MICHEL GROS
And His VOSNE-ROMANEE, CLOS DE REAS
Vosne-Romanée is a commune rich in grand cru climats and a village replete with growers of the highest quality. One of the longest-established of this first division, owners inter alia of the monopoly of an excellent premier cru, Clos des Réas, and no less than 2 hectares, one quarter, in the best part of Richebourg, one of the grandest grands crus of them all, is the Gros family. There are now four separate Gros exploitations: Domaine Michel Gros, Domaine Gros Frère et Soeur, Domaine Anne Gros and Domaine A.F. Gros.
HISTORY
The dynasty begins with Alphonse Gros, born in 1804 at Chaux, a hamlet in the hills behind Nuits-Saint-Georges. He married a Latour and arrived in the village of Vosne in the 1830s, where he bought a substantial house, later divided, which had formerly belonged to the Abbey of Citaux prior to the revolution. In 1860 he acquired the 2-plus hectare walled vineyard of the Clos des Réas, a triangular climat at the southern end of the village, downslope from Malconsorts and Chaumes, and like them a premier cru.
Following his retirement a few years later responsibility passed to Louis-Gustave, one of his two sons, who had married a Mlle Guenaud, and it is under the name Gros-Guenaud that the wine was first sold. Louis-Gustave must have been one of the first small growers to sell his wine direct. In a price list of 1st November 1868 he points out that as there are no middle men between him and his clientele he is able to offer his wines 20-30 percent cheaper than the maisons de commerce: the Clos des Réas at 5 Francs the bottle for the 1858, 3.50 for the 1861 and 1862, and 2.50 for the 1864, in minimum quantities of 25 bottles per order, delivered to the railway station at Vougeot or at Nuits. He adds that the 1868 vintage is a good one, which the consumer would do well to stock up on.
The domaine continued to expand. In 1882 Louis-Gustave acquired two hectares of land in Richebourg, up in the Veroilles section of the climat, between Cros Parantoux and Brulées. In 1920 Louis-Gustave's grandson Louis Gros - the domaine was now trading under the name of his father (Jules) Gros-Renaudot - bought two substantial parcels of Clos de Vougeot from the heirs of Léonce Bocquet, one directly under the vineyard of Musigny in the north-west corner of the grand cru adjacent to the château, called Clos de Vougeot, Le Musigni (sic), the other a little further south but also at the top of the slope, called Grand Maupertuis. Bit by bit he assembled a 3 hectare parcel of Échezeaux in the lieu-dit Les Loächausses. Some Grands Échezeaux followed, and, in 1967, a further few rows of Clos de Vougeot, next to the Grand Maupertuis was bought by Jean Gros, son of Louis from Madame Machard de Grammont, née Dufouleur.
Louis Gros died in 1951, and for a while the domaine continued to be run in common by his four children: Gustave, Jean, François and Colette. François did the paperwork and managed the finances, Jean looked after the vines and Gustave ran the cellar. Sadly none of the three men seems to have enjoyed the best of health. Nevertheless, with the exception of Gustave, who died in 1984, this generation still survives, though it has been the next who have been making the wine for some time.
In 1963, when François got married, the Gros-Renaudot domaine was split up. Jean received the Clos des Réas and part of the Clos de Vougeot Maupertuis, the rest of the Maupertuis went to François, and Gustave and Colette, neither of whom had married, pooled their interests together under the name Gros Frère et Soeur, and took over the Grands Échezeaux and the larger Musigni section of the Clos de Vougeot. The Richebourg was divided.
In the early 1990s Jean Gros officially retired (though the wine had for some time been made by his eldest son Michel) and his estate was divided amongst his children. Michel retained the Clos des Réas and the Clos de Vougeot, while his sister Anne-Françoise took on the Richebourg. This is made by her husband François Parent of Pommard and is sold under the lable A.F. Gros. Meanwhile the second son of Jean and Jeanine Gros, Bernard, had been responsible for the Gros Frère et Soeur exploitation since the early 1980s. In 1988 François’ daughter Anne took over from her father.
This means that today there are four Gros estates, labeled respectively Michel Gros, Gros Frère et Soeur, A.F. Gros and Anne Gros. All have vines in the Hautes Côtes – Domaine Jean Gros being a pioneer here – as well as in the Côte d’Or.
MICHEL GROS
In 1997 the Écard family (GFA des Arbaupins) asked Michel Gros to look after their vines in Nuits-Saint-Georges and Vosne-Romanée, including premier cru land in Vignerondes and Murgers in the former commune and Brûlées in the latter. More recently he has acquired some village Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Chaliots. Together with his inheritance and land he has bought in Vosne-Romanée, Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis in the 1990s this brings Michel Gros’ estate up to 18 hectares.
Pride of place, together with the Clos des Réas monopoly (2.12 ha), is the Clos de Vougeot. This is Jean Gros’ 1967 purchase: 20 ares. In 1967 the vines dated from 1902, the first generation planted after the phylloxera epidemic. Sadly the parcel was deeply affected by the frosts of January 1985. The wine from this vintage, what little there was of it, is quite brilliant, but the vines had to be ripped up the following year. Michel replanted with the 115 clone on 161-49 rootstock in 1987. By 2002 the vines were beginning to reach a respectable age and the wine is now of serious grand cru quality.
Michel Gros made his first vintage in 1975. Though his mother Jeanine, originally from the Jura, runs the business side of Domaine Jean Gros - she has also been mayor of Vosne since 1971, one of her first duties being to marry Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, to his American wife Pamela - father Jean seems to live a life of leisure. He prefers hunting to wine-making, as does his brother François. In ten or more years of regular visits to Domaine Jean Gros I have never succeeded in meeting him. (Originally I surmised Madame Jeannine was a widow. I mentioned this in The Vine, and though I corrected the mistake as soon as it was pointed out to me I was rather dismayed to see the error repeatedly copied by other writers who should have known better).
Michel prefers to maintain the harvest within limits by pruning short and rubbing off excess buds early in the season, rather than by green-harvesting in late July, a process whose efficacy he regards with a certain healthy scepticism. The fruit is entirely de-stemmed, after which the vinification takes place in a variety of vats, mainly cement, following a gentle crushing of about half of the fruit. There is no prior macération à froid, but pigeage twice a day, and temperatures up to a maximum of 34°C. After a cuvaison of 10-12 days the fermented wine is lodged in oak casks of which up to 100 percent is new for the Clos de Vougeot, fifty percent for the Clos des Réas and the other first growths and thirty percent for the village wines. It is racked but once only and bottled 22 to 23 months after the vintage.
All this is what you might expect when you get to know Michel, a kind but somewhat shy man at first, but one whose character is evidently both perfectionist and cautiously conservative. (When I asked him what changes he had made since he took over from his father he was able to offer little except the installation of cooling systems). Where there is a break with the norm, is that he is a firm believer in selected yeasts. There is a more efficient transference of sugar to alcohol, in his view, and the resulting wine has more finesse.
I find Michel’s wines very pure in their expression of Pinot. There is an essence of fruit, an intensity of flavour, and a breed in these wines which is wholly admirable. I have been buying them myself for ages.
THE TASTING
The following wines were served at a dinner at Restaurant Bouley, New York, in March 2010. The bottles had come direct from Michel Gros' cellar.
2007Medium colour. Gentle, fragrant, subtly oaky nose. Medium body. Fresh. Good acidity. No great concentration, but good fruit and balance. Very elegant. Now quite soft, but still a touch raw, so it will still benifit from a couple of years. From 2013.
2006Medium-full colour. A little tannin and a bit of new oak on the nose. No great grip, however. Medium to medium-full body. Better grip on the palate than the nose would suggest. Quite rich. Good fat for 2006. Plenty of depth. Positive finish. Fine for the vintage. From 2014.
2005Very good colour. Firm, closed-in nose. Needs time. Full body. Some tannin. Currently adolescent. Still unformed but a lot of depth and potential. Very fine. An altogether more masculine wine than the two above. From 2017.
2004Good colour. Somewhat lean on the nose. Rather less obvious oak than in the wines above. Good tannin and good grip, but it needs several years to round off and become more generous. Medium-full body. Well balanced and not too green. Fine for the vintage albeit that it lacks a bit of sex-appeal at the moment. From 2014.
2003Good but not excessively deep colour. Roasted nose. Rich ansd concentrated and oaky. Not too cooked and reasonably fresh. Medium-full body. The tannins are now integrated. Opulent, fat and rich on the palate, with surprisingly good balance. Lovely, even for those who generally dislike this vintage: me, for example. Now – 2020.
2002Medium-full colour. Not a blockbuster, but this wine never is. Lovely nose. Real breed. Hardly a touch of oak, and beautifully balanced. Subtle and complex. Medium-full body. Beginning to soften. But still needs three years. Marvelous fruit and harmony. Lots and lots of dimension. Very, very long at the end. Very lovely. From 2014.
2001Medium to medium-full colour. Lots of interest on the nose. Ripe and quite complex. Good balance, and now just about à point. Just a smidgen of new oak. Good depth and balance. No weakness. Long. Fine plus for the vintage. Now – 2018.
2000Medium colour. Ripe, open, and charming, if a little one-dimensional. Medium body. No great depth, but fresh, balanced and sufficiently complex. No lack of class. Good acidity if an absence of fat and concntraration. Fully ready: indeed delicious now. Very good indeed. Now – 2015.
1999Good full, youthful colour. Full, fat, rich, firm nose. Some tannin still to be absorbed. Fullish body. Ripe and rich. Very good grip. Still needs a year or two to soften up. Lots of energy. A lovely wine which is at least fine plus for the vintage. But the 2002 is more elegant and more intense. This is less precise. From 2013.
1998Medium to medium-full colour. Just about mature. The nose is now soft. Ripe and elegant. Medium-full body. Maybe it could have done with a bit more weight and energy, but it is balanced and subtle and long on the palate. Intense and classy. Fine plus for the vintage. Now – 2020.
1997Magnum. The only real disappointment in this series. Surprisingly full colour. Somewhat earthy, even bitter on the nose and on the palate. Reasonable acidity – indeed fresher than most – but no great depth or elegance. Not a very relaxed wine, and the finish is rather flat and lumpy. Drink soon.
1996Very good colour. Still youthful. Ripe, fresh, complex and elegant on the nose, though not very rich. Medium-full body. On the palate there is an absence of generosity. It is stylish and vigorous but a little austere. I don't think now that it will ever round off satisfactorily. Better with food. Now – 2016.
1995Fullish, mature colour. Lovely ripe, rich, succulent nose. Lots of depth. Medium-full body. Good integrated tannins. Lovely concentrated fruit. Very good grip. This is very complete and harmonious. Lots of energy. Very long and very fine. Now – 2020 plus.
1994Medium to medium-full colour. Fully mature. Soft nose. No lack of fruit, nor undue acidity. Just a bit one-dimensional. Fresh on the palate. Medium body. Balanced and fruity. Still vigorous and really quite sophisticated for a 1994. Very fine for the vintage. No hurry to drink. Now – 2014.
1993Very good colour. Ripe, rich and without the slightly lean aspect which you find in some of the 1993s. There is a nice meatiness here. A bigger wine than the 1995. Still a suggestion of unabsorbed tannin. This is like a blend of 1995 and 1996, but bigger and more concentrated than either, if just a bit rugged. Good depth and grip. The 1995 is finer, but this is fine plus. Now – 2020.
1992Medium colour. No undue age. Soft, ripe nose. Not much volume or depth on the palate, but fresh, ripe and certainly stylish. Better with food. Drink soon.
1991Good fullish, vigorous colour for its age. An ample, round, energetic, fullish bodied wine with a touch of oak. Good grip and lots of depth. Plenty of wine here. Delicious. Still lots of lofe ahead of it. Now – 2020.
1990Surprisingly, no more colour here than in the 1991. Round, ripe, fullish and rich. But I have seen rather more energetic bottles recently. This example shows a little age. It is lightening up and the acidity is beginning to show on the finish. The 1991 is better today.
1989Fresh, but only medium to medium-full colour. Red fruit – cherries, for instance – on the nose. Cool and elegant as it evolved. Good depth. Fuller than most 1989s and nicely fresh. Holding uo well. Fine. Now – 2016.
1988Good fullish colour. Lovely cool, composed nose. Intense and classy. Not a bit austere, as you will find in some 1998s. Fullish body, balanced, vigorous and very long on the palate. Real breed here. Very fine. Now – 2020 plus.