Bachelet's Gevrey exists on its own plane. On paper, it's a village-level wine. In reality, it radically transcends the category. When you catch Bachelet's Gevrey in the right vintage, the wine can simply floor you. It has a class and complexity that village-level wines pretty much never have. The first Bachelet that drove this point home was a bottle from 1990 opened nearly twenty years after the vintage.

It's amazingly silken, pure, and mineral. It's been a long time since I've encountered a vintage of Bachelet that worked so harmoniously on all of these levels. The old vines really make their presence felt in the wine's density and gripping intensity. The vines average 60 to 70 years old, with the oldest dating back to 1932.

The 2018 Gevrey is clearly an important example of this seriously overachieving wine. Denis Bachelet says of his 2018s: "I like them quite a bit as they're generous and rich but not at the expense of the underlying terroir." This gives you a good feel for the Gevrey. There's plenty of power and verve with notes of earth and the sauvage quality that's a hallmark of the wine.

This is another example of Bachelet's perfectionism hitting the mark. There's no doubt that the 2018 Gevrey will age beautifully.