Wine Advisor
Cecile Tremblay, Chapelle Chambertin Grand Cru 2013
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
A lovely wine from an underrated vintage, Tremblay's 2013 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with notes of wild berries and plums mingled with peonies, forest floor, espresso roast and sweet spices. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's built around a racy spine of acidity and ultra-refined tannins, but as it unwinds with bottle age it's beginning to show real plenitude, too. It's still a few years away from its plateau of maturity.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2013 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru from Cecile’s miniscule 0.36-hectare parcel is 95% whole-cluster fruit this year and matured in 50% new oak. It has a very sensual bouquet that is beautifully defined: mulberry, fresh strawberry, a slight ferrous note coming through with aeration. There is a sense of plushness here that I often find on her Chapelle. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded, supple tannins: abundant red and black fruit with hints of white pepper and orange rind toward the finish that should be afforded several years aging.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Picked on October 4, the 2013 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru is another high point in this vertical, testimony to how good this underrated vintage has turned out to be for the top producers of the Côte de Nuits and beyond. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of exotic spices, musk, blood orange, red berries, plums and forest floor, it's full-bodied, velvety and vibrant, with a seamless, sensual core of fruit framed by ripe tannins and lively acids. Deep and complete, it's one of my favorite vintages from Tremblay to drink today, even if it will continue to improve for several years.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted blind at the Burgfest tasting in Beaune, the 2013 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru has a very reduced bouquet that rather suppresses the terroir expression. The palate is medium-bodied with a little chewiness, quite oaky and missing some complexity on the finish that feels a little too eager to make an impression. This does not match the showing from barrel although I hope that it will improve in bottle, as Cécile's wines frequently do. Tasted September 2016.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(vinified with 95% whole clusters): Good bright medium red. Captivating aromas of dried raspberry, flowers, coffee and underbrush; very Gevrey! Juicy, spicy red fruits are fine-grained and very pure, still youthfully firm but already hinting at the complexity to come. Finishes with serious mouthdusting but sweet tannins and excellent cut and lift. Tremblay vinifies this grand cru with whole clusters because she believes the stems give an airy quality to what is essentially "a monolithic climat."
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Picked on October 4, the 2013 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru is another high point in this vertical, testimony to how good this underrated vintage has turned out to be for the top producers of the Côte de Nuits and beyond. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of exotic spices, musk, blood orange, red berries, plums and forest floor, it's full-bodied, velvety and vibrant, with a seamless, sensual core of fruit framed by ripe tannins and lively acids. Deep and complete, it's one of my favorite vintages from Tremblay to drink today, even if it will continue to improve for several years.
About the Producer
Cecile TREMBLAY descends from a long line of vignerons. The story begins in 1921, with the union of Cécile’s great-grandparents, Edouard Jayer, a cooper in Nuits-Saint-Georges, and Esther Fournier who inherited vineyards from her family. Together they established and developed their own Domaine. The domaine’s vineyards were then eventually passed down to their five children. Renée, the youngest daughter, kept her share of the vineyards under métayage. Later on, Renée’s only daughter, Marie-Annick, grew the family holdings with her husband while keeping all vineyards under métayage. Cécile Tremblay, who had studied enology and viticulture in Dijon, reclaimed the family heritage and took over the management of the vineyards in 2002. A year later, Cécile bottled her first wines, Domaine Cécile Tremblay was born!
