Wine Advisor
Jacques Prieur, Chambertin Grand Cru 2007
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: David Schildknecht
Leather, red licorice, cocoa powder, in the nose of Prieur’s 2007 Chambertin presage a stewed-fruit recapitulation of those themes on a broad but strongly tannic palate. The finish offers a rather muddled sort of richness, with prominent caramel and resin of new wood and slightly gum-numbing astringency. But as with other 2007s in this position, I am not convinced that for all of its tannin this really has structure for significant cellaring or the sort of personality that will become more interesting in the process. Certainly though, it should keep well-enough for at least 3-5 years and would be worth re-visiting and re-evaluating. Martin Prieur, oenologist Nadine Gublin, and their team hung tight in the 2008 vintage and ended up harvesting very ripe-tasting Pinots, at the price of yields dramatically reduced by the necessary selection (to the extent hail and green harvest had not already cut them back). As a group, these 2008s tended toward a not entirely felicitous alliance of tannic abrasion and toasty, smoky, ultimately slightly palate-drying new wood, although many of the wines showed more harmoniously when I re-tasted them in April than they had the month prior, and I have accordingly favored my later impressions in the notes that follow. It may well be true by some measure – as Gublin opined – that the 2008s here are more consistently ripe than were the 2006s, but for now I find more depth, harmony, and charm in the latter. Their 2007s – which the domaine began picking already on August 30 – are not currently displaying much of the charm they showed very early on, and while the estate’s staff hope is that this will be regained (and certainly the wines have “structure” in the sense of tannin), I continue to be skeptical in general about deferring those pleasures that this vintage offers. In many vineyards, incidentally, 2008 represented the third consecutive vintage in which Prieur had harvested scarcely more than 20 hectoliters per hectare. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700
About the Producer
HISTORY Domaine Jacques Prieur's mythical story started on February 24th, 1868, with the wedding, in Bligny-les-Beaune, of Claude Duvergey (22 years old) and Marie Taboureau (19 years old). Marie was born in Bligny in 1848 and Claude in Meursault in 1845. Their parents were winegrowers. Claude founded the Duvergey-Taboureau House and thrived in the wine and spirit trade, without investing directly, at first, in viticulture. In 1879, he acquired the property of "Les Herbeux" in Meursault, current heart of Domaine Jacques Prieur... and started buying vineyards. He then made a risky bet with the arrival of the terrible phylloxera in Côte d'Or. However, his choices would finally make him a visionary thanks to the use of American plants as cure. In 1889 he acquired the famous Clos de Mazeray Monopole (Meursault), a parcel of Volnay Santenots, 4.5 ha (11 ac) of Clos Vougeot and 2 lots in Chambolle-Musigny. In 1890 he became the sole owner of the prestigious Clos des Santenots in Volnay, 1.5 ha (3.7 ac) of Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes and 0.45 ha (1.1 ac) of the mythical Montrachet (notably supplemented by the "Dent de Chien" parcels in 1891 and 1892). He then ran his trade business in the Château de Bligny bought in 1890 for his wife. Without any direct heir, both spouses would turn to the Taboureau family side. Thus they married in 1891 Hélène Taboureau (Marie's niece) and a well-born young man from Beaune, Henri Prieur (itinerant salesman). They benefited from a very advantageous marriage contract including some goods but especially the promise of a profit-sharing in the Duvergey-Taboureau's trade. Jacques Prieur was born on January 31st, 1893, from the union of Hélène and Henri. The estate kept growing in 1895 with a new acquisition in Musigny and a swap between a plot of Clos Vougeot and parcels of Chambertin and Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze. In 1899, Claude Duvergey added Volnay Champans to its collection and in 1907, Chevalier-Montrachet. He died on March 9th, 1920, and bequeathed all of his property to Jacques Prieur (his wife remaining stakeholder). Soon after, the latter married Madeleine Darnat, daughter of sheets merchants from Lyon. In 1924, Jacques Prieur and comte Jules Lafon instituted the famous "Paulée de Meursault" in order to celebrate the end of harvests with all winegrowers from the village. Marie Duvergey-Taboureau died in 1935 and definitely left the estate to Jacques Prieur. Co-founder of the legendary Chevaliers du Tastevin, he gave his name to the estate in 1956. He died in 1965 and his wife in 1974, leaving the winery to their 6 children. In 1988, in order to avoid selling the winery to foreign shareholders, 5 important French families united, among them Labruyère Family, winegrowers and entrepreneurs from South Burgundy. In the 1990s the Grands Crus of Corton-Bressandes and Corton-Charlemagne would enrich the mosaic of terroirs of the estate. Today leading this jewel of Burgundy, Labruyère Family, supported by Prieur Family's heirs, promotes and defends, every single day, the great terroirs of Burgundy, worldwide
