Dom. Jean-Michel Gaunoux-Hudelot
Les Genevrieres 1er Cru
Meursault
2020

The producer

The domaine was established in 1990 by Jean-Michel Gaunoux, who had previously worked at the family domaine with his father Francois Gaunoux. Jean-Michel owns land in three of the arguably finest premier crus in Meursault, including Perrieres, Genevrieres, and Les Gouttes d’Or. Vineyard work is sustainable, J-M eschews pesticide use, and winemaking is traditional with around 15-30% new oak barrels used for fermentation and ageing. Gaunoux’ are frequently some of the richest wines in the village.

The wine

Gaunoux’s Genevrieres plots are just north of Charmes in the southern section of the Meursault village. At 260 meters altitude, the vineyard faces due east, and has clay and iron rich red soils. The vineyard is named after the juniper bushes that once grew here – some say that the wines have an inherent herbaceousness derived from the juniper. Gaunoux’ Genevrieres ages for around 15 months in 15-30% new oak barrels, depending on the ripeness of the fruit. This is a wine of finesse and elegance, yet with the characteristic density and concentration of the domaine.

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.