Clos Saint Jacques 6.70 ha.


Clos Saint Jacques is a premier cru on the "finage" of Gevrey Chambertin in Burgundy.

We talking about a vineyard with almost 7 hectares of surface of one of the most famous village of the Cote de Nuits "Gevrey Chambertin".

This vineyard is ranking as a premier cru which is:
a the term appears on a label, the wine is likely to be superior in quality to a village-level wine, and it is undoubtedly higher in price and scarcer in quantity. Premier Cru wines often include the name of a single premier cru vineyard.

Clos Saint Jacques for many drinkers and producer have the quality and structure of a Grand Cru, in-fact the old Benedictines Monk in the 6th Century create the terroir quality of this amazing region with detail and perfection; they build lots of Clos (vineyards surrounded by stone wall).
Clos saint Jacques refer to a statue, Saint James (Jacques) which stand in the vineyard and was a guide of the pilgrim in the past.
Also according to the oldest classification in 1855 ( which inspired the INAO classification done in 1936) by the vineyards theorist Jules Lavalle this Premier cru was rated "Tete de Cuvee" a maximum level of recognition a that time.
The site was a Monopole until 1945 of Comte de Moucheron.
Today 5 people owned the ownership of this 6,70 hectare:

Armand Rousseau – 2.21 ha
Sylvie Esmonin – 1.60 ha
Louis Jadot – 1.00 ha
Bruno Clair – 1.00 ha
Fourrier – 0.89 ha

Apparently if this Clos is not a Grand cru, is for the only fact is not a continuous of the solid block of all the grand Cru site in the village of Gevrey "an island away from the main land". 

Lately I had the pleasure to drunk two bottle of Armand Rousseau 2012 and 1988; 



This wines was very youthful; the nose was on the dark fruit side very fresh and clean.
Undertone of spicy oak well integrated with the fruit, a high perception of the limestone soil.
La bouche was complex with savoury fruit. Fine level of tannins with a good pleased perception of alcohol. Through time the bottle was open, more perception of umami was coming out with almost a salty crush wet rock.

1988 was a truly gem for me, a completely unforgettable experience. Soon we started pouring the wine, open perhaps two hours before; we smelled lots of fruit and youthfulness. The colour was splendid in shape just a tiny orange rim with a fresh vivacity ( I guess the bottle was a keep in absolutely amazing shape).
Slowly the oxygen start to change the wine and more notes of balsamic were coming out, but always with a core of fruit dancing with the tertiary note. Mushroom, and wet earth was coming on the nose,
the palate had this level of acidity so tension and nervous which I will never except for a 30 years old wine.
You never wanted this bottle finish....


I thought to dedicate this two bottle at two books I recently finish to read
 
Thomas Pynchon:
Recognized as one of the leading exponents of postmodernism in literature, it is characterised by extremely complex writing, full of labyrinthine structure.

Don DeLillo
A novelist from the mid-seventies that describe and criticize America, accusing America to lose the ability to feed the American Dream.

What we had with those wines for dinner "La Cotoletta alla Milanese" ..  Veal Cutlet on the bone crumble and fried:



 
                                                           From the site Bourgogne-wines.com



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