Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru '4 Carac'Terres', Domaine Henri Magnien, 2024 - Magnum
Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru '4 Carac'Terres', Domaine Henri Magnien, 2024 - Magnum
- 150cl
- 13%
- Red Still
- Pinot Noir
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Optimal drinking window: 2029 - 2049
Domaine Henri Magnien continues to prove why Charles Magnien is firmly established as one of Gevrey-Chambertin’s rising stars. The 2024 vintage is a clear success here, with exceptional definition between cuvées and a masterclass in terroir expression. This is Magnien firing on all cylinders.
His '4 Carac'Terres' blends fruit from four distinct plots within the appellation to build something more expressive than any single parcel might manage alone. The name says it all: four characters, four soils, one wine that captures the breadth of what Gevrey's hillside can do.
In magnum, the whole proposition shifts up a gear. More wine, slower ageing, more time for the parts to find each other.
What the critics say:
"The 2024 Gevrey-Chambertin 4 Carac'terres 1er Cru has a nose that feels incongruous among Magnien's line-up: very peppery due to the 100%whole bunch and 100% new oak. Quite forceful. The palate is dense with just a touch of volatility lending animation. Touches of blood orange and plenty of wood tannins on the finish, as you would expect. It will be fascinating to see this in a decade's time."
"Generous wood presently fights a bit with the very fresh and cool aromas of herbal tea, spice, earth and blend of red and dark pinot fruit. There is again a really lovely texture to the punchy and stony, if not especially dense, flavors that deliver excellent length on the balanced finale. This is going to need time to integrate the lavish oak treatment though the large format bottling will afford that with no concerns. *Outstanding*"
The four plots that make up '4 Carac'Terres' draw on different expressions of Gevrey's geology — a mix of limestone-rich Bathonian and Bajocian soils, varying in depth and clay content as you move up and across the hillside. Shallower soils closer to the rock give mineral tension and structure; deeper patches contribute rounder, more generous fruit. The orientation is predominantly east-facing, giving the vines good morning sun and a cooler afternoon that preserves acidity and freshness. The blending of these four sites is the point: no single parcel tells the whole Gevrey story, but together they come close.
Gevrey-Chambertin is the largest and arguably most celebrated commune in the Côte de Nuits, home to nine grands crus — including Chambertin itself — and a significant collection of premiers crus ranging from the powerful and structured to the more floral and lifted. The appellation rules require 100% Pinot Noir for red wines, and the premier cru designation signals vineyards of recognised superior quality, one step below the grands crus in the hierarchy. Gevrey has a reputation for producing Burgundy's most muscular, age-worthy reds — more tannic and iron-edged than Chambolle, less flamboyant than Vosne — though estates like Magnien show there's plenty of nuance within that generalisation.
The 2024 growing season in Burgundy was, frankly, a test of nerve. A wet spring brought significant mildew pressure, and vignerons who stayed sharp in the vineyard — working fast, keeping canopies open, reducing yields where necessary — came out the other side with something worth talking about. Summer brought warmer, drier conditions that helped the fruit recover composure, and harvest arrived broadly on the later side, with growers picking carefully to find phenolic ripeness without sacrificing freshness. Quantity was down across much of the Côte, which concentrates minds as much as it concentrates wine.
What emerged is a vintage that rewards those who put the work in. The Pinots we have tasted carry real precision and translucency — not because they are light, but because the acidity is lively and the fruit unforced. Chardonnays from the Côte de Beaune look particularly promising: taut, mineral, with genuine length. This is not a vintage to panic-open. Most village and premier cru reds want three to five years at minimum, with the better appellations drinking well until 2035 and beyond. The whites are more approachable now, though the best will reward patience too.
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