Winegrowers’ Portraits
A taste maker
Philippe Leclerc is a born builder and collector. He dug himself two kilometers of cellars in his clay and limestone subsoil to shelter a tool Museum. He is recognized as a talented vintner by the European and American experts and considered as a taste maker.
Above Gevrey-Chambertin, at Rue des Halles, in front of the City hall, you will find Philippe Leclerc's cellar. His firm handshake and his look like a rockstar evidence the strong personality of our host, who gets into the heart of the subject with mischief, by attracting us, from the first minutes of the interview, in his cellars. “I built them myself. I like the tool as a continuation of my arm, I carve the stone, and I built and restored the house from top to basement. When digging in this clay and limestone subsoil, I discovered a vaulted cellar of the XIIIth century and even a Roman fridge that could be mistaked for a well! These two-kilometer-long cellars shelter a tool Museum, not only for cooperage and for the vineyard but also for other trades. Billhooks, shears, hammer, pliers, anvil, harrow but also still, harness, plow … are aligned there”. He likes good work in the cellars as much as in the vineyards.
The forty-year-old ones have a higher yield. I practise interplanting and am satisfied to have vines of all ages. The only vine cultivated on these lands is Pinot Noir whose very marked taste of red fruits is characteristic of the wines of the Côte de Nuits area”.
From his youngest age he went in the vineyards to prune, trellis, harvest with his father and grandfather. His domain planted with 10,000 stocks per hectare spreads over 7.5 ha, 100% in the Côte de Nuits area, distributed for two thirds at Gevrey-Chambertin and the rest at Chambolle-Musigny. He works his estate in integrated farming, with an organic spirit, with a mastered yield of 35 to 40 hl per hectare. The average age of his vines is fifty years, but some stocks are eighty years old. “I have never extracted vine stocks. I like the old plants as they give round and very concentrated berries.Very respectful of the ancestral know-how, Philippe knew how to develop his vinification methods to offer to the clientele a ready-to-drink Burgundy, immediately pleasurable, that can also be laid down ten years in the cellar. He explains: “I want the most natural possible wines which suits today’s taste.” He is a very precise winemaker, he keeps the harvested grapes cool during one week, practises a soft pressing and fermentation, and mixes the berries and the bunches during fermentation. He then leaves the wine to mature 24 months in barrels. In July he locks up “this pleasure-wine in the bottle without clarification, nor filtration, to give it some structure, texture, chewiness” and recommends to taste it after minimum one year.
The tasting of 2008 Combe aux Moines First Cru is a beautiful example of a successful wine making. Austere in the first nose, this wine has “a beautiful colour (brilliant garnet-red), is full-bodied (volume), has a beautiful length in the mouth and a long life ahead”. Another First Cru, 2009 Les Cazetiers, smoother, with more melted aromas, is an undeniable source of pure sensual delight. At last, Champonnets First Cru, located on the Grand Crus hillsides, evoke the powerfulness of the 2008, the roundness of the 2009, reveal an opera of notes of red fruits and turns your palate into a “Cathedral”.
“Balanced, beautiful, good, natural” are Philippe Leclerc’s values, a taste maker who is available seven days a week (except holidays) in his shop, at Rue des Halles in Gevrey-Chambertin. An idea of for a weekend break …
Philippe Leclerc
Rue des Halles
21220 Gevrey Chambertin
Tél: 00 33 (0)3 80 34 30 72
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