Denis Mortet founded his domaine in Gevrey-Chambertin in 1992 and within a decade had made it one of the most talked-about addresses in the Côte de Nuits — ripe, deeply coloured, heavily oaked wines that divided opinion as sharply as they attracted it.

After his death in 2006, his son Arnaud Mortet took over at twenty-four. He has spent the years since moving the style away from extraction and new wood towards finesse: more whole bunches, less new oak, gentler infusion. The transformation is one of the most admired in modern Burgundy.

The domaine works around eleven hectares in and around Gevrey, farmed organically in practice.

Lavaux Saint-Jacques lies in the combe above Gevrey, on the slope that runs up towards the Combe Lavaux. Cool air draining down that valley keeps the site fresher than the village below, and it is routinely named among the premiers crus that deserve grand cru standing.

2018 was warm and generous, with a large, healthy crop. The wines are open, fleshy and immediately appealing — the vintage to drink while the 2019s and 2020s sleep.

Ripe black cherry and liquorice over warm spice and forest floor; generous and broad on the palate, the tannins ripe, closing long on sweet fruit.