2019 domaine faiveley, mazis-chambertin grand cru
Why We're Buying
Domaine Faiveley has become synonymous with world-class pinot noir. Wine critics have praised this grand cru wine for its "perfectly judged bead of acidity," "imposingly-scaled flavors," and "incredibly classy effort." It's not hard to see why it's an essential part of any wine portfolio.
Critics Scores
James Suckling
Enormous structure here, the tannins resembling the perfectly toned muscles of a body builder, but this enormously dense wine also has excellent balance, the freshness at the widescreen finish lifting this huge mass effortlessly. Drinkable now, but better from 2023.
Burghound.com
A slightly riper and exuberantly spicy nose is composed by notes of black cherry, dark raspberry, the sauvage and a whiff of earth. There is superb mid-palate density to the opulent yet serious big-bodied flavors that are shaped by a firm core of dense and very firm tannins on the hugely long yet impeccably well-balanced finish. This muscular effort is also going to need extended cellaring if you wish to see its full, and ample, potential realized.
Decanter
From 1.56ha of several parcels in the Mazis-Haut lieu-dit. Despite a fermentation in open-top wood fermenters, with a proportion of whole clusters punched down daily and aged in 60 new casks, this is far from aggressive. Seductively approachable, showing red berry fruit character, mineral and smoky notes, with a silky, fairly open texture displaying great finesse without lacking substance. Drinking Window 2024 - 2049.
Vinous
The 2019 Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru was reduced on the nose, making it difficult to read at the moment, though the palate is certainly well balanced, featuring crunchy black fruit laced with red currant and a generous sprinkling of cracked black pepper toward the finish. Intuition tells me this is a great Mazis-Chambertin; it will just need time.
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Wild and brooding, Faiveley's 2019 Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru wafts from the glass with aromas of smoked meats, spices, wild berries and forest floor. Full-bodied, layered and sapid, it's broad and muscular, with a deep core of fruit and youthfully chalky tannins. This is a serious Mazis built for the long haul. Jérôme Flous told me that Faiveley began picking on September 9, finishing by the 20th, and that yields averaged out at around 35 hectoliters per hectare in white and a little less in red. Comparing the 2019 vintage to "a more concentrated version of 2010," he admires—as I do—its vibrant fruit tones and refined tannins, finding it more elegant than 2018. The quality of the red wines chez Faiveley is old news, and for more information on this firm's evolution I direct readers to my report published in the August 2020 Week 1 issue of The Wine Advocate. It's worth underlining, however, how good the whites are these days: Flous tells me that he now includes fûts from Damy and Chassin in the white wine barrel program, and in the last few vintages, I've found the wines' new oak component better and better integrated.
Burghound
A slightly riper and exuberantly spicy nose is composed by notes of black cherry, dark raspberry, the sauvage and a whiff of earth. There is superb mid-palate density to the opulent yet serious big-bodied flavors that are shaped by a firm core of dense and very firm tannins on the hugely long yet impeccably well-balanced finish. This muscular effort is also going to need extended cellaring if you wish to see its full, and ample, potential realized.