Appellations
Grand Cru · Côte de Nuits
Chambertin
Gevrey-Chambertin · red · 13
The most powerful of the nine Gevrey grands crus, and Napoleon's reported favourite.
Under the vines
Brown limestone over Bajocian rock, with a workable clay fraction and good depth mid-slope.
In the glass
Dense, structured, slow. Black fruit and a savoury iron note under firm tannin; it wants fifteen years and rewards twenty.
Why it sits here
It gave the village the second half of its name in 1847, which half the Côte then copied.
Commonly misread
That Chambertin and Clos de Bèze are the same vineyard. They adjoin; the rights between them run one way only.
Names worth knowing
Armand Rousseau, Domaine Leroy, Trapet, Denis Mortet, Dugat-Py