Dom. Faiveley
Lavaux Saint Jacques Premier Cru
Gevrey-Chambertin
2019

The producer

Established as a merchant trading in wine in 1825, the various generations of the family have accumulated vineyards so Faiveley is one of the largest landholders in Burgundy with 115ha. While 72ha may be in the Cote Chalonnaise producing fabulous wines of great value, there are 10ha of 13 Grand Cru and 15ha of 25 Premier Cru in some of the finest vineyards on the Cote, including Gevrey, Corton, Puligny, Chambolle, Nuits, Pommard, Volnay, Vosne Romanee and Vougeot. These are the jewels in Faiveley’s elaborately encrusted crown.

Faiveley produced long ageing wines for the second part of the 20^th Century often with more than a touch of aggression of tannins and rather rustic fruit. The 21^st century has seen a massive transformation and, while the wines retain their depth and concentration, they now show more precision of fruit, with fabulous balance and finesse. These are pure and precise wines that clearly express their individual terroirs, and that seem to just get better and better. Faiveley can seemingly now do no wrong.

The wine

Faiveley owns a 0.98-hectare parcel in premier cru Lavaux Saint-Jacques – in the northern part of the Gevrey village – a premier cru generally considered to be one of the three best premier cru vineyards in Gevrey. The exposure is east-southeast and the soil rich in rocks and clay, and the Faiveleys acquired the site in 2013. The wines are aged for 16 months in French oak barrels, of which up to 50% are new. This is a powerful and concentrated Gevrey, with high aromatic intensity, and firm yet silky tannins.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.