Wine Advisor
Sylvie Esmonin, Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St Jacques 2004
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(13.9% natural alcohol) Good medium ruby-red. Black cherry, mocha, leather and minerals on the nose, with some sweet oak apparent today. Lush and fat on entry, then very rich in the middle, with more energy than the old-vines Gevrey. Flavors of dark raspberry, cherry and dark chocolate are nicely accented by a pinch of pepper on the end. The sappy finish features sweet, broad tannins and lovely juicy persistence. A very strong wine in the style of the vintage's best examples. Following a selection in the vines, the crop level here was just 30 hectoliters per hectare, according to Esmonin.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Full ruby-red. Very ripe aromas of black fruits, coffee and smoky oak. Fat and silky but reduced today. Impressively rich and seamless for the year, with terrific volume. Quite inexpressive today in the middle palate, but this will be suave. Finishes with very fine, dusty tannins. (The Volnay had just been sulfured and was not tastable.)
About the Producer
Sylvie Esmonin runs a 7.66 ha domaine in Gevrey-Chambertin. When she arrived at the domaine 1985 the wine was still sold in bulk. She changed that. The wine was bottled at the domaine under the Domaine Michel Esmonin et Fille label. In 1998 it was changed to Domaine Sylvie Esmonin. The domaine is not particularly old, but the family is. The family goes back to the time of the Dukes of Burgundy. The family was here long before Burgundy became French. We are a family of small winegrowers. Thanks to marriages the domaine has become what it is today. The main part of the domaine’s vineyards are located in and around Gevrey-Chambertin. In addition to that there is a small part of Volnay Santenots, as well as some Bourgogne blanc in Meursault.
