 18-24 months in 30% new French oak barriques, a relatively long élevage that lends a sense of well-knit ‘completeness’ to his new releases.
Although quality is sky-high in 2016, quantity is scary-low: Frosts in April reduced production of Les Charbonnières from the usual 15 barrels down to five. Luckily, what made it to harvest possessed all the old-vine depth and complexity one could ask for. Jérôme’s trademark is precision, so while this wine shows great concentration, it remains beautifully focused, finessed, and full of mineral “cut.” In the glass, it’s a shimmering ruby red moving to pink at the rim, with beautifully perfumed aromas of dried plum, dark raspberry, pomegranate, and black cherry intertwined with savory notes of black mushroom, black tea, forest floor, and baking spices. Nuits-Saint-Georges’ characteristic minerality and brooding structure is on full display, but the old-vine fruit lends an added dimension of dark-fruited lushness. It should evolve nicely over the next 10+ years in your cellar, but I found a lot to like right now after the wine spent 30-45 minutes in a decanter. It’s a deep and satisfying red Burgundy I would most certainly peg as a Premier Cru (or higher) in a blind tasting, so give it the full “elite” treatment: Serve it in your best Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees with a slowly rendered duck breast in its jus or some lamb loins rubbed with lots of herbs. Whether you’re new to Chezeaux’s wines or an old hand, you’ll be back for more of this, without a doubt. Cheers!
