2010 Gevrey Chambertin Clos St Jacques

The 2010 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques 1er Cru (magnum) has a very intense bouquet with more concentration and darker fruit than the 2009, offering blackberry, bilberry, oyster shell and pressed iris flowers. The medium-bodied palate features gentle grip, wonderful substance and a surfeit of tart red berry fruit. It is slightly grainy in texture with hints of black truffle on the finish. This improves with aeration and develops a wonderful peppery note with time. A Clos Saint-Jacques built for the long haul.

Deep red. Vibrant nose combines ripe black cherry, blackberry, crushed stone, fresh herbs and white pepper. Tight, classically dry and light on its feet, with outstanding delicacy to its flavors of pomegranate, minerals and blood orange. Very young and unevolved today but remarkably subtle and graceful. A brilliantly pure Clos Saint-Jacques in the making.

The 2010 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos-Saint-Jacques is all about finesse and seamless beauty. A refined, aristocratic Burgundy, the Clos Saint-Jacques is endowed with the silkiest of tannins and flat-out beauty from start to finish. The wine fleshes out on the palate with layers of red berries, flowers and licorice that gain volume and breadth with time in the glass. There is plenty of brightness and minerality to lend a gorgeous element of vibrancy on the close. I loved it. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2030. I tasted an amazing range of 2010 reds at Jadot with long-term winemaker Jacques Lardiere and his successor Frederic Barnier. In order to make this large section of the report easier to read, I have broken up the wines into the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits. Lardiere and Barnier told me they were quite worried about the prospects for the harvest upon their return from summer vacations in August, but the year was saved by a perfect September. Yields are down 25-50% because of the frost and cold weather earlier in the year, but overall quality is very high. Lardiere and Barnier also noted that early on it appeared that there would be a wide gap in quality between the Cote de Beaune and the Cote de Nuits, but over time that gap narrowed to some extent. Still, there is little question the vintage was more challenging in the Cote de Beaune because of a rainier summer and overall higher precipitation throughout the year. Importer: Kobrand Corp., Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7756