2016 Chambolle Musigny Les Gruenchers
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Tasting notes
(just a single barrel made from these 68-year-old vines, vs. a normal three and a half or four): Bright, dark red. Aromas of redcurrant, raspberry and red licorice along with some spicy oak (this wine began in a new barrel but was racked into a two-year-old pièce in August). Sappy, dense wine with modest early sweetness but excellent clarity and lift to its slightly medicinal flavors of acidulated berries, spices, herbs and licorice. A bit youthfully ungiving but still silkier in the middle than the Baudes. Finishes with firm tannins and lingering saline minerality.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Allen Meadows, Burghound
More reviews and scores
There is only one barrel, or 300 bottles, of the 2016 Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Gruenchers this year due to frost, less than a third of a good vintage. Ghislaine explained that this was initially in a new barrel, then racked into a two-year old barrel. It has a juicy red cherry, strawberry and candied orange peel-scented bouquet, not complex but one of the more sensual bouquet from Ghislaine Barthod this year. The palate is medium-bodied, and you can feel the oak influence more than the other premier crus, yet there is sufficient fruit to soak that up. There is real density and weight on the finish, if not quite the tension and detail of the finest vintages. Excellent.
About the producer
A Burgundy icon and definitive voice of Chambolle-Musigny, crafting ethereal Pinot Noir with crystalline precision.