I was floored, almost quite literally, when the cork was pulled: I dipped my nose in the glass, and immediately exclaimed to the importer “I’ll take it all.” Now that’s a quick transaction. Like a cartoon villain, the entire trove was
all mine! Alas, there wasn’t a massive stockpile for me to sit on—only a handful of cases.
That’s the irony behind the great wines of the world. There just isn’t enough to go around, which is certainly true with under-the-radar Chapuis & Chapuis: These two brothers hand-craft the smallest of productions, and out of their micro-range, I learned this happens to be one of the tiniest. Still, they’ve managed to pack in more flavor and terroir than countless $100+ Premier Cru bottles from the same vintage. The magnitude of perfume, the intimate interchange of elegance and concentration, the savory, minutes-long finish...it’s all there in staggering detail. I haven’t been this enraptured with an up-and-coming producer in years, and today’s featured bottle is vying for the top red Burgundy value of the vintage. Seriously! You love drinking top wines from Chambolle and Morey? Buy this. I’ll be drinking it all year—and many more to come!
I find that the best discoveries are made by asking winemakers, merchants, and sommeliers what’s in their glasses, and that’s exactly how we discovered the Chapuis brothers back in 2017. Much of that exciting buzz came from the friend I was traveling with, who introduced me to the jovial Romain Chapuis during an epic dinner in Beaune. Tasting today’s incredible wine is like a snapshot of the winemaker himself: Inviting and robust, it never offers a dull moment.
The Chapuis brothers, Romain and Jean-Guillaume, were raised in the vineyards of Aloxe-Corton, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Romain fell in love with the wine and began touring the world to improve his craft. He had the luxury of learning under natural wine superstar Philippe Pacalet, who himself was educated by Marcel Lapierre (one of the most revered Beaujolais producers) and Jules Chauvet (the founding father of the French natural wine movement). Upon Romain’s return to Burgundy, he reunited with his brother and they decided to launch their own label. Starting a winery in Burgundy, however, is neither cheap nor easy; land is some of the most expensive in the world and regulations are strict.
After founding Chapuis Frères in Pommard in 2009 (where their cellar once housed the kitchen of a 13th-century castle), the brothers had just enough capital remaining for .8 hectares of vines. Needing to supplement their own production with enough fruit to create a viable enterprise, they scoured the region for top sources.
The larger Côte de Nuits-Villages AOC encompasses a number of villages, but the brothers focused on one particular site for today’s bottle. They sourced grapes from a 50-year-old, .4-hectare plot within “Les Chaillots,” a single vineyard farmed by a local vigneron in Corgoloin. This 900-person village is wedged snugly between Aloxe-Corton and Nuits-Saint-Georges and is a mere mile or two from the base of Grand Cru Corton. Grapes are hand-picked and quickly shuttled to their cellar where they underwent a long, all-natural fermentation, 100% de-stemmed. The wine aged a minimum of 12 months in mostly neutral (15% new) French oak before it was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The concentration of 2015 reveals itself with a dense, dark ruby core and a nonstop cascade of high-toned cherry and perfumed flowers. But, as oxygen began peeling back the pungent aromas that roared out of the gate, a prominent Burgundian structure is revealed, reminding me of top wines from 2014. Ultimately, today’s 2015 Chapuis Côte de Nuits-Villages is a beautiful marriage between ripeness and elegance. The wine glides across the palate with such concentration, finesse, and class, revealing crushed stones, underbrush, pine bark, loose tea leaves, and delicately woven baking spices. Expect a lush presence of ripe black cherry, plums, and raspberry to arrive too, alongside jolting energy and acidity that keeps the finish vibrating for well over a minute. After you experience everything this has to offer, I know I won’t be alone in crowning this one of the top red Burgundy values of 2015. Simply serve in large stems around 60 degrees and match it with a seared duck breast with a pomegranate reduction. A smart buyer will drink a few in the near future while staggering their remainders over the next several years—I can hardly fathom the joy this wine will bring after 2020!
