2023 Gevrey Chambertin Bel Air

The 2023 Gevrey-Chambertin Bel Air 1er Cru has a well-defined bouquet with pretty redcurrant and raspberry fruit alongside neatly enmeshed oak. The palate is medium-bodied and lightly spiced with plump red berry fruit, pointed acidity and what you might misconstrue as stem-induced pepperiness toward the finish (there are no stems). A lovely Gevrey. Romain Taupenot guided me through his 2023s at the Domaine. "The vintage was marked by a deficiency in rain overall, especially in the first quarter," he explains. "The winter was quite warm. There was lots of variation in terms of cool and hotter phases in temperature throughout the season. There were quite a few storms that caused localized rainfall, more like tropical storms with a lot of wind. So, there are discrepancies between villages. Bud break happened around April 7-10 while we saw the first green parts of the buds on March 20, a delay caused by cooler temperatures. Mid-flowering was around June 10 and mid-véraison was between August 10 and 15. We were expecting the véraison to go faster to predicate an earlier harvest, but again, cool temperatures retarded ripeness. Also, in August, from August 8-25 there were heat spikes and some drought. We made two green harvests depending on the vineyards." "By the end of August, we saw some rain and lower temperatures. Then, the heat returned until the middle of September. We picked from September 11-25, during which we had to sort out some of the burnt berries, which had not been so obvious in 2023. When you tasted these berries they were obviously pruney. The level of ripeness in the berries was attained in the second week of September. It was the hottest vintage on average, but unlike previous vintages, we ended up with lower levels of sugar, around 12.3-13.6% potential alcohol, with most wines ending up around 13.0%. The heat decreased acid levels so it is not so high, but it is enough and just a few cuvées had to be acidified, pH levels around 3.55-3.65 after malo for the reds. Everything was destemmed in this vintage."