Vosne-Romanée 1er cru Les Chaumes
2011
Domaine Jean Grivot is one of Burgundy's greatest small family estates, and their story is a classic Burgundy family story. They were one of the first families in Vosne Romanee to bottle and sell their own wine, beginning in the 1930's. The estate has been run by fifth-generation vigneron Etienne Grivot since 1987 with his wife Marielle. The domaine is an impressive 15ha in total, but in classic 'small is beautiful' Burgundian fashion it takes little bits of 22 different appellations to cobble...
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Vines are 40 years and older. Due to the presence of many small plots, it is impossible to grub up vines by sector. Transplanting is therefore best suited to maintain a high and reasonable average age, not to mention that they especially like old vines and the small berry they produce. Every dead vine stock is systematically replaced. Plantation density is of 11.000 plants per hectare. Fertilization is sparsely used, and if so, it is exclusively organic. I do not use herbicides and the farming practices implemented allow me to improve the soils’ microbial life and structure. The whole vineyard is entirely ploughed, with 3 hectares now ploughed with a horse. Pest management is rational, organic, and environmentally friendly.
Specific instructions are given to harvesters and the sorting is done at the winery on a sorting table. Only perfectly ripe and healthy grapes are retained. Fruit is 95% de-stemmed. The fermentation process starts naturally and exclusively with indigenous yeasts. A daily pump-over is performed with control of temperature and density. Vatting period lasts about 17 days. Each wine is blended in vats. The wine is neither refined nor filtered.
"Reduction blocks the nose though there is plenty of Vosne spice on the round, suave, delicious and mouth coating middle weight flavors that possess a really lovely texture on the balanced and persistent finish. This is a classic Chaumes, which is to say a refined, generous and stylish wine of moderate depth."
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