2012 Gevrey Chambertin Evocelles

Bright, deep red. Superripe red cherry and raspberry flavors show an almost liqueur-like quality yet retain good verve. Fat, plump and sweet; a red fruit bomb in the mouth but enlivened by mineral and floral nuances. Finishes with big but sweet tannins and excellent mineral persistence. For such a ripe wine, this is remarkably juicy and balanced. The yield here was 30 hectoliters per hectare, as the later flowering resulted in less coulure.

Rich, perfumed and beautifully layered throughout, the 2012 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles impresses for its overall balance and pure silkiness. The 2012 is light on its feet yet also rich and layered, with tons of depth and resonance. Dark purple fruit, hard candy spices and menthol inform the deep finish. The 2012 tastes just like biting into a very ripe grape.

The 2012 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles has an attractive redcurrant and Morello bouquet although I am just seeking more tension at this point, more assertiveness. The palate is medium-bodied with a light peppery opening, angular tannins with a touch of citrus peel on the finish. This needs time to coalesce and should be afforded a couple of years once in barrel. Having tasted with his wife Ghislaine Barthod in the morning, I returned to the same address in the afternoon to see Louis Boillot. The domaine was established in 2002 when his father split the family domaine, Louis Boillot & Fils, between Louis and his brother Pierre. Henri Boillot is their cousin. It is an interesting set up: half the cellar reserved for Ghislaine’s wines and the other for her husband’s and whilst I have a great deal of experience with the former, I was less acquainted with Boillot’s. However I am glad that I did the time to sample through an impressive portfolio that were generally balanced, refined and skilfully expressed their terroir. In common with so many other producers, the affects of poor flowering, coulure and millerandage reduced yields. His Volnay Caillerets was reduced down to just half a barrel and in the case of his Pommard Village, down to a negligible three crates of grapes that were blended into the Bourgogne Rouge. Louis also rued the fact that the decreased total number of barrels meant that the ratio of new oak is a little higher than he might have liked, and therefore after vinifying in new oak he often transferred his wines into used oak after malo-lactic fermentations. Generally, this strategy worked and most of his 2012 did not exhibit excessive levels of wood. I would zone in on Louis’s exquisite Volnay wines that seemed to put the traumas of the growing season behind them, whilst the Nuits Saint Georges is exemplary. Importer: Sussex Wine and Rare Wine Company (CA) and several importers in the UK including Lay & Wheeler, Raeburn Fine Wine, Averys and Berry Brothers.