Domaine Henri Jouan – Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Echézeaux 2013 – Burgundy France

2013 was a difficult, late, small-cropped year that growers came to call the ultimate terroir vintage — nothing exaggerated, just the site. On eighty-year-old vines beside Charmes-Chambertin, that is a good bargain to strike. Three bottles.

🍷 At a Glance

• Grape: 100% Pinot Noir
• Appellation: Gevrey-Chambertin (village), lieu-dit Aux Echézeaux
• Region: Côte de Nuits, Burgundy
• Vintage: 2013
• Producer: Domaine Henri Jouan
• Winemaker: Philippe Jouan
• Vines: A single parcel of roughly 80-year-old Pinot Fin, adjoining Charmes-Chambertin
• Estate: Three hectares across ten parcels
• Vinification: Hand-picked and fully destemmed, short cuvaison of 12 to 14 days, early malolactic
• Ageing: François Frères barrels, 25 to 40% new depending on cuvée
• Serving temperature: 15–17°C
• Style: Dry red wine

👃 Tasting Notes & Experience

• Color: Medium ruby, garnet at the rim
• Nose: Red fruit turning savoury, with earth and dried spice
• Palate: Lean-framed and transparent, in the cool register of the year
• Structure: Fine tannins, largely resolved
• Finish: Long and savoury

The growing season was cold, wet and late, with hail in places and a small crop everywhere. Because nothing about it was excessive, the wines came out unusually transparent — which is precisely what you want from an old-vine parcel sitting on a grand cru boundary. Twelve years on, this is mature and ready. The Jouans work three hectares in ten parcels, press on a hundred-year-old wooden press, and have sold much of their wine directly to Joseph Drouhin for fifty years.

❤️ Why We Love It

• A transparent vintage on a parcel worth being transparent about
• Mature and drinking now, from eighty-year-old vines
• Three bottles only

🍽️ Food Pairing Ideas

• Roast poultry, duck and game birds
• Mushrooms, truffle and root vegetables
• Washed-rind and semi-hard cheeses

👤 Who This Wine Is For

✓ Drinkers who want a mature village Gevrey ready to open
✓ Anyone who values site transparency over vintage muscle
✕ Not a bottle to cellar much further