2008 Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques
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Tasting notes
The 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.-Jacques opens with sweet, floral notes that meld into spices and dark red fruits. Textured and enveloping throughout, the Lavaux St. Jacques impresses for the sheer pleasure it provides. The finish remains a bit taut, but in another few years this should be a gem. It is a dazzling wine from Claude Dugat. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2028. Claude Dugat farms 16 hectares, of which only 3 are owned. Dugat waited until September 20 to start harvesting. The fruit was 100% destemmed and spent 15 days on the skins with two punchdowns a day and no pumpovers. The wine was pressed, left 48 hours to decant and moved into barrel. The wines were racked the following April and were bottled with no fining or filtration. The Bourgogne were aged in neutral oak, the Villages and 1ers saw 50% new oak and the Grand Crus saw 100% new oak. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Bright dark red. Knockout perfumed nose melds raspberry, rose petal, minerals and spices, plus a minty high note and a whiff of bitter chocolate. Silkier on entry than the premier cru, showing terrific intensity to the sweet flavors of wild red fruits. Wonderfully pure, perfumed wine with explosive finishing lift and cut and palate-staining flavor. This, too, seems much more vibrant and classic than the 2009 version but needs at least a few more years in bottle to put on weight. Dugat did a second pass through his vines in early September to eliminate rotten and underripe grapes, and this extra step clearly contributed to the density and relatively homogeneous ripeness of his superb set of 2008s.
Deep, bright red-ruby. Black raspberry and licorice aromas are complicated by discreet notes of minerals and bitter chocolate. Tightly wound and youthfully imploded but with solid ripeness and a restrained sweetness to its bracing blackberry, mineral and fresh herb flavors. This boasts the firm acids of the year but comes across as less strict than some past vintages of this cuvee Finishes with building tannins.
A more elegant and mildly cooler nose of refined dark berry fruit aromas leads to intense, detailed and mineral-driven middle weight flavors that are impressively concentrated, serious and beautifully focused on the balanced and lingering finish. As it typically does, this offers excellent quality. Allen Meadows, Burghound, Jan, 2010