Wine Advisor
Ghislaine Barthod, Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Cras 2002
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Pierre Rovani
Medium to dark ruby-colored and sporting a nose of violets and black fruits, the 2002 Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras is produced from a high elevation vineyard. Its medium to full-bodied personality reveals awesome depth of fruit, breadth, and density. Crammed with lush fruit, its rich character offers blackberry jam, grapy cherries, cassis liqueur, and black cherries. This chunky, weighty offering is also extremely well-balanced, pure, and long in the finish. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2018. Bravo! Importer: Neal Rosenthal Wine Merchant, New York, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
The 2002 Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras 1er Cru has a warm and generous bouquet with red plum, leather, undergrowth and a light stemmy scent (even though this is actually completely de-stemmed!). The palate is slightly sweeter and more confit-like compared directly with Roumier's Les Cras, displaying fine definition with a detailed, lightly peppered finish. This is drinking beautifully now. Tasted blind at the Roumier Les Cras vertical at Medlar, London and also at La Trompette three months later.
About the Producer
The Domaine Barthod-Noellat was founded in the late 1920s and obviously is a fusion of the work of two families: Noellat & Barthod. Gaston Barthod, whose family originated in the Jura, married into the Noellat family and took over the direction of the domaine after his military service concluded in the 1950s. We commenced our love affair with this domaine in 1981 when we first began to import its wines into the United States. In many ways, Gaston Barthod served as our mentor in the early stages of our work in Burgundy and we remain deeply grateful for, and respectful of, his sage advice. At the outset of our relationship, Gaston declared only his Chambolle Musigny “Les Charmes” as a 1er Cru and all the rest of the wine bore the same “Chambolle Musigny” label. For our initial shipments of “Les Cras” and “Les Fuées”, two lovely 1er Crus, we had Gaston mark the boxes in crayon with a “C” or an “F” so that we could keep them separate and treat them differently when they arrived stateside! Ghislaine Barthod’s holdings cover 5.86 hectares in the commune of Chambolle and in neighboring Gilly-les-Citeaux. The soil of Chambolle is more spare than that of neighboring Morey and Gevrey. Limestone gravel covers the surface and the layer of topsoil is very thin. As a result, the wines of Chambolle are noted for their finesse and delicacy. The average age of the vines on the Barthod estate is over 30 years old. Yields are always modest; a vigorous pruning and occasional “green harvest” are practiced. Ghislaine follows traditional methods of vinification and carefully ages her wines. The grapes are partially destemmed before going into the fermentation vats. Only natural yeasts are used. The more sluggish start encountered when working with wild yeast gives the must a natural period of maceration before fermentation begins. The length varies from 2 to 5 days and is dependent upon temperatures. After fermentation, the wines are racked into small barrels (about 20% to 25% of which are new) and aged for about 20 months. These wines are particularly ageworthy and offer the rare privilege of deeply exploring the terroir of this singular village.
