I attended another wine tasting at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  The Fine Wine Source and Michael Corso Selections presented a Domaine Gille Tasting with Matthieu Gille, and his wonderful wines from the Burgundy region of France.

The Gille family has resided in the village of Comblanchien since 1570.  Since that time, the Domaine has been passed down continuously through the generation and has changed sizes due to purchases and marriages.  The current Domaine was developed by Vivant Gille in the beginning of the last century and currently the nine-hectare estate is managed by his great-grandson, Matthieu Gille.  The vines on the properties range from forty-five to eighty-years of age, with some parcels owned by the family since the late 18^th Century.  All the work is done by hand, following traditional methods to “respect the terroir and the unique character and challenges of each vintage.”

We started with Domaine Gille Bourgogne Chardonnay 2024.  This wine is pure Chardonnay grown on a soil of mixed clay and limestone.  The fruit is manually harvested and free of pesticides and herbicides from their estate in Comblanchien.  They employ sustainable and organic practices and this is from their plot Bellevue or beautiful view.  Vinification begins directly in new French Oak barrels with fine texture and medium toast.  The juice slowly fermented over a period of eleven months with no additional yeast or chemicals added and just occasional stirring.  Even though this wine only carries a basic Appellation of Bourgogne, there were no short cuts, and it impressed the crowd.  A nice golden-colored wine offering notes of apples, citrus, white florals, hazelnuts, vanilla and gravel.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of orchard fruits and tropical fruits and ending with a strong medium-count finish of fruit, vanilla and terroir.

We then had our first red wine Domaine Gille Bourgogne Cote d’Or Pinot Noir 2022.  This is from a sustainable estate plot of just under three hectares of Pinot Noir grown on a soil of limestone and clay.  These are vines that are thirty-years-of-age.  The Clote d’Or is the heart of Burgundy, an escarpment that runs from Dijon to Santenay, and then it is divided again between the Cotes de Nuit and the Cotes de Beaune; while there are other great regions in Burgundy, we will settle here for the moment.  This is a hand-crafted wine, from manually harvested, and the initial vinification is done with five days of cold maceration without external yeast, or temperature control (real Old School).  Then the wine is aged for eighteen months in fine textured, toasted French Oak barrels, of which a third are new.  A deep garnet colored wine that offered notes of blackberry, black cherry, currants and cassis along with rose petals, violets, spices and sous-bois.  On the palate this medium-to-full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of ripe cherries, blackberries, and cassis, followed by mocha and star anise, blending with ripe tannins and ending with a medium-to-long-count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.