Bruno Clair Gevrey Chambertin Clos St. Jacques 1er Cru 2016 (750ML)

95 VM / 94 BH / 94 JM / 94-96 WA

The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques 1er Cru has a slightly more accessible bouquet compared to Rousseau's, but one that is just as entrancing. Overtly red fruit here mixed with woodland, brown spices and hints of dried blood. You could nose this all day becoming more tertiary with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe, saturated tannins. This is silky and smooth in texture with a fine veneer of new oak, just a touch of orange rind and marmalade towards the finish with impressive persistence. Not quite as good as Rousseau's Clos Saint-Jacques, but still impressive. A puzzle. A fascinating puzzle. Tasted blind at the 2016 Burgfest tasting.-- Neal Martin – The Wine
Advocate

Tasting note: An impressively layered, cool and ultra-fresh nose combines notes of spice, earth, plum, herbal tea and red berry fruit liqueur, all of which is trimmed in a deft touch of oak. There is equally good depth to the racy and mouth coating medium weight flavors that possess fine mid-palate concentration along with excellent punch on the lightly mineral-inflected, balanced and persistent finish. This beautifully impressive effort is beautifully well-balanced and very classy though at least moderate patience will be necessary. Allen Meadows – Burghound

 Medium deep in colour, a more savoury approach than Cazetiers, perhaps not quite as ripe but with an excellent tension. I did not quite see the density but I may have been off form, as Bruno was clearly preferring this to the Cazetiers. Jasper Morris – Inside Burgundy

The 2016 Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St Jacques comes from vines of the same age, clone, rootstock and massale selection as the Cazetiers. It has a more introverted bouquet than the Cazetiers, with dark fruit, broody but compelling. This seriously needs time in bottle. The palate is very well balanced with a confit-like entry, a silver bead of acidity, subtle notes of fig infusing the red berry fruit on the finish, later quince and graphite coming through with time. The persistence is astonishing here, still lingering in the mouth by the time Bruno is pouring the next sample. Neal Martin – The Wine Advocate