2021 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes, Domaine Henri Magnien

Clients with long memories will recall that we shipped wines from this estate in the mid-1980s – when Henri, the grandfather of Charles Magnien, who now runs the estate, was in charge. The Domaine has extraordinary vineyard-holdings on the Côte Saint-Jacques. This is a hillside of Gevrey-Chambertin First Growths, above the village, which narrowly missed classification as Grands Crus, in the 1930s.

Since taking over the reins, Charles has been determinedly bringing it back up to the level which made his grand-father’s wines exceptional. Charles makes a point of preserving and propagating the “Pinot Noir Magnien”, whose existence dates from 1850, giving grapes with thick skins, and only small amounts of juice. Working closely with his cooper, he has developed his own, lightly-fired but long-time-toasted oak barrels, with the object of eliminating the vanilla or coffee aromas which may come with heavier toasting. “I search to produce fine wine, not tannic wine – wine you can drink young, and keep if you want,” says Charles. He is a new star in Gevrey-Chambertin, whose wines we were the first to re-introduce to UK Burgundy-lovers in 2018, with the 2016 vintage.