The 2013 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru is a beautifully maturing Pinot Noir, offering a complex bouquet of wild berries, blood orange, truffle, and forest floor. Broad, supple, and finely structured, it reflects the cool 2013 vintage with its tangy acidity and elegant, autumnal character. A standout from Bouchard’s Cellar Selections, it’s drinking well now but still has few years ahead.

The Wine Advocate | RP 94
Published: Aug 30, 2019
Drink: 2018-2028

The 2013 Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru is showing beautifully, bursting from the glass with a maturing bouquet of wild berries, blood orange, black truffles, spices and rich forest floor. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, broad and enveloping, with melting tannins, a generous core of fruit and a long, penetrating finish. In keeping with the vintage—which was characterized by long hang time but cool conditions—it's a Clos de Bèze that displays mature, even autumnal fruit tones as well as tangy acids, making for a wine that's simultaneously supple and penetrating. The finest of these cellar selections from Bouchard, this will drink well for a decade.

This small report looks at five wines from the 2013 vintage that Bouchard Père & Fils is releasing direct from their cellars as part of their "Cellar Selections" program. A challenging growing season and a late harvest made 2013 complicated for growers, but producers who sorted rigorously made beautiful wines that tend to be a little underrated today. Extended hang time (closer to 110 days than the "classic" 100) made for perfectly mature, powdery phenolics despite the racy acids that were preserved by the cool growing season, and the late harvest seems to have lent the wines what is best described as elegantly degraded, autumnal fruit tones that are very appealing—partly because vintages of this style, once commonplace, have become decidedly rare in the last decade. The 2013 vintage is also quite appealing for white Burgundy, with the caveat that some of the wines show the influence of botrytis, something that tends to be polarizing. These releases from Bouchard are quite typical of the style of the vintage, and they're showing well today, though there is no urgency to drink them up.

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 16.5
Published: Jan 10, 2015
Drink: 2018-2025

Light cherry red. Intense cherry aroma, linctus-like. Juicy fruit in the middle and tannic finesse. Well balanced, scented on the mid palate even now and with a marked fruit persistence. Not really what I expect at grand cru level but there's signs of reasonable ageing potential here.

Bouchard-pereetfils.com

The most prestigious Grand Cru in Gevrey-Chambertin is also one of the oldest walled vineyards in France. The famous "clos" was created in the 7th century by the monks from the abbey of Beze in the best situated place on their vast estate. In 1395, Philippe le Hardi decided to improve the quality of the wines and banned the gamay variety in favour of pinot noir on his land. Later, Chambertin Clos-de-Beze shared the imperial crown with Chambertin: during his reign, Napoleon would drink no other wines.

T A S T I N G
TASTING NOTE: Intense and complex aromas on the nose. Structured - though not excessively - and with lovely fleshiness, this is a sumptuous wine with a great ageing potential.
FOOD/WINE PAIRING: Game, venison, full-flavoured cheeses.
SERVING TEMPERATURE: Between 17C to 18C
AGEING POTENTIAL: 10 years and more

K N O W - H O W
HARVEST: manual, in small cases of 13 kg. Careful manual sorting of each grape.
VINIFICATION: Following total or partial destemming on the vintage, fermentation in small containers, gentle pressing ensure optimal vinification. Depending on the profile of the vintage, vatting lasts 18 to 21 days.
MATURING: 12 to 14 months in French oak, with 45 to 60% new oak.
AGEING: The cellars located in the Bastions of the ancient Chateau de Beaune offer ideal ambient conditions. Thanks to their natural hygrometry and constant temperatures, the Grands Crus enjoy from their first youth an environment that is perfectly adapted to tranquil ageing.

V I N E Y A R D
GRAPE VARIETY: Pinot Noir
EXPOSITION: East
SOIL OF THE APPELATION: Marly limestone and clay with crumbled rocks holding traces of potassium, iron and phosphorus
TOTAL SURFACE OF THE APPELATION IN PRODUCTION:14.4 hectares