2015 Domaine Bertrand et Axelle Machard de Gramont, Bourgogne Rouge “Les Grands Chaillots” Burgundy, France.
This pretty and elegant Lieu Dit Les Grands Chaillots, is from Nuits-Saint-Georges, shows the lovely touch of Axelle Machard de Gramont, a new star in the region, and highlights the vintage’s charms with wonderfully textured fruit that is ripe, but with good taught precision. This is a flavorful and thoughtful Pinot Noir that can inspire a new generation of wine lovers to Burgundy, it presents a clear vision, easy to understand on the palate with graceful texture and delicate earthiness, it’s exceptional in it’s price class. The first impression is one of opulence, and quality, especially for the price and level of this wine, gaining greatly with air in the glass there is a lot to admire with radiant red fruits, light spicy notes, classy wood shadings and mineral tones. Layers of cherry, plum and raspberry lead here on the round and medium full palate, again impressive for a Bourgogne AC bottling, with hints of cranberry, English toffee, rose petal, briar, cola bean and faint forest mushroom along with a nice cut of acidity which keeps this Pinot alive and vibrant from start to finish. I had been looking for Domaine Bertrand et Axelle Machard de Gramond high and low for a while, so I was thrilled to that Paris Wine Company-Balanced Wine Selections are bringing this into the USA, they have a solid selection of 2014 and 2015’s in stock and while I’ll hand on to the Premier Cru(s) for many more years before I open them, I couldn’t resist popping a bottle of this entry level cuvee to see what was in store, and though it is drinking beautifully, it has a long life ahead too. Machard de Gramont is working organic, and going to practicing biodynamic from what I gather, and the wine shows a fine form of ripeness and energy, with Axelle using native yeasts and mostly used oak to craft her lineup, everything highlights her drive and passion towards purity and the individual terroirs of her plots in Nuits-Saint-Georges. The natural expressiveness of these 2015 are going to make them very attractive young, but the concentration and complexity are likely set to be them even better with age, I am in the opinion that even this one will be even more rewarding with 3 to 5 years of bottle age and best between 2026 to 2032, I’m so happy I got a few bottles, this is a great bargain and exciting Pinot.
($32-38 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive
