We’re a two-generation business, so we have been particularly interested to watch the generations change at our French producers over the years. France pushes its seniors into retirement about five years earlier than does the US, but otherwise it’s much as it is here – smoother or bumpier depending on history and personalities. Michel Gros took the reins at his family’s famous domaine as a very young man after his father Jean suffered a stroke, so he had 45 years to acquire vines and refine his techniques. The transition to his son Pierre has been smooth, and because Michel is always happiest when he is in the vines, he has not disappeared from the scene. Neal Martin writes in Vinous: “I detect a change in tack rather than charting a totally different course.”
So far change has been gradual – for example Pierre has moved to more organic farming techniques, is adjusting the vine canopy in the Hautes Côtes, and has a new building for stockage – but under Pierre the Domaine continues to manage the gems in its portfolio with care and diligence. This year there is also an important and delightful change: the addition of substantial parcels (about an acre each) in two of Burgundy’s most renowned Grand Cru vineyards. They come by way of a fermage lease of Gros family vines initiated long ago by an unmarried aunt. The lease has now ended and the Domaine Michel Gros has just received its share of this extraordinary terroir.
In addition to the enviable portfolio of parcels in the Côte d’Or’s most storied villages, the domaine offers a great suite of wines from along their edges. As readers of last week’s opening post will have seen, the Domaine’s excellent Bourgogne Côte d’Or 2022 comes from vines just below the town of Vosne-Romanée. No waiting is required for this strikingly good value, which combines ripe black currant fruit with a pleasing texture and should drink well from the get-go. What you may not know is how well this wine holds up. Ansonia père recently discovered a case of the 2017 Bourgogne Côte d’Or in a corner of the Newton Depot, and having helped harvest its grapes seven years ago, felt entitled to spirit it away to the coast of Maine. Seven years after the harvest, it is showing beautifully, and one could be forgiven for mistaking it for a village-level Vosne.
From vines over the ridge along the top of the Côte, the Domaine also makes three red cuvées and one white cuvée of Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits. Michel’s father Jean Gros was an early investor in parcels there, reclaiming and replanting vineyards that had been abandoned during the Phylloxera epidemic of the late nineteenth century. Michel continued the practice, and now the Domaine owns much ground in elevations that benefit from a warming climate.
The regular Hautes Côtes red cuvée is very nice in 2022, garnering a designation from Allen Meadows (Burghound) for wines he judges to be “particularly outstanding for their respective appellations.” Vinous’s Neal Martin found it “particularly aromatic” and praised its “sweet entry” and “gentle grip.” If you want an Hautes Côtes de Nuits with a bit more flesh, consider “Au Vallon” 2022. This bottling comes from south-facing vines and with extra sun always achieves a bit more ripeness. Burghound also awarded his “ outstanding” designation to this wine, finding “sleek, vibrant and utterly delicious flavors.” Neal Martin of Vinous found “a lovely nose with rose-petal-tinged red cherry and crushed strawberry fruit.” The third Hautes Côtes red is from the lieu dit Fontaine St. Martin, a place with the same soils and subsoils as the famous Hill of Corton in the Côte d’Or proper to the south. This is more serious wine, requiring more time to round out and drink well than the others from the Hautes Côtes de Nuits. Neal Martin found “plenty of brambly red fruit on the nose” and “commendable purity.” He thought today’s “muscular” finish would ebb with time in the bottle.
At the village level there is a wealth of choices. Nuits St. Georges is the town to the south of Vosne-Romanée, and its much larger acreage includes vineyards on both sides of the village. The Domaine Michel Gros has vines in both areas — on the northern side in four different lieux dits close to the border with Vosne, and on the south of the town in a single vineyard called “Les Chaliots.” The former are blended together and labeled simply Nuits St. Georges. Each cuvée has its own character. “Chaliots” is classic Nuits St. Georges, with plenty of density. Its dark pinot fruit joins with beef-broth umami notes in a wine that is robust and earthy. The cuvée blended from four Nuits plots on the other side of town more resembles Vosne-Romanée, its neighbor to the north. Here the fruit includes more floral notes and a hint of Vosne spice. It may need a bit of time for the elements to integrate, but as always it will end up as a classic, elegant red Burgundy of much finesse.
Gevrey-Chambertin “La Platiere” is the latest addition to the village-level lineup. It’s a small plot, about the size of the Morey St. Denis parcel, and shows the power and dark fruit typical of Gevrey. In the 2022 Burghound found a nose of “poached plum, wild currant and warm earth,” and praised its “fine volume” and its “rich, caressing and velvet-textured middleweight flavors.” This wine shows the richness and roundness typical of Gevrey.
Just up the RN 74 from Chambolle, Morey St. Denis is a small village with big terroir. In 1993, Michel acquired a parcel in a village-level vineyard at the top of its slope called “En la Rue de Vergy.” It is tiny, yielding only 1500 bottles per year, but the vineyard abuts three Grand Crus: the Clos des Lambrays, the Clos de Tart, and Bonnes Mares. Its superb soils yield a lacy, elegant wine that is among the first from the Domaine to be ready to drink. Vinous’s Neal Martin praised the 2022 as “one to look out for,” finding “cranberry, white tipped strawberry and some black fruit” with a “deft touch of tobacco.” This vineyard is on the list of candidates to be elevated to premier cru some day, and with each passing year it’s easier to see why.
The domaine’s village level Chambolle was a similarly inspired purchase in 1995. It’s a blend of four different lieux dits, but two thirds of the surface is in “Argillieres,” a vineyard that abuts the great Grand Cru “Musigny.” The result is a beautiful wine whose character more resembles a premier cru Chambolle than a village one. It needs more time than village Chambolle, but its completeness and complexity more than make up for the wait. Neal Martin calls the 2022’s aromatics one of his favorites among the Domaine’s wines: “black cherries, wild strawberries, sous bois and light tobacco.” He praised the palate as “smooth with filigree tannins, well-judged acidity, and a caressing and Vosne-like finish with plenty of allure.” Wines like this help explain the widespread renown of this small village named for a bubbling medieval spring called “Champ Bouillant” or “boiling field.”
Over the years both Jean and Michel added parcels at the Vosne village level, and today the Domaine’s Vosne-Romanée offers an excellent example of the village’s signature aromatic profile of spice and violets. The subsoils range from hard limestone to salmon colored marl like the marl that underlies the family’s 1er cru monopole Clos des Réas. Their combined effect is to produce a soft and elegant wine. Burghound found notes of “plum, violet, pomegranate, sandalwood, and Asian-style tea” in the nose of the 2022. He also praised its “subtle minerality” and its “chalky, lingering and well-balanced finale,” concluding: “Lovely, and a wine that should repay up to a decade of keeping.”
The Domaine’s Nuits St. Georges premier cru is the sleeper of its wines at this level. It’s a blend of very old vines from Aux Murgers and Vigneronde, and so there is much millerandage (tiny “shot berries”), which make for juice of intense concentration and depth. The result is a highly age worthy wine that can be strikingly good with some years under its belt. Partly because there’s a lot more Nuits St. Georges than there is Vosne or Chambolle, this wine is priced at a substantial discount to premier crus from those villages. But make no mistake, this is superb red Burgundy, more than deserving of its premier cru classification. Anyone who buys and holds it will have a special wine in the cellar.
Just across the dirt from the domaine’s newly arrived Richebourg vines (more on that later), lies a special plot in the premier cru “Aux Brûlées.” Aux Brûlées is always a beautiful wine, a bit slower to mature than Réas, but like Réas is a classic exemplar of the village’s special character. The 2022 is a stunner – an explosive nose of wild cherries and violets, and a palate dripping with inky, perfectly extracted fruit. In this vintage, Neal Martin found “enticing scents of red-currant jam, white-tipped strawberries, and dried white flowers.” Burghound found “red and black pinot fruit, plum and exotic tea scents,” and praised its “utterly delicious and seductively textured medium weight flavors.”
The Domaine’s flagship is its Vosne-Romanée 1er cru monopole “Clos des Reas,” a wine capable of giving much pleasure in its youth but which also ages gracefully. As Jasper Morris explained in his seminal book Inside Burgundy, “It makes a supremely elegant Vosne premier cru, relatively low in acid, but the softness is deceptive: the wine ages remarkably well.” The key to this magic may be the well-draining salmon colored marl that underlies it, but in the end the truth of the proposition is in the bottle. Both Ansonia père and Ansonia fils have fond memories of helping to harvest this parcel, and wine from many vintages inhabits the family cellars. Neal Martin called the 2022 vintage “one of the best examples that I gave tasted in recent years,” praising its “perfumed, floral bouquet” and a palate “lightly spiced with fine tannins.”
While either of these Vosne premier crus will be very enjoyable in just a few years, buyers would be well advised to hold some bottles longer. Not long ago we opened a magnum the 2012 and a bottle of the 2009. Both were real head turners, complete and complex wines that showed fruit, spice, earth and more, and lingered enticingly on the palate.
With all the excitement about the new grand crus, don’t forget the Domaine’s tiny plot in the best part of the Clos Vougeot, which Jean Gros purchased in his son Michel’s name for his eleventh birthday. (Michel reports being disappointed, having hoped at the time for a new bicycle instead.) The 2022 is a big wine, according to Neal Martin: “one of the fleshiest, more corpulent Clos de Vougeot wines that I met.” Burghound, too, found “richer, more powerful and more complex broad-shouldered flavors.” Martin also praised its “refined bouquet, understated at first, opening with black cherries and red plum scents, a touch of rose bush in the background.” This wine ages beautifully, turning regal and poised as it reaches past a decade.
But for the arrival of an acre of Richebourg, the acre of vines in Èchezeaux Grand Cru’s lieu dit “Les Loächausses” would have led the celebration of new vines. Loächausses is in the center of Echezeaux’s middle band, which many experts have long thought to be the best sector of this grand cru. Indeed, the Domaine’s debut vintage 2022 has garnered fulsome praise, with Neal Martin rating it just a tick behind the Richebourg, finding the palate “smooth and harmonious, quite plush in style;” and the finish “long and harmonious.” We found the wine terrific from barrel – concentrated and spiced with notes of black tea and licorice along with cassis and plum.
Richebourg is among the most famous vineyards in the world, full stop, behind perhaps only Romanée-Conti and La Tache in status. The plot has been in the Gros family for centuries, and was under a 60-year lease from Michel’s aunt Collette to the Domaine Gros Frère et Soeur. In 2022 the lease expired and the vines landed in the Michel Gros portfolio for $0.00. Had the vines reached the market, we can only imagine how many zeros would be attached.
As expected, our allocation of this wine is miniscule, so we’re also offering it by the bottle. At our barrel tasting in March the 2022 Richebourg every bit lived up to its substantial billing – it was like drinking four wines in one: incredible length, perfectly detailed, impeccable balance, and layers upon layers of silky flavor. Neal Martin of Vinous writes “dark berry fruit, forest floor, hints of morels and light graphite aromas,” awarding 94-96 points. He characterizes it “a more elegant take on Richebourg…harmonious with a satin texture, a peacock’s tail towards the finish,” concluding “this marks a very impressive debut.”
In the face of these red wine riches, the Domaine’s sole white from Chardonnay seems almost an afterthought. But it’s a terrific bottling and not one to ignore. It’s from the Hautes Côte’s Fontaine St. Martin, and shows that a skilled maker of red Burgundy can also show a deft touch with white. Neal Martin found “good weight and energy” and a “fresh nose of yellow fruit, hints of nectarine, and chai tea.” At about $35 per bottle, it offers excellent value for a barrel-raised Burgundy.