2016 Domaine Arnaud Mortet Mazoyeres-Chambertin Grand Cru, Burgundy, France

ABOUT THIS WINE

A light and very shallow topsoil with lots of stones and the mother rock very close to the surface. The fruit is harvested from 55+ year old vines. 30% hand-cut whole cluster. Fermentation is induced using only indigenous yeasts. The wine is then aged for 17 months in barrel (70% new). Bottled unfined and unfiltered.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Arnaud Mortet’s rise is one filled with tragedy and triumphs, leading to his current position as one of the unquestioned superstars in all of Burgundy. Arnaud’s late father, Denis Mortet, was an iconic figure who started his career working with his father at Domaine Charles Mortet, eventually taking over winemaking in the mid-1980s. It was around this time he was first introduced to Henri Jayer, leading the two to develop a lifelong friendship and mentorship. In 1991, Charles Mortet retired and split his holdings between his two sons. Denis took his vineyard inheritance and started his namesake domaine with 4.5 ha in Gevrey-Chambertin, and quickly became renowned by both wine lovers and his Burgundian peers for impeccable farming and seductively textured wines. Arnaud worked with his father from 1999-2006, until Denis’ untimely passing. Once in charge, the reputation for elite farming that the Mortet name was known for was taken to an even higher level. Arnaud deftly evolved the style of the wines, significantly reducing new wood, lessening the level of extraction, and fine-tuning his vinification to a point where they are now more elegant and chiseled than in the past. Even so, he is never satisfied and continues to improve his work in the vineyards and cellar. For certain wines, he even employs the incredibly labor-intensive practice of cutting out the main stem of the grape clusters for the whole cluster fermentations. All these improvements have taken his wines to new heights, while maintaining the tremendous grain and sensual quality that makes Mortet one of the ongoing leaders of the Jayer school.

In 2016, Arnaud was fortunate to take on the opportunity to work with the entire holdings of a single domaine in Gevrey-Chambertin, where the owner was retiring. He and his sister Clémence manage, farm and vinify these plots using the exact same team and winery as that of Domaine Denis Mortet. Nothing separates these wines from those under the Denis Mortet label, beyond the legal need to change the name to simply “Arnaud Mortet” for wines made from these new parcels. This exciting new “domaine in all but name” allows Arnaud to create more benchmark wines, with remarkable definition and texture, from a wider array of Gevrey’s finest terroirs.