2006 Camille Giroud, Corton Chaumes
The first from a case of 6. David Croix’s first wine with whole clusters – 50%! It was an homage to a great wine of whole bunches the night before. The last vintage for these 80-year-old vines before they were pulled out to replant with chardonnay – it’s now Corton-Charlemagne here – a no-brainer of a decision from a financial perspective! A clean cork – but one that broke in half. The rest extracted as a single piece – good!
Hmm – young in the mouth, perfumed too – not a bit gothic – that’s very lovely. There’s still plenty of structural finishing tannin – it’s still a Corton, after all, but the flavour is fine though – but the nose is just getting better and better – that’s really super… The floral perfume in the glass – it’s coming into the flavours too – I’d decant today – the finish is comfortable and long too. I think that I’ll wait another 3-4 years before opening bottle number 2 !!
Rebuy – Yes

1998 Dominique Laurent, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
A decent cork which started to move (down!) before the ah-so cork remover was fully in place – but I still managed to get it out in one…
Modest colour. An equally modest nose; the aromas are old, but not too old, faintly of white mushrooms. A silky, quite fluid entry with a small generosity and a tasty depth of flavour – widening over the palate into the finish. Still some finishing bitters – but not too bitter! Holding very impressively with a width of roast flavours like coffee and chocolate, holding really impressively. I honestly wouldn’t guess the vintage – the acidity is not so strong – I might even go for a 1997 blind! The finish haunts the palate – it has great length. Something of a stealth wine and beautifully put together…
Rebuy – Yes

AOC Clos de Vougeot

On the 12^th March 1935, the draft bill which laid the foundations for the first of our modern-day appellations was published.

The bill was fully adopted on the 30^th July 1936, following which the legal decrees that delivered France’s first appellations were issued for a total 76 wine appellations, 22 of which were in Burgundy.

This, in turn, led to the creation of what would become the National Institute for Appellations of Origin – or INAO. The INAO actually began life in 1935, as the Comité National des Appellations d’Origine (CNAO) to manage France’s quality for products like wine, only evolving into the INAO after World War 2.

We know of the court cases that pitted growers with ‘maisons’ in Burgundy, but another of the drivers was that there was government control of winemaking – not the quality, just the boundaries. Producers wanted to get away from this form of political control to a set of more objective rules.

The Institut National des Appellations d’Origine, as the INAO started, was later renamed the Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité, but fortunately, they didn’t change the acronym!

In the 1990s the took on the role of managing all agricultural products that had some geographic origin, or protected designation of origin – PDOs. So today, not just wine, but also cheese, apples and Bressé chicken are just some of the products that are regulated by the INAO.

Today there are over 300 AOCs for wine in France, with over 80 in Burgundy…

First run in 1938, the 65th Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges wine auction, on Sunday, raised €1,526,000 for the Hospices Civils de Beaune charity.

Despite lower prices for the reds, this total marks a 91.7% increase from last year’s total of €860,000 – no surprise given the paucity of wine from Nuits in 2024 – just 36 barrels were produced by the domaine in that year.

The auction sold 80.5 barrels (79 standard 228-litre barrels and one half-barrel – 79 of which were red and 1.5 were white) from the 2025 vintage. This 2025 volume remains below the historical average production by the Hospices, which is usually in the region of 100 to 150 barrels.

The bidding reflected the current market sentiment towards burgundy wines: The reds are still coveted but not to the extent of recent vintages – the barrel prices were down a little but sold easily. The reverse was the case for whites. Although there’s very little white wine in this auction (no surprise as Nuits has only about 5% white) the bidding was much more competitive and resulted in record barrel prices for whites – about one-third higher than last year and the average barrel price was double that of the reds !!

The event marked the passing of the baton from retiring technical director Jean-Marc Moron to Laurence Danel – Jean-Marc having been responsible for the last 36 vintages here.

2024 Chablis Terroirs de Fye
In Chapelots part of Montée de Tonnerre, but the villages part.
Modestly deep colour. Clarity – what a lovely nose this is – accented by the fruit but also mineral and saline. Fluid, mouth-filling wine but with a complexity that matches the aromatics. Really great – a wine that was drunk all too quickly !!
Rebuy – Yes

2003 Michel Juillot, Corton-Perrières
All of the previous bottles have been ‘average.’ This one is surprisingly above average – almost good !! Plenty of colour. Faintly spiced, sweet macerating dark plum aromas. Large in the mouth, with plenty of richness and fine texture. The finish is large in scale and with plenty of finishing bitters – perhaps too much bitters for the age of the wine – but I’m happy taking another sip – and I haven’t said that about many other bottles of this !!
Rebuy – Maybe

What a lovely week – first, I love the 2024s that I’m tasting and secondly – the weather!

Whilst it’s been chilly and close to 0°C in the mornings, every afternoon touched 20°C. Even my jogging has been well-served by shorts and a t-shirt.

Of course, we’ve had, what just about everyone will was agree, was a proper winter season. Though the pessimists will certainly say that it was too short…

The cool/cold weather ended abruptly about 10 days ago and the countryside is already blooming – the trees, even the magnolias, are close to full bloom. Of course, the pessimists (again) only point to the fact that their vines are about 15 days ahead of the average – about 2 months ahead of the St.Glace – about the same as they experienced in 2020 and also 2021 – but those vintages brought two very different results.

The candles are largely stockpiled and waiting for deployment – April 8-10 has been a common timing for frost in recent years, and that’s still a long way off !!

This week in Chablis:

2022 The Odd Couple,Santa Rita Hill California – Sandford & Benedict Vineyards
And people laugh at the length of some burgundy wine names! (Retired) Flying winemaker David Lloyd and friend of Burgundy Report’s wine – one of many. A resounding pop as the diam leaves the neck of the bottle.
Medium plus colour – soft red fruit aromatics with a warm, rounding oak spice. Filling the mouth well. There’s a small textural cushion but with good fluidity and clarity to the red fruit – like the nose, framed with the light oak-spice and a finishing sucrosity, maybe partly from the barrel. Plenty of very fine-grained tannic bitters in this finish. Tasty but missing the x-factor…
Rebuy – Maybe

2022 Thenard, Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Île des Vergelesses
Trescases, NDtec cork – about as long a name as you will find in Burgundy 🙂
Darker colour. The nose is wider, with darker fruit – also a small accent from the barrel, but not spiced – these aromas with a bit more detail and incision plus a modest floral perfume. Much larger in the mouth, with sweet, creamy barrel flavours too – I’d wait a couple more years before opening the next one. Wide finishing wine – I like the texture and the personality more here. This is a simply excellent young wine – I love it!!
Rebuy – Yes