Jean Grivot, Richebourg Grand Cru 2012

robert_parker98

Reviewed by: Neal Martin

Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Richebourg Grand Cru from Domaine Jean Grivot has a slight reduction on the nose, but underneath there is plenty of intense black and red fruit, touch of dried blood and black pudding. It does repay several minutes aeration, gaining more and more clarity. The palate is medium-bodied with dry tannin, moderate balance but it attenuates slightly towards the finish. There is a regal grand cru here but it is obdurate and backward - which is excusable for this vineyard. This is simply magnificent to its very core.

robert_parker97

Reviewed by: Neal Martin

The 2012 Richebourg Grand Cru was aged in two new barrels and one that Etienne used to vinify his Chardonnay. The nose is a little reduced, but you can distinguish the broody dark fruit roiling underneath. The palate is very expressive with taut filigree tannins, vibrant red and black fruit, an unerring sense of symmetry and a supremely long wake. This will be outstanding. “Another planet” mentioned Etienne Grivot as he savored his grand cru. “Planet Richebourg,” I mentally replied. First stop - week 5 - Domaine Jean Grivot in Vosne-Romanee. After several dispiriting and unremittingly tenebrous days when the sun appeared to have excommunicated from Burgundy for simply being too bright, today there is not a puff of white in the sky and so the drive to Vosne-Romanee is a joy. La famille Grivot were all at the winery, including Etienne’s wife Marielle who I had met chez Simon Bize three weeks earlier (her brother Patrick having passed away recently). For me, this address acts as a barometer for how well the appellation performed since the domaine is virtually a roll call of the villages most esteemed premier crus, not to mention one or two choice grand crus. After the trials and tribulations of a fraught growing season recounted elsewhere, Etienne dusted off the secateurs on 20 September and the harvest continued for 8 days thereafter. He told me that due to the cold spring the malo-lactics fermentation had commenced later than usual and had sulfured his barrels three times during elevage. Despite everything, the barrel samples that were assembled as close to the final blend as possible, were exemplary from start to finish, despite having to swerve around reduction here and there. The “Accad” days have long been forgotten and having tracked most of their wines over the last 15 years, I have discerned a tangible “fine-tuning” in the last five or six years. If you are ever lucky enough to be able to compare and contrast his Vosne premier crus then it is immediately evident that Etienne expresses the typicite of each with greater clarity than say a decade ago. It cannot be denied that this amelioration has gone hand in hand with increased prices and the days when even impoverished old me could forage for affordable village crus and premier crus are gone. On the other hand, Etienne is creating wines that I think he has always dreamed of making and 2012 delivered the goods. Importer: Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, Napa CA; tel. (707) 299-2600 and through several merchants in the UK.