Gevrey-Chambertin

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Gevrey-Chambertin, small town in the Côte de Nuits producing some of Burgundy’s most famous red wines from Pinot Noir grapes. The area allowed the appellation was sharply reduced in the late 1990s to exclude some less favoured land towards the plain, but with about 400 ha/1,000 acres under vine, including an overflow of vineyards into neighbouring Brochon, which does not have its own appellation, as well as 87 ha/215 acres of grands crus, this is still the largest viticultural source in the Côte d’Or. In 1847, Gevrey annexed the name of its finest vineyard, Chambertin, somewhat tediously dubbed the king of wines and wine of kings (although it was in fact the Emperor Napoleon’s favourite wine).