There’s something beautiful about going back to the basics, especially when we’re talking about Burgundy. Were Domaine Chevrot located in a marquee village like Chambolle-Musigny or Gevrey-Chambertin, even their humble Bourgogne Blanc and Rouge would... Read More

There’s something beautiful about going back to the basics, especially when we’re talking about Burgundy. Were Domaine Chevrot located in a marquee village like Chambolle-Musigny or Gevrey-Chambertin, even their humble Bourgogne Blanc and Rouge would fetch much higher prices — if we could even snag a parcel large enough to share in this newsletter.

But luckily for us, Chevrot is located in the lesser-known AOC of Maranges, at the Côte de Beaune’s southernmost tip. Mostly red wine is produced here (though a few hectares are planted to Chardonnay), and since there are only a handful of 1er Crus, and no Grand Crus, it lacks the renown imparted by superstar growers. Its southern exposures and clay-rich soils have historically yielded robust wines that were sometimes illicitly blended into wines from those more famous villages for extra “oomph”.

The Chevrot family has been making wine in Maranges since the 1830s. They have holdings outside the AOC, like the Hautes Côtes de Beaune plots from which today’s Chardonnay is sourced. Blue marl soils impart lots of freshness and a saline minerality that balances exuberant flavors of pear, citrus, and green almond. It’s elegant without sacrificing fun and plain old deliciousness.

Bourgogne Rouge comes from two sites, both of which could be classified as village Maranges. But brothers Vincent and Pablo choose to label it as a simple Bourgogne Rouge to get more bottles into more hands at fair prices. The berries are destemmed, fermented in concrete tank and aged for 6 months in used barrel. It’s intended to be drunk young and fresh, bursting with pretty red fruits, a juicy structure, and a dash of clay-ey mineral depth. Bistro wine at its finest!

Pablo and Vincent have spent the last two decades hard at work, improving the health of their soils by way of organic farming, thoughtful planting of cover crops, and using horses for plowing. In the cellar, the recipe is simple: grapes and a little bit of sulfur, usually at bottling and even then, quite minimal. Perhaps this largely hands-off approach is what makes these wines so perfectly drinkable, or perhaps it’s the Chevrot brothers’ devotion to their terroir.