One of the least mediatised wines of Bourgogne, Harmand-Geoffroy’s Pinot Noir Gevrey-Chambertin has finally been getting some of the recognition it deserves. Slowly gaining column inches in the nationwide press, Harmand Geoffroy, which has so far only been a local hero, has begun to cause a bit of a stir.

The village of Gevrey-Chambertin has much competition for the title of best wine: Domaine Armand Rousseau, Dugat-Py and Domaine Leroy all spring to mind. So it comes as no surprise that Harmand-Geoffroy, with its understated fruit-forward taste, and covering most of the important vineyards in the famous Bourgogne wine village, has risen to the top. Offering total immersion in the terroir, Harmand-Geoffroy (and more notably father-son team Gerard and Philippe Harmand) is "one of Gevrey’s stars, producing a splendid range of wines …The Harmand’s touch is clearly masterly. Their wines are all too attractive young, but age well. A fine, confident domaine”. High praise indeed from Remington Norman and Charles Taylor, authors of The Great Domaines of Burgundy.

Established in the late 19th century, the 9-hectare domaine is planted 100% with Pinot Noir. Gerard and Philippe have stayed close to their traditional roots. Fertilisers are organic, soils are turned over by hand and lengthy manual de-budding (where excess shoots that might have appeared after pruning are removed) is done when necessary. The Harmands are also advocates of the “vendange verte” procedure, whereby excess fruit is removed so that the fruit left on the vine is allowed to mature and ripen fully. Clearly, this limits the harvest (done entirely by hand) so the process, while popular, is by no means adopted everywhere.

So why has the sleepy little domaine come to light in recent years? Well, it could be Harmand Junior’s feather-light touch in the vinification process. His honest-to-goodness style has been maturing and evolving in recent years, and has seen Harmand move away from richly extracted wines of old towards wines whose tenderness now complements their glowing depth of fruit. Wines have steadily been rising on the leaderboard over the past decade; think an aggregate score of 87 points in 2007 vs. 91 in 2017. Prices rose sharply in the last 6-months of 2018, signalling high market interest in the vineyard.