Arnaud Mortet

Domaine Arnaud Mortet is a separate estate from Domaine Denis Mortet, though the same people make the wine. In 2016 Arnaud Mortet and his sister Clémence took on about four hectares in Gevrey-Chambertin, the holdings of a grower who was retiring. The fruit is picked, vinified and aged in the same cellar, by the same team and to the same recipe as the Denis Mortet range, but it is bottled under a separate name.

Two grands crus sit at the head of the range, neighbours on the lower slope east of Chambertin itself: Charmes-Chambertin and Mazoyères-Chambertin. Mazoyères is the southern of the pair, across the road from Latricières-Chambertin, and may legally be sold under the Charmes name, which is what most owners do; here it is bottled separately. Then two Gevrey premiers crus: Lavaux Saint-Jacques, at the mouth of the Combe de Lavaux and running along the wall of Clos Saint-Jacques, and La Perrière, on the lower slope at the southern edge of the village beside the grand cru Mazis-Chambertin, on the site of a former quarry. The village wines are Ma Cuvée, a blend of parcels across the commune, and a Cuvée de Très Vieilles Vignes.

The vines are worked without herbicides or chemical fertilisers, with treatment doses matched to the share of the canopy actually under threat rather than applied at full rate. The fruit is sorted three times and destemmed so as to leave the berries whole, a proportion of whole bunches is laid on top, fermentation runs on native yeasts, and the cap is punched down only five or six times across an eighteen to twenty day vatting; the wines spend sixteen to eighteen months in barrel and are bottled without fining or filtration. Extraction is deliberately restrained, and the wines run to dark cherry and a savoury edge over fine tannin. Arcana Cabinet lists five wines: the grands crus Charmes-Chambertin and Mazoyères-Chambertin, the Gevrey-Chambertin premiers crus Lavaux Saint-Jacques and La Perrière, and the village Ma Cuvée. The range also includes Chambertin-Clos de Bèze and the Gevrey-Chambertin Cuvée de Très Vieilles Vignes.