Gevrey-Chambertin

The wines

Gevrey makes red wine only, from Pinot Noir. The appellation has 26 premiers crus, mostly high on the slope between 280 and 380 metres, where thin brown limestone soils sit over marls, scree and red silt washed down from the plateau. The gravels bring finesse and the fossil-rich marls bring body. Young wines show strawberry, blackberry and violet; with age come liquorice, leather and forest-floor notes. These are powerful, long-lived wines.

History

Gevrey grew up at the mouth of the Combe de Lavaux, below the hills. In the seventh century, tradition says, Duke Amalgaire gave land here to the Abbey of Bèze, the origin of the Clos de Bèze, one of the oldest named vineyards on the Côte. In 1219 the abbey ceded the clos to the canons of Langres Cathedral, who held it for centuries.

The Abbey of Cluny also held land here and, from about 1257, fortified its priory into the castle that still overlooks the old village. The Chambertin vineyard has carried its name since the 13th century, and Chambertin is said to have been Napoleon's favourite wine. In 1847 King Louis-Philippe allowed Gevrey to add Chambertin to its name, a move many other villages later copied.