Wine Advisor
Jean Grivot, Richebourg Grand Cru 1996
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Pierre Rovani
It offers a gorgeously bright medium-to-dark ruby color and extraordinary fragrances of super-ripe plums, cherries, and morel mushrooms. This brooding, powerful, full-bodied, mouth-coating, and refined block-buster is crammed with awesomely sweet black raspberries, cherries, candied strawberries, cassis, stones, and raw meat flavors that last throughout its unending finish. Wow! Bravo! Even though I have a stated policy of only reviewing wines that have completed their malo-lactic fermentations, I decided to make an exception for this spectacular wine. First, its malos were virtually finished, and secondly, readers deserve to know about this wine's sublime qualities. "The most important thing for me is harmony. I don't want hard and tannic wines. Those that are too tannic will never be good." So stated Etienne Grivot, the tall, intelligent, Basset Hound-eyed, and youngish man in charge of the domaine that bears his father's name. This estate produces some of Burgundy's finest wines, and consumers need to search them out before their prices reflect their quality. Importer: Chateaux and Estates Wine Co., New York, NY; Tel; (212) 572-7725.
About the Producer
Domaine Jean Grivot is among the great names in Burgundian wine. Étienne Grivot and his wife Marielle (Patrick Bize's sister) took over from Étienne’s father Jean Grivot in 1987. The Grivot family believes in generational change and in 2017, Étienne and Marielle’s daughter, Mathilde, took over for her parents. Mathilde brings a fresh approach while maintaining the longtime traditions of the Grivot family. The recently renovated winery and cellar is in Vosne-Romanée where most of the Grivot vineyards are located. The domaine has been assembled over several generations to its current size of 15.5 hectares and includes holdings in three grand crus: Clos de Vougeot, Echézeaux, and Richebourg. Mathilde believes in getting quality first thanks to meticulous vineyard work throughout the year. The result of this hard work is healthy, ripe (both phenolic and sugar levels) and depth of concentration and flavor of the fruit. Today, the vineyards are densely planted and farmed organically “sans certification,” while the aim in the cellar is for balance and clear expression of terroir. The grapes are entirely destemmed and maceration à froid usually lasts just a day or two. The fermentation starts naturally, with a little punching down before this fermentation begins. There is no more pigeage after fermentation begins, “I don’t like to mix the physical (punching down) with the spiritual (fermentation),” said Étienne. After fermentation, the wines are pumped over once a day before aging in barrel for 15 months. Depending on the vintage, the proportion of new oak is around 25% for the villages appellations, 30-40% for the premier crus and 40-45% percent for the grands crus.
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