Denis Mortet, Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Les Champeaux 2014

robert_parker95

Reviewed by: Neal Martin

The 2014 Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Champeaux comes from 60- to 100-year-old vines on four different blocks in the corners of the vineyard, where the soil worked by horse as there is no access into the vineyard for a vehicle. It has a stoic, mineral bouquet that expresses the limestone mother-rock in this vineyard. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe tannin, crisp acidity, superb mineralité, and the 40% new oak seamless is integrated on the crystalline finish. It just encapsulates how far Arnaud Mortet has come as a winemaker -- a brilliant wine.

vinous93

Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer

(50% new oak; these vines average 70 years of age, with some as old as 100): Deep red-ruby. Deep, musky aromas of raspberry, wild blackberry, game and earth. Very rich and creamy in the mouth, with the intense berry fruit showing a chewy, tactile quality thanks to its underpinning of crushed stone. This wonderfully full, generous premier cru finishes with firm but very fine-grained tannins and a sneaky whiplash of flavor. Mortet works this vineyard, as well as part of his Lavaux Saint-Jacques, with a horse, as he can't get a tractor into these vines. But ploughing with a horse "really breaks up the soil," he told me.