2018 Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Echézeaux

Somehow I turned up at the right time on the wrong day at Domaine Georges Noëllat. Fortunately, winemaker Maxime Chuerlin was able to gather samples at short notice, both his Domaine bottlings and those under his namesake négociant label. There were just a couple of cuvées that had just been racked and unable to be tasted. Chuerlin has become a bit of a young superstar since taking over from his grandmother in 2010 after growing up not in Burgundy but in Champagne. There was a short period when I wondered whether adulation had come too soon or too quickly, when some vintages demonstrated a little too much oak and occasionally a little volatility. However, the last two or three vintages have shown that he has a steady hand on the tiller and both his 2018 and 2019 rank among the best I have tasted at the Domaine. The wines have achieved greater finesse and precision. Decisions like adding whole bunches into his Grands Echézeaux have enhanced the wine, taken it to a new level, indeed, I think he is at a stage where I would like to see a little more stem addition subject to the growing season. These are generally outstanding wines that I strongly suspect will age extremely well.

Maxime Cheurlin, nephew of Charles Noëllat, who famously sold his estate to Lalou Bize-Leroy in 1988, has rejuvenated this domaine since joining in 2010 after two decades selling fruit to Jadot and Drouhin. Cheurlin’s wines have won accolades in recent years and put the estate back on the map. His style is quite bold and sensual, not a million miles away from Sébastien Cathiard round the corner. Maxime and his huge dog greeted me at the domaine and thankfully, this time his dog had not littered the courtyard (I have come close to stepping in an accident a couple of times). “I started the picking on September 3 in Meursault and then September 5 or 6 for the reds,” Cheurlin told me. “The yields are around 32hl/ha, which is more than in 2016.” Readers will note two sets of wine: the domaine under Georges Noëllat and Cheurlin’s expanding négociant range under his own name. There was a brief phase where I feared that Cheurlin’s wines were flirting with overripeness, but I feel he has pulled back in the last couple of vintages. His Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts cannot surpass his superb Grands-Echézeaux, though it does a damn fine job. I felt his Les Petits Monts was out of sorts on the day, though this might be due to a later malolactic than the other cuvées. Amongst his négociant wines, I am particularly impressed by his Nuits Saint-Georges Village, one of the best I came across during my tastings.

Maxime Cheurlin only started vinifying at the family estate in 2010 (at the age of 20!), but he has dramatic broadened his line-up of wines through a négociant operation that he established in 2015 (he buys grapes and rents vineyards). The style of the house, said Cheurlin, is “aromatic freshness and energy,” he told me in November, and he bottles with very low levels of total sulfur (around 50 ppm). He began harvesting his Pinot Noir vineyards on September 26, with grape sugars around 13%, and he did very little chaptalization. Cheurlin carries out a very gentle extraction, “only at the end of the fermentation.” He immediately chills the fruit and begin with a pre-fermentation cold soak which lasted up to ten days in 2016. And he vinified a few of his ‘16s with a portion of whole clusters.

He considers 2016 "a very good year: concentrated, balanced and energetic but with less density than 2015." And he compared his young '16s to his '12s, which he finds open today. He finds that the '16s how a redder fruit character than the '15s, which are blacker. (A few of the ‘16s had yet finished their malolactic fermentations by the time of my tasting, and one or two had barely started, but Cheurlin probably won't bottle his '16s until next June or July.) Cheurlin now rates 2015 as “a great vintage for long aging,” noting that alcohol levels in the finished wines are not higher than 13.2%.

Maxime Cheurlin only started vinifying at the family estate in 2010 (at the age of 20!), but he has dramatic broadened his line-up of wines through a négociant operation that he established in 2015 (he buys grapes and rents vineyards). The style of the house, said Cheurlin, is “aromatic freshness and energy,” he told me in November, and he bottles with very low levels of total sulfur (around 50 ppm). He began harvesting his Pinot Noir vineyards on September 26, with grape sugars around 13%, and he did very little chaptalization. Cheurlin carries out a very gentle extraction, “only at the end of the fermentation.” He immediately chills the fruit and begin with a pre-fermentation cold soak which lasted up to ten days in 2016. And he vinified a few of his ‘16s with a portion of whole clusters.

He considers 2016 "a very good year: concentrated, balanced and energetic but with less density than 2015." And he compared his young '16s to his '12s, which he finds open today. He finds that the '16s how a redder fruit character than the '15s, which are blacker. (A few of the ‘16s had yet finished their malolactic fermentations by the time of my tasting, and one or two had barely started, but Cheurlin probably won't bottle his '16s until next June or July.) Cheurlin now rates 2015 as “a great vintage for long aging,” noting that alcohol levels in the finished wines are not higher than 13.2%.

Maxime Cheurlin only started vinifying at the family estate in 2010 (at the age of 20!), but he has dramatic broadened his line-up of wines through a négociant operation that he established in 2015 (he buys grapes and rents vineyards). The style of the house, said Cheurlin, is “aromatic freshness and energy,” he told me in November, and he bottles with very low levels of total sulfur (around 50 ppm). He began harvesting his Pinot Noir vineyards on September 26, with grape sugars around 13%, and he did very little chaptalization. Cheurlin carries out a very gentle extraction, “only at the end of the fermentation.” He immediately chills the fruit and begin with a pre-fermentation cold soak which lasted up to ten days in 2016. And he vinified a few of his ‘16s with a portion of whole clusters.

He considers 2016 "a very good year: concentrated, balanced and energetic but with less density than 2015." And he compared his young '16s to his '12s, which he finds open today. He finds that the '16s how a redder fruit character than the '15s, which are blacker. (A few of the ‘16s had yet finished their malolactic fermentations by the time of my tasting, and one or two had barely started, but Cheurlin probably won't bottle his '16s until next June or July.) Cheurlin now rates 2015 as “a great vintage for long aging,” noting that alcohol levels in the finished wines are not higher than 13.2%.

The very shy Maxime Cheurlin, who speaks quickly but at very low volume, only started vinifying here in 2010 after taking over management of the family estate from his grandmother at the very young age of 20. He has expanded his offerings beginning in 2015 by establishing a negociant operation, buying in grapes and renting vineyards. Cheurlin told me he started harvesting on September 12 and picked “in four intense days,” with potential alcohol levels up to 13.2%. He did not chaptalize and he did even less extraction than previously (a cooler cold soak, a cooler fermentation and fewer punchdowns), as he’s looking for “pleasure, drinkability and freshness.” Cheurlin typically destems all of his fruit and uses a healthy percentage of new oak barrels--up to 100% for his Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts and his grand crus.

Cheurlin believes that the ‘15s have “nice balance and aromatic freshness without extreme alcohol,” noting that his 2010 fruit was actually higher in sugar at harvest. “The 2015 pHs are a bit elevated but the wines have energy—and the density and structure for aging.” Some of the malolactic fermentations had only recently finished, and the Nuits-Saint-Georges and Vosne-Romanée Les Chaumes were still working. As I noted last year, this is a young and talented winemaker to follow.