1995 Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques
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Tasting notes
The Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.-Jacques bursts with scents of minerals, mocha, wild berries and sweet toasty oak notes. Velvety-textured, rich, and chewy, with flavors suggestive of ripe red and black fruits, mocha, stones and spices, this beautifully concentrated wine has the structure to last for 8-12 years. This note is the result of tastings I did in Burgundy between January 7 and January 29. The wine was tasted from cask, not bottle. Pinot Noir, a fragile varietal, reacts poorly to fining, filtration, and careless bottling techniques, I recommend caution when considering buying a red burgundy based on cask samples. I called it as I tasted it, and hope the bottled wine reflects the quality of the samples I was provided. At my tasting of the Robert Kacher portfolio, where all the Burgundy winemakers he represents were present, a hush fell over the room when Dugat's wines were poured. A self-effacing, modest man, Dugat smiled uncomfortably as each of the winemakers, all stars in their own right, came to congratulate him on the spectacular quality of his wines. Importer Kacher feels Dugat's 1995s are slightly better than his 1993s, including the otherworldly Griotte Chambertin. I believe they are stunning, benchmark wines. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Pierre Rovani
More reviews and scores
Deep saturated ruby. Blacker fruits on the nose, along with spicy oak and mint; less open. (A tighter style of wine than the premier cru, says Dugat, as the vines here were more stressed by drought in '95.) Sweet entry, then bound-up and even a bit tough, with sound acids and a very firm tannic spine. Still, it's impossible to miss the extraordinary sappy sweetness. Needs at least three or four years of bottle aging.