Wines

Chezeaux owns a small 0.8-hectare parcel of Aligoté vines spread over three plots along the cool edge of the forest above the village of Prémeaux-Prissey: Aux Petit Creussote (planted with 60 years old vines), Combe Guyot (40 years old) and La Fouche (20 years old). Never one to overemphasize richness in his wines, Jérome produces an Aligoté of ample cut, its flinty core laced with subtle white-flower accents and bright citrus fruit. Only stainless steel is employed in the vinification and aging of this zesty cuvée.

Comprised of rare Pinot Blanc in Burgundy (from a third of a hectare of old vines planted over 70 years ago by Jérôme’s grandfather near their home in the village of Prémeaux-Prissey) blended with around one-quarter Chardonnay from the lieu-dit of Aux Cachottes at the southern end of Prémeaux, below Clos de la Maréchale and Les Vignottes. Though clearly expressing the underlying limestone, its fruit tends to be more pit-fruit-driven, slightly waxier, and with a whiff of exotic flowers not typically associated with Côte d’Or Chardonnay. The old vines lend body to this typically lightweight varietal, making it suitable for barrel fermentation and ageing (with no new oak). Given the low yields, only a handful of barrels are produced each vintage.

Jérôme’s exemplary Bourgogne Rouge comes from a smattering of parcels in Premeaux-Prissey and Nuits-Saint-Georges totaling 2.8 hectares. A wonderful representative of both the house style and the classic character of Nuits-Saint-Georges and environs, it emphasizes fresh, lively fruit buttressed by firm minerality and a dusty spice element. This is a relatively sleek Bourgogne Rouge unencumbered by oak influence, as Chezeaux employs no new barrels in its élevage.

Chezeaux’s holdings of villages-level Nuits-Saint-Georges encompass 3.3 hectares spread throughout the appellation, with a significant proportion from the vineyards of Aux Saint Jacques and Chaliots. In keeping with the spirit of the underlying terroir, this is wilder in character than his Vosne-Romanée, marked by notes of iron, and with a rambunctious bent to its tannins. Never deficient in fruit, it offers plenty of earth and sous-bois elements as well, all in a driving fashion.

Chezeaux owns a half-hectare’s worth of villages-level Vosne-Romanée, spread among three vineyards: Aux Réas, Bossières, and Mezière. His remarkably deft touch allows classically Vosne-Romanée spice and silk notes to shine through brilliantly, with dark, seductive fruit contrasting the gutsier carriage of its Nuits-Saint-Georges cousins.

Description coming soon.

Description coming soon.

This Nuits villages cuvée from Chezeaux is selected from the oldest vines of Les Charbonnières—planted in 1920, 1930 and 1935—The vineyard is situated just below the premier cru Aux Corvées on the slope in the appellation’s southern sector and typically sees millerandage (shot berries) with very low yields. Boasting true old-vines power, this is always thicker-fruited and exuberantly spicy, with great length. Its lusciousness, however, does nothing to mask the underlying complexity that sets this cuvée apart.

Always a standout in Chezeaux’s cellar, Aux Boudots is perched at the northern limit of Nuits-Saint-Georges, on the border of Vosne-Romanée. As one might expect given its location, this wine combines classically Nuits-Saint-Georges iron and sous-bois with fruit a bit more caressing and Vosne-Romanée-like than its more southerly situated counterparts. Chezeaux owns a very small 0.34-hectare parcel in this steeply sloping premier cru.

Located almost dead-center in the appellation, Rue de Chaux is perhaps the most quintessentially “Nuits-Saint-Georges” among Chezeaux’s premier crus. Jerome owns a mere 0.29 hectares in this steep, topsoil-deficient vineyard, and his ever-elegant touch yields a wine of both grace and power. Darkly fruited, dense, and slightly brooding, it also offers an enchanting savory-spicy perfume.

The smallest-production premier cru in Chezeaux’s cellar, Les Pruliers lies near the border of Nuits-Saint-Georges and Premeaux-Prissey in the southern part of the appellation. Jerome works a mere tenth of a hectare here: a parcel of extremely old vines that produce a wine of warmth and generosity. More full-bodied than the Rue de Chaux above, its fruit is pitched toward the black, and, while not heavy-handed in the slightest, it emphasizes robustness over sleekness.

Nuits-Saint-Georges famously possesses no grand cru vineyards, but Les Vaucrains is widely considered one in all but name. Always the most complete of Chezeaux’s premier crus, Vaucrains rumbles with tension—an authoritative wine that exudes an impression of depth and solidity. Here, the fruit, mineral, and savory elements bind together more tightly, more seamlessly. Jérôme owns just over a quarter-hectare of east-facing vines in Vaucrains, and his conservative oak regimen—never more than one-third of the barrels are new—highlights the power of the terroir itself.

Les Chaumes lies at the southern edge of Vosne-Romanée, immediately below the hallowed premier crus Aux Malconsorts and La Tache on a vein of limestone and marl. Chezeaux owns four-tenths of a hectare here, producing a wine that marries the exotic spice and succulent fruit of Vosne-Romanée with the mineral force of Nuits-Saint-Georges in ravishing fashion.

With grand crus Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Richebourg right next door, premier cru Les Suchots lies in one of the most elite neighborhoods in the Cote d’Or. Chezeaux owns a third of a hectare here, and this is often the greatest wine in his cellar. A whirlwind of intoxicating Vosne spice ushers in fruit both broad and precise, yet somehow everything remains focused; it’s a tour de force, vintage after vintage.

Chezeaux owns a 0.17-hectare sliver of this outsized grand cru, in the prime sector just above and next to the castle. From these old vines, Jérôme produces a wine that does justice to the immense power and complexity this site is capable of at its best. Rivetingly wild, gamy, and structured, it presents a forceful, iron-dominated mineral core flanked by dark fruit and shot through with muscular tannins. Always the most impenetrable wine in the cellar in its youth, it demands significant cellaring but pays enormous dividends in time.