2016 CHAMBERTIN GRAND CRU DENIS MORTET - 6x75cl

Tasting Notes

• 

  Neal Martin, December 2017,
  Score: 94-96

  There is just one new barrel of the 2016 Chambertin Grand Cru instead of the usual three, using 50% to 60% whole bunch. It has a linear, strict and focused bouquet, not a flamboyant Chambertin, yet well defined with tightly coiled black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with very impressive complexity, pure and intense, mineral-driven with a sweet cassis-tinged finish that seems to go on forever. Excellent...but maybe not the best from Arnaud Mortet this year. Drink 2022-2045

• 

  Burghound, January 2018,
  Score: 93-96

  Here there is no reductive funk as there is a lovely purity to the super-fresh and quite floral nose of dark currants, spice, game and newly turned earth. There is an almost painful intensity to the strikingly energetic and overtly mineral-driven flavors that are tautly muscular though not in the least big rustic while exhibiting terrific persistence on the youthfully austere and very firmly structured finish. Patience is absolutely essential for this potentially brilliant effort. Don't miss! Drink: 2031+

• 

  Stephen Tanzer, January 2018,
  Score: 93-95

  Bright, dark red. Knockout soil-inflected aromas of black raspberry, cherry liqueur, mocha, spices and smoky saline minerality. Plush, sweet and deep; wonderfully voluminous but not yet showing the inner-mouth aromatic interest of the Bonnes-Mares (Mortet noted that the fermentation went so quickly that he could barely extract). A Roto-Rooter of a finish builds slowly and inexorably, clearing everything in its path and staining the palate with salty minerality. Like the Bonnes-Mares, this wine conveys a powerful impression of terroir.

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Producer

Domaine Denis Mortet

For many years, Dénis Mortet worked passionately to create one of the most sought after domaines in Burgundy. He learned about winemaking while working with his father Charles, a cousin of Charles Rousseau. From the early 1990s he built his vineyard area to almost 10 hectares dispersed throughout Gevrey Chambertin, Chambolle Musigny, Vougeot, Fixin and Marsannay. His exceptional determination and self-criticism drove him in pursuit of the holy grail of Gevrey Chambertin. Year-in and year-out, he aimed for higher and higher ideals believing that there was always better, always purer. Sadly, he has not lived to see his results. After his tragic death in 2006 at the age of just 51, his son, Arnaud, took over vineyard management and winemaking. Since then, this domaine has been soaring to ever-greater heights. In Dénis’s era the wines had been admired for their opulence, but in the past decade Arnaud has redefined the Mortet style as one that ascends towards a pinnacle of finesse and elegance. The dextrous handling of each parcel means the Fixin and Marsannay are as interesting talking points as the Lavaux St Jacques and Clos de Vougeot. The domaine has forged a reputation for organic viticulture par excellence, and the dedicated work in the vineyards is abundantly clear in the cellar. Arnaud has an astonishing gift for managing whole bunch fruit and matching new oak to his pure, crystalline wines.