domaine denis mortet
Clémence & Arnaud Mortet
gevrey-chambertin
Côte de Nuits - Côte d’or - burgundy
Story…
The Mortet estate was founded in 1956 by Charles Mortet with just a single hectare of vines to his name. In classic tradition of Burgundy Charles sold the majority of his crop to merchant houses. Charles was joined by his son, Denis, and Denis’s wife Laurence in 1978 and the two worked alongside Charles for nearly 20 years before they took full control of the estate in 1993.
Quickly after taking the reins from his father, Denis created the Domaine Denis Mortet label, building upon the bottled wine sales the he slowly developed while working with his father. At the time of taking over the estate the family had about 4.5 hectares of vines to their name, the family has since expanded to 11.2 hectares of vineyards since Denis took control. Denis swiftly became one of the most respected and admired growers and producers in all of Gevrey, his attention to detail and meticulous work in the vineyards earned him recognition amongst his peers and critics alike.
Denis was joined in 2000 by his son, Arnaud, who brought just as much if not even more focus and precision to the estate. Although Denis believed that the work in the vineyard was everything, his meticulous work never resulted in the style wine he yearned to produce. He dreamt of wines full of finesse and style, but his practices generally garnered wines with unparalleled weight and opulence, one of the many reasons that his wines garnered so much acclaim in the early days. Arnaud has been able to adjust the estates practices, and thus has pushed the resulting wines into the realm his father always dreamt of, wines of both grace and great presence.
Due to Denis’s untimely death in 2006, Arnaud took full control of the estate at that time, alongside his mother Laurence. Now with his sister, Clémence, who joined the family business in 2013. The three of them run and operate the domaine continuing the legacy that Denis created.
Farming & Philosophy…
From the time that Denis took over the farming practices began to be much cleaner and more focused in organic principals. Denis never used any weed killers or chemical fertilizers, plowing and crushing of the branches to make organic soil amendments on the spot. Arnaud has picked up where his father’s work left off and fine tuned the work to be even less invasive than ever.
Arnaud has decreased the amount of plowing that takes place, as well as implementing the use of horse drawn plowing in all of the families Premier & Grand Crus sites. He has also encouraged the growth of native cover crop grasses in the vineyards. Constantly evolving their practices to suit each site, Arnaud has began trialing different organic and biodynamic practices throughout the vineyards. Not set on becoming certified in either but looking to implement the correct practices where they work and avoiding them where they don’t.
In the cellar is perhaps where the most significant changes have taken place over the years, Denis was relatively heavy handed with new oak, as was quite common during his era. These days the new oak is much more judiciously used to the point where very little is used at all. Arnaud chooses to make many of the cellar choices based on taste and feel. Fruit selection has become ever more precise, along with gentler macerations and drastic decrease in the use of SO2. The use of whole cluster has also become more prominent, however it changes year to year and cuvée to cuvée based on the vintage and vineyard site.
It is the combination of these changes that have led to wines of real elegance and finesse, while still retaining the weight they have become synonymous for.
vineyards…
The large majority of the estate holdings lie in Gevrey Chambertin with a mix of Grand Cru, Premier Cru, & Village sites; but they also have just under 2 ha of vines some surrounding villages. These holdings include Fixin, Marsannay, Chambolle-Musigny & a plot in Clos du Vougeot. Most recently Arnaud has also been able to acquire holdings in both Echezeaux & Bonnes-Mares.
Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Champeaux
located mid-slope with a mix of red and brown topsoil that is fairly shallow and stony | the Mortet’s own a parcel that is just shy of half a hectare of 70 year old vines in this nearly 7ha vineyard
Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St-Jacques
a somewhat cooler site on the western side of Gevrey, tucked up towards the Combe de Lavaux, which provides a flow of cool air to this south facing vineyard near the top of the slope; the top of the vineyard is quite stony with little top soil but toward the bottom you find deeper topsoil with more clay | the Mortet’s own just over a hectare of around 60 year old vines in this 9 ha vineyard site
Gevrey-Chambertin Grand Cru Chambertin
a surprisingly large Grand Cru site, especially if you add in the size of Clos de Bèze which can also be labeled simply Chambertin | the Mortets own a scant .15 ha of vines in this historical vineyard and produce a very limited bottling from these old vines
Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru
one of just a few sites that the Mortets own vineyards in outside of Gevrey, their plot lies in the lower part of the Clos with vines averaging 60+ years of age
From the roughly 4.5 ha of village level Gevrey-Chambertin vineyards that the Mortets own they bottle just a single cuvée from 5 key sites. Previously they had bottled anywhere from one to four different cuvée’s, some of which were single village site bottlings. Their village level bottling is now labeled Mes Cinq Terroirs referring to the 5 different sites that make up the cuvee:
En Matrot - a tiny plot located between the church & Castle de Gevrey-Chambertin at the end of the Combe Lavaux
Au Vellé - an east facing site on a hill just north of the Château de Gevrey-Chambertin, and on the southeastern border of the Champeaux Premier Cru
En Champs - located on a gentle slope on the northern border of Au Vellé and on the eastern border of the Champeaux Premier Cru | at one point this village level site was bottled on its own, the Mortets own nearly a hectare of around 60 year old vines in this site
En Derée - located at the foot of the hillside just south-east of En Champs planted in clay rich soils
Combe du Dessus - a gentle sloping site at the end of the Combe Lavaux
