Wine Advisor
Cecile Tremblay, Chapelle Chambertin Grand Cru 2016
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2016 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru included 50% whole-bunch fruit, the highest of Cécile's cuvées this year. It has a perfumed bouquet, very pure and seductive, not as powerful or intense as the 2015 but very focused and seeming to lock into the senses immediately. Gorgeous black cherries intermingle with boysenberry and cassis fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a succulent, fresh, black cherry and mineral-tinged entry, a fine thread of acidity here and real precision and harmony toward the finish. What a fabulous Chapelle-Chambertin this is destined to be. Queue up for a bottle.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 2016 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru was the first vintage farmed with biodynamic methods, and Tremblay pruned in April to avoid frost; however, the pruning wounds bled and the sap frosted, resulting in just as much damage to the buds as if she had pruned earlier. Farming is never simple! Exhibiting aromas of wild plums, rich berries, spices, raw cocoa and sweet soil tones, it's full-bodied, rich and concentrated, with a deep core of fruit and a charming, giving but serious profile. Less dramatic than the fleshier, richer 2015, the 2016 is a brilliant wine in a different register.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(50% new oak): Bright red-ruby. Aromas of black fruits and espresso torrefaction show an element of reduction that Tremblay believes is due to the new oak element. Dense, sweet and sappy, conveying lovely definition and vivacity to its flavors of black raspberry, crushed rock and blood orange. At once creamy and slightly dusty, this uncompromisingly dry wine is a bit youthfully disjointed today but boasts terrific energy. Finishes very long, with refined tannins.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2016 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru was the first vintage farmed with biodynamic methods, and Tremblay pruned in April to avoid frost; however, the pruning wounds bled and the sap frosted, resulting in just as much damage to the buds as if she had pruned earlier. Farming is never simple! Exhibiting aromas of wild plums, rich berries, spices, raw cocoa and sweet soil tones, it's full-bodied, rich and concentrated, with a deep core of fruit and a charming, giving but serious profile. Less dramatic than the fleshier, richer 2015, the 2016 is a brilliant wine in a different register.
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!
