Wines

In the mid-2010s, Ghislaine and Clément planted a 0.5-hectare parcel in Chambolle-Musigny to Chardonnay, thereby giving the estate its first-ever white wine. Aged for one year in a combination of 50% used 500-liter oak barrels and 50% terracotta jar, “Les Graviers” is sleek, pure-fruited, and satisfyingly clinging on the palate, with virtually no detectable oak influence.

Always one of the most satisfying examples of its appellation, Ghislaine’s Bourgogne Rouge is a Chambolle in all but name. The Bons Batons vineyard lies at the border of Chambolle-Musigny and Gilly-les-Citeaux, just across the main road from Chambolle proper, and it offers an introduction to the expression of Chambolle’s sensual, mineral essence.

Produced from nine miniscule parcels scattered throughout the appellation, Ghislaine’s villages-level Chambolle-Musigny boasts the impeccable balance, concentration of fruit, and infectious energy that characterize her style.

Barthod owns an ultra-tiny slice of this premier cru which lies in the center of the appellation—in fact, it accounts for the smallest volume of wine among all her traditionally bottled holdings. While “Aux Combottes” may lack the intense, penetrating minerality or the breathtaking poise of the greatest crus in the village, it offers a prettiness that is very Chambolle.

Ghislaine owns a tiny parcel—all of 0.19 hectares—in this wonderfully situated cru which shares a corner with Bonnes-Mares and sits just below the great Les Fuées on the slope. “Les Gruenchers” is among her richest and most structured crus, with black fruits mingling with its core of cherry, and a punchy minerality that verges on the saline.

Les Chatelots sits just above Aux Combottes on the slope, directly below the village of Chambolle itself, and sandwiched between the great premier crus Les Feusselottes and Les Gruenchers. Barthod owns a mere quarter of a hectare of 25-year-old vines here, and this wine consistently offers a pronounced earthiness and a powerful sense of structure.

“Aux Beaux-Bruns” tends to be one of Ghislaine’s more robust, broad-shouldered wines. Produced from a 0.75-hectare parcel of 50-year-old vines, it offers succulent, full fruit, with plenty of structure underpinning a broad palate suffused with high-toned, amaro-like spices.

Les Noirots lies in the northern sector of Chambolle, flanked by Les Baudes to the north and Les Gruenchers to the south. Ghislaine owns such a tiny parcel of this cru—all of 0.15 hectares—that it was formerly blended into her villages-level Chambolle-Musigny, but she began bottling it separately with the 2017 vintage. Spicy and brooding, “Les Noirots” offers a firmness of structure akin to her Beaux-Bruns, but with less immediate charm; cellaring will certainly help it blossom.

As with her “Les Noirots,” Barthod’s infinitesimal parcel of Les Sentiers (0.08 hectares) used to be folded into the villages Chambolle-Musigny, but she began bottling it separately in 2017. The northernmost premier cru in the village, Les Sentiers sits just below Bonnes-Mares on the slope, hard on the border with Morey-Saint-Denis. This site offers a sizzling, fresh minerality echoing that of the “Les Gruenchers,” but on a prettier and more straightforwardly cherry-fruited frame.

Les Baudes sits near the northern limit of Chambolle, immediately south of premier cru Les Sentiers, and just underneath the venerable grand cru Bonnes-Mares on the slope; Ghislaine owns just shy of a quarter-hectare of 45-year-old vines here. This authoritative, layered wine combines firm acidity, sappy red fruits, and a brooding minerality that intertwines with relatively large-scaled tannins to create an overall impression of density.

Les Veroilles sits immediately above Bonnes-Mares on the slope. A large portion of the vineyard is classified as villages-level, but Barthod’s 0.37-hectare sliver flanking Bonnes-Mares’ southwest corner was upgraded to premier cru status in 1987. Compared to the exuberant beauty of “Les Fuées,” “Les Veroilles” is deeper pitched, more brooding, and stricter in its mineral essence.

The poor, nearly nonexistent topsoil of Les Fuées yields one of the highlights in Barthod’s range. Fully bordering Bonnes-Mares to the south and situated at the same point on the slope, it offers a similar full-spectrum complexity to that hallowed grand cru. The grizzled 70+-year-old vines in Ghislaine’s 0.26-hectare parcel here produce a wine simultaneously deeply pitched and lifted—one that shows supreme elegance despite its immense reserves of power.

Les Cras is, unfailingly, the Everest of the Barthod offerings: imposing, elemental, and profound. The family owns a significant portion (0.86 hectares) of this premier cru which abuts Les Fuées to the south, on the same filet of the slope as Bonnes-Mares. Always intensely mineral-driven, ruggedly structured, and deeply powerful, “Les Cras” still manages to exemplify the graceful essence of Chambolle, offering both large-scale impact and ultra-fine detail.

Les Charmes lies toward the south of Chambolle, near the border of Vougeot, and Barthod owns a quarter of a hectare here. This vineyard tends to produce wines of grace, delicacy, and floral exuberance—ample in fruit but not overly powerful. It shows similar complexity to the “Les Baudes,” but with a far more serene sensibility, as well as a more finely articulated minerality.