Gevrey-Chambertin is Burgundy royalty. Even the negociant (giant winemaking companies) village wines are expensive. Jadot's negociant village wine (not even single vineyard) goes for $60 - today's wine should cost $80. On top of that, Galleyrand is a really great winemaker. We refer to him internally as "the Herve Murat of Gervrey." The wines are clean, elegant, perfumed, supremely well made with perfect acid balance and express terroir wonderfully. The reviews on the 2013s are starting to come in on Delectable and FS customers are going nuts over Galleyrand. The dollar is strong and I skipped 2 layers of distribution but even so, this is too cheap by $15 even with my model. Oh well, I've given up trying to explain the world.
Today I have one of my favorite sites of Jerome and that is the 2014 Jerome Galeyrand Gevrey-Chambertin "En Billard" for as little as $37.99 on a 4-pack. This wine floored me in March, even in its infantile state. Gorgeous very pretty nose that has a very aromatic and stony background and terroir notes all the while being complicated byinsane very high toned floral notes. Like Fourrier and like Duroche this is the feminine and elegant side of Gevrey. The tannins are so well developed and are extremely high quality. The cut, and I mean the way it cuts on your palate due to the acid/tannin relationship is a wonder to taste and feel on your palate. Amazing elegance that you would only find in 1er or Grand Crus. The fruit is of red kind and very elegant, defined and pure. The vines were planted in 1987 and the soil is deep and mostly clay. For vines planted in 1987 this is a quite an accomplishment considering I thought it was 75+ year old vines by taste as it has old vine sap and intensity. 2014 is a fragrant, succulent and VERY friendly vintage. Galeyrand is very special and I won't say the name but I had a very famous very picky importer sniffing around Galeyrand to add to his portfolio and if that happens, the wines, which actually fit his portfolio to a T would be 3-4 times more expensive if this mystery importer ever got his hands on Galeyrand as that is his normal pricing model. This will drink well young but will age to around 2029.
This is firmly on the Fass 4-1-3 plan. Buy 4, drink 1 and cellar 3. Honestly, I'm buying a case to show at dinners - if this doesn't convince even more new people that our model makes sense, nothing will.
Getting Jerome to sign with Fass Selections was akin to Miami trying to sign Lebron. When it happened we were all in shock. Same thing with Jerome. You often know before an appointment that the wines are going to be incredible. If the winemaker is impossible to secure an appointment, it's because there is huge demand for his wines in France and he doesn't need to sell them in America. You are trying to convince him to give you an allocation and that you and your customers are worthy of drinking his wines.
Jerome Galeyrand was a mission of mine since I first read about him. I had to have this guy and something told me that me makes great wine. Jerome was a cheese wholesaler before he got into wine, similar to myself. I worked the cheese counter at Brookline Liquor Mart called "The Mousetrap" back in 1997-1998. I loved cheese and had as good a selection of cheese as I do now wine. Cheese remains a passion to this day. Then he did the harvest at Alain Burguet in 1997, whose wines I adore, and Jerome also helped make the 96's. Alain saw something in young Jerome and that led to his career change to wine. We are all the better for it.
I was leaving for my trip and still hasn't heard from him. I'd been trying to contact him since before I opened Fass Selections. Another trip to Burgundy and no Galeyrand. I was a bit melancholy because of this. The one you want the most is hardest to attain and is the sweetest once you attain it. Right? Most def. Anyway the whole time up to and including my time in Burgundy in March the fruitless attempts to contact him remained fruitless, but my business partner was also trying to contact him. And he did...on Facebook (thank you Mark Zuckerberg). I found out from him while I was in Champagne that he would see me. This was after I was in Burgundy. So on the way to the Savoie from Champagne we stopped over in Phillibert, which is very near Comblanchien and Gevrey and finally saw him. My Holy Grail producer in a way. We drove and saw some vineyards. Then we went into the cellar and tasted the 13's and very young 14's was very very impressed as I knew I would be from that gut feeling. The wines are just so distinct and classic Gevrey yet they also have an amazing fruit intensity that will make certain cuvees a pleasure to drink young. But the more structured wines will need time as this is Gevrey.
If you are a wine lover, enthusiast or even a passing wine lover you have heard of the term terroir. The untranslatable French word that is the sense of place of somewhereness and that differentiates says 300 different sites where the same grape is grown. In this case it is Pinot Noir and the place is Burgundy. Terroir matters and I learned that again for the nth time the other week when I had a Mercurey 1er Cru and a Pommard 1er Cru open side by side. Both of them lovely wines on their own but you see the limitations of the lesser terroir when both are opened side by side. The Pommard just had more depth, nuance, power, finesse and just breed. The Mercurey was terrific but I understood why people clamor for Pommard and less for Mercurey. It just had more pedigree. These monks who set the boundaries between AOCs and vineyards certainly knew their stuff.
One of my favorite terroirs in all Burgundy is that in Gevrey-Chambertin. Wine from there can ascend to heights that not many can. It has so many different voices and one of the great new voices I have been super lucky to acquire is the great Jerome Galeyrand. This man is a talent and if me trying to contact him for four years with no luck until this past March was not enough of a clue that I knew I had something special, then I don't know what is. The man is a new master of Gevrey. He has no 1er cru's but his village wines will slay you. Many of you will have them on this latest batch and I encourage you to open them as they are Gevrey joy in a bottle.
2014 Jerome Galeyrand Gevrey Chambertin "En Billard" - $39.99 ($151.96 4-pack)
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