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Frédéric Esmonin, Gevrey-Chambertin

Burgundy, France 2016 (750mL)
$39.00
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Frédéric Esmonin, Gevrey-Chambertin

Lately, I’ve found myself discussing the value of blind tasting even more than usual. For one, we’ve been doing a series of SommSelect seminars on the subject. It also happens to be a major theme of the just released “SOMM3” documentary. And while I’ve likely said this before, it bears repeating: The main reason for us to taste wines blind at SommSelect is to assess their value-for-dollar. If a wine tastes like it should cost $75, and we find out it only costs $35, it’s in—simple as that!


Today’s Gevrey-Chambertin from the tiny Frédéric Esmonin domaine—as with every wine in the Esmonin lineup, from village-level all the way up to Grand Cru—epitomizes value. In fact, we were tasting an extensive Burgundy portfolio (which does not include Esmonin) just the other day with a very knowledgeable wine rep, and compared the price-quality relationship of a red Burgundy to that of this (less-expensive, more pedigreed) 2016 Esmonin. Our friend was dumbfounded. “How can the price be so low?” he asked, incredulously. I honestly don’t know: Esmonin’s vineyard holdings only total about 10 acres across a wide range of sites, meaning that even this village-level Gevrey is produced in tiny quantities. All things considered, it’s one of the best Burgundy values on the market. Snap up all you possibly can because this is the real deal—a refined, age-worthy red Burgundy you can enjoy both now and 10 years down the line!


The surname Esmonin is synonymous with the village of Gevrey-Chambertin (Sylvie Esmonin is a cousin). For many years, Frédéric’s father, André, sold grapes and wine to some of Burgundy’s most respected négociants, including Jadot and Leroy, but when Frédéric came aboard in the late-1980s, he convinced his father to start ‘domaine bottling’ under their own label. Father and son quickly established their tiny property as a force to be reckoned with, on the strength of a small but diverse range of vineyard holdings primarily clustered in Gevrey-Chambertin. Vine age exceeds 40 years in some parcels (including their Grand Cru sites in Ruchottes- and Mazy-Chambertin), and they bottle around a dozen different wines, none of them in significant quantities. 



The Esmonins farm sustainably, practicing that most French of approaches known as lutte raisonnée (“the reasoned fight”). Their wines are clean, concentrated, and modern, with a healthy (but not excessive) percentage of new oak used for aging; one distinguishing feature of Esmonin wines is their drinkability in their youth, and today’s 2016, like other 2016s we’ve tried (and offered) previously is true to form: there’s a deep core of red and black cherry fruit lending a degree of lushness to this Gevrey, which nevertheless displays a village-specific undercurrent of ‘masculinity’ as well—while it is more finessed and fruit-forward than some of the more muscular offerings from this village, there’s plenty of woodsiness to mark it as a product of this special place.



This 2016’s melding of sweet, lush fruit and smoky, earthy underbrush is impossible to resist—talk about a textbook wine at a great price. In the glass, it’s a deep ruby moving to garnet and pink at the rim, with uplifted aromas of black cherry, blackberry, raspberry, wet rose petals, black tea, forest floor, and a hint of baking spice from a small percentage of new oak. It is medium-bodied, with both a lushness and a sneaky tannic underpinning to its structure. With about 45 minutes in a decanter, this will more than deliver in the short term, but its real sweet spot with be about 3-5 years from now, if you can manage to keep your hands off some until then. Whenever you choose to open some, serve it at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems with the recipe we included with our last Esmonin offer—coq au vin without the coq. It’s a combination you couldn’t possibly tire of. Cheers.

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Country
France
Region
Burgundy
Sub-Region
FranceGevrey-Chambertin
Soil
Limestone & Clay
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
Pinot Noir
Alcohol
13.5
OAK
Partial New French
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now-2030
Decanting
45+ Minutes
Pairing
Coq au Vin

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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