Deep and serious, the 2020 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Estournelles Saint-Jacques unwinds from the glass with aromas of dark berries, baking chocolate, Indian spices and smoked duck. Medium to full-bodied, sapid and seamless, it's rich and concentrated, with powdery tannins and a long, lively finish.

The 2019 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Estournelles Saint-Jacques is lovely, bursting with scents of raspberries, spices, plums and petals. Medium to full-bodied, layered and nicely concentrated, with tangy acids and powdery tannins, it displays fine mid-palate amplitude and concludes with a long, saline finish.

Offering up appealing aromas of dark berries, rose petals, forest floor and coffee roast, the 2017 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Estournelles Saint-Jacques is medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, with an attractively complete, enveloping profile, lovely purity of fruit and a bright line of acidity, concluding with a precise finish.

The 2016 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Estournelles Saint-Jacques was 100% destemmed, coming from the first parcel located just beyond Clos Saint-Jacques. It has a captivating bouquet with superb mineralité: darker fruit than the other cuvées from Duroché, endowed with wonderful tension and focus, gaining more and more nuance as it opens with aeration, though it is never going to give too much away at this prenatal stage. You would almost think there was some whole bunch here, but Pierre Duroché informed me that this is because the vineyard suffers millerandage, so a lot of whole berries end up in the barrel. The palate is beautifully balanced with ebullient red and black fruit, though it is weighted toward the former rather than the latter. There is superb weight in the mouth, a caressing texture and a superb sense of tension right to the finish. This may well be the best Estournelles that Pierre has produced…thus far. Alas, just one barrel produced, and it will probably be bottled in magnum only.

The 2015 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Estournelles Saint-Jacques has a very expressive bouquet with small red cherries, sous-bois and chalk-like/ talcum scents. The palate is well defined with fine, almost filigree tannin. The is overtly elegant in style, correct perhaps, if not bestowed the same persistence as the impressive Gevrey-Chambertin Cazetiers. Nevertheless, this remains a very fine contribution to the vintage, if not quite fulfilling all its potential at the moment, but a higher evaluation post-bottling would not surprise me.