Burgundy 2023

This comes from three parcels, two of which lie on the limestone soils near the distinctive Solutré rock bringing a tension and freshness to the wine, and the third on a richer clay site near Pouilly bringing density. It has been vinified in stainless steel only and has wonderful purity and depth of fruit in 2023, packed full of white peach aromatics culminating in a long, satisfying finish with a hint of chalk.

This is a brilliant blend of the appellation, drawn from over 50 separate parcels, 4 of which are now actually premiers crus but produced in too small volumes to be bottled separately. This all makes for a very complete and complex portrait of the region. Just over half of the parcels are on Fuissé’s typically clay soil, with the rest on limestone and sandy schist soils. Two thirds of the wine is aged in oak, with 15% of that new oak. The 2023 displays vibrant white nectarine aromas tightly balanced around a mineral line, with a smooth, silky body. This is the flagship wine of the estate, and performs every year.

It’s fitting that Le Clos graduated to premier cru status in the 2020 vintage. It is a superb 2.7 hectare monopole vineyard of the domaine, sitting right outside the cellar door. It is home to many old vines, some of which were planted as far back as 1929. The youngest vines you’ll find here are from 1984. These east-facing vines grow on three different soils - clay at the bottom, marl in the middle and limestone at the top. It’s the most serious wine in the Château de Fuissé cellar, with complex layers resulting from the patchwork of soil types and vine diversity and oak ageing (85% new). 2023 is an extremely structured and complete wine. The nose spans white peaches, orange peel, honeysuckle, and vanilla. The palate is balanced, deep and focussed. A zesty freshness with impressive persistence on the finish.

Claudie makes this in exactly the same way as her Rully Montagne la Folie, but the expression couldn’t be more different. It comes from a parcel in the south-east of the appellation, near Mercurey, and makes a wine with an amplitude and volume that gives the wine weight and power. The fruit leans toward nectarines; there’s a lusciousness as well as a delicious salinity to the length of this wine.

This is a brilliant example of what Claudie Jobard is up to. It is a fine-boned and refined Rully, with the hallmarks of superb quality fruit and a smashingly good vintage. It comes from a south-east facing stony site, not far from the town of Chagny in the northeast of the appellation. It’s a joyful and pure, citrusy white, mineral with a fine saline thread of acidity running through the fruit.

These vines are, almost unbelievably, 105 years old. Claudie has just 0.37 hectares in this premier cru, and admits that keeping it with the original vines is more sentimental than business-savvy, since the yields they produce are so low. But it’s wrapped up in her family history, and she just loves it too much to uproot it. Instead she works the tiny parcel by horse and hand, and makes from its fruit a complex and intense wine with surprisingly silky tannins that has the substance and poise to age with grace.

Claudie’s father, in his days of running a plant nursery with access to a huge range of plant material, planted seven different clones of Pinot Noir in this 2.5 hectare site. Now at 45 years old, this diversity, twinned with the quality of vineyard husbandry, means the vineyard is thriving. The different clones call for pruning and harvesting at different times, but it’s an effort worth making, as the wine is texturally sophisticated, lifted, and full of Pinot nuance. It’s open, balanced and extremely drinkable, with a touch (10%) of new oak adding a little sweet spice to the gorgeous red fruit.

This is an important vineyard both in terms of its size (5.23 hectares) and its historical stock of 100+ year old vines. The concentration here, in 2023, is exquisite. It is another great example of the Clos and one of the finest we have tasted - another chance for Paul to rewrite the old trope that Pommard is muscular and rustic only. Instead this is powerful, svelte, profound, and intense. It is truly one of the greatest vineyards of the Côte de Beaune.

This specific bottling is from a single 1-hectare plot next to the premier cru of Vaucoupin – it can be considered a mini premier cru. In 2023, this is assertive and focused with waves of salinity running through the wine. A hint of white miso complexity on the finish with very fine white flowers and white grapefruit flavours - this is a real value pick from the range.

This Chablis from Didier represents his largest bottling from various parcels around the domaine. It is quite simply everything you might hope for in a village Chablis. Saline, focused, with fine citrus notes of white grapefruit and hints of stone fruit. It is tightly coiled and classic in style. The finish shows a subtle and enticing delicate bitter lemon note.

The village bottling of Vauclaire is a new wine for Didier, bottled separately for the first time with the 2022 vintage. This is a parcel on the left bank of the Serein River, planted in 1985 and 1986 near Vosgros and Dessus la Carrière. On the nose this is so fresh and vibrant with aromas of chalk dust, white flowers, apricot and almond blossom. A really beautiful Chablis this year.

The estate has a total of 3.5 hectares of Vosgros in two parcels. The larger parcel has vines dating back to the 1960s while the other smaller parcel was planted in the early 1980s. Exposed southwest, its soil is brown marl limestone, giving wines which open with citrus and stone fruit before a wave of salinity floods the palate. In 2023 this is quite brilliant with a mineral-etched focus.

Santenay is one of the southern-most villages of the Côte d’Or. This sunny spot on a steep limestone slope is always picked early, and is unusually part-vinified in a glass wine globe. It has a pretty and delicate nose of white blossom and citrus peel, followed by wonderful tension and crystalline purity on the palate.

Les Frionnes is one of Olivier’s most important and favourite vineyards. He has an impressive clutch of five parcels within Frionnes, with vines ranging in age from 10 to 80 years old. The soil here is decomposed Kimmeridgian limestone, similar to that found in Chablis and Sancerre. This is not just an academic point - you can really feel it in the wine, which brims with oyster shells on the nose, and a Chablis-esque chiselled frame on the palate.

It is well worth following Olivier’s reds, particularly in recent vintages. This vineyard had previously been owned by M. Duvault-Blochet, former owner of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Today, high density planting and organic farming mean low yields, which does a great service to the fruit - red berries with a smoky graphite scent lingering over them. Mineral and defined.

Droin’s Vosgros is always one of the most striking and characterful wines at the domaine. It is vinified and raised exclusively in stainless steel: Benoît wants to preserve the energy and Chablisienne nature of the wine. It has a notable drive, but also an ample volume, twinned with delicious purity. It has wonderful intensity on the palate, with lemon verbena and orange pith notes.

Valmur is pressed up against Les Clos; the contour of its slope, where much faces northwest, make it slightly cooler than other parts of the grand cru. It’s like a stiff sea breeze, laced with salt and an iodine freshness. The scintillating line of acidity running through its length is tied to some fascinating orange blossom notes, making it one of the most complex in the vintage’s line up.

Montmains is on the same slope of the left bank as Vaillons, but has deeper clay soils, and typically produces a rounder wine with more weight. The clay in the soils make it a cooler site, and it often gets picked last. This makes for a really quite burgundian style of wine, as in, it wouldn’t be impossible to mistake it for something from the Côte d’Or if tasting blind. But that little kick of oyster shell which whips around the fruit gives it away as Chablis.

This is a blend of five terroirs across the steep Vaillons premier cru (out of a possible total of eight). Blending gives Benoît the chance to introduce freshness, with higher acid fruit running through the riper parcels. This is gorgeously floral, as great Vaillons tends to be in its youth. It’s an elegant wine with classical balance. As usual 25% was fermented and aged in old oak, and though it’s hugely appealing right from the get-go, this should age beautifully as well.

Vaudésir sits at the top of the grand cru hill, and enjoys a steep incline, making it one of the sunnier spots in the grand cru. This is all nutty intensity and precision, giving it density and drive on the palate. It’s got a great texture, with stone fruit concentration laced with grilled hazelnuts. This will drink well from early on, though its drinking window should not be underestimated.

Although they account for a minute percentage of overall production, the white wines of Nuits-St-Georges have a proud history. Interestingly, Pinot Blanc, as well as Chardonnay, is permitted under the AOC, and this cuvée from the Rions has a little dash in the blend. This is from a 1.21 hectare plot at the top of the slope, close to the domaine, with chalky soils. It’s zesty and fragrant, with peachy stone fruit and white blossom intertwined. With only around 5% new oak, this is a delicious, floral, and saline white which matches the calibre of the estate’s fantastic range of reds.

There can’t be many village parcels with a better position than this. Indeed, the bottom half of the vineyard is premier cru. The top half runs above Les Fuées and meets with Bonnes-Mares at its northern edge. The soil is shallow and in 2023 the grapes were fully destemmed which helps to deliver a real sense of purity and elegance. This is a lively, and detailed Chambolle with notes of rosehip, red cherry fruit and a little white pepper on the finish.

This vineyard between Chambolle Musigny and Gilly-lès-Citeaux is one of the best parcels of Bourgogne in the Côte de Nuits. Neighbour Ghislaine Barthod’s Bourgogne Rouge is another exceptional example of this vineyard. It’s a beautifully perfumed Bourgogne with a lacy texture to the tannins and excellent concentration thanks to the vineyard's tendency to millerandages (small berries). Like Ghislaine’s, you can cellar this with confidence.

Under the domaine label since 2022 the village Vosne is a blend of three small parcels – around a quarter of fruit coming from Aux Raviolles and La Croix Blanches and the remaining half from Les Hauts Beaux Monts. The average vine age across the three parcels is 50 years. The wine delivers rounded, fleshy dark cherry fruits, with accents of fresh earth and violets, with a caressing texture to the tannins.