Last week, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Domaine des Croix – doesn’t time fly !!
David put together a celebratory day which started with a look at the terroirs of Beaune. Of course, it was mainly illustrated by the wines of his own domaine, but he extended his coverage of the soils that make up Beaune’s 335.5 hectares of premier crus, with the presence of interesting wines from other producers too. Our discussion was more than ‘elevated’ by the presence of Françoise Vannier:
2021 Boris Champy, Beaune 1er Coucherias
Steep but also high and more south-facing than most of Beaune, and because of the slope, quite a modest depth of soil
Pretty, perfumed, cushioned red fruit with a small chalkiness. Sweeping, wide flavour character. Still red-fruited with a super vibration of wide finishing fruit – again with a small chalky note of finishing tannin. A wine in a quieter phase than 2-3 years ago, but with super length …
2021 Bouchard Père, Beaune 1er Clos de la Mousse
Bottom of the hill with hardly any slope. More marl soils and deeper…
Deeper, richer, darker, ripe red fruit. Widening and losing some of the darker elements as the aroma widens. More generous than the Coucherias and very silky – that’s a beautiful texture. A more energetic core of fine dark fruit. This is showing really well today, the finish retains its darker red fruit and width…
2021 des Croix, Beaune 1er Cent Vignes
From the bottom of the slope with an alluvial soil, it’s also an earlier ripening place.
Larger scale and perfumed energy. Round, slightly generous for the vintage. Wide, lovely energy. Slowly fading, delicious, slightly strict today in the finishing flavours, but it’s a strictness that won’t last. Still such a fine wine…
2021 des Croix, Beaune 1er Bressandes
Higher on the slope at 300m, with much more limestone.
There’s some modest aromatic impact and a vibration of energy to this wider, slightly darker, fruit. Larger, more fluid and energetic, with extra mid-palate density and more finishing clarity – encased in the powdery, chalky, grainless tannin – the first wine in this series with no stems – David believes that the WC doesn’t go that well with the high limestone style of the parcel… and it’s my new favourite. Already excellent. It will be great, but wait 10 years if you can…
2021 Joseph Drouhin, Beaune 1er Clos des Mouches
The most southern Beaune 1er, bordering Pommard. Some Dolomite* in the soil here.
A modest generosity and immodest volume of fresh but darker, ripe red fruit. Large in scale – cool fruit – and it’s growing in stature, too. Then comes a super vibration of flavour energy that is rather wide. Far from the minerality of the last wine, but so drinkable and impressively long. What an excellent wine !!
*Limestone turns into ‘Dolomite’ when complexed with magnesium…
2021 des Croix, Beaune 1er Pertuisots
The more northerly neighbour of Clos des Mouches. The vines not going as high and with a more modest incline. Limestone above, alluvial soil in the bottom half.
Here’s a much more linear and silky freshness of aroma – yes! – but it’s also widening with air. Another wine of cool fruit and fluidity, the grainless tannin frames the flavours more strongly in this case. Faintly austere versus the Clos des Mouches – drink that wine first – this with a finish that’s more chalky. Great but young wine…
We had an interesting discussion of the effect of 2012-2014 hail on the vines of Pertuisots and the few years that followed, where (for a time) the Pertuisots was no longer the class of the cellar – it has now come back, firing on all cylinders, but it took a long time to recover…
2021 Albert Morot, Beaune 1er Grèves
The only cru that goes all the way from the bottom to the top of the hill of Beaune, with Sur Les Grèves.
Hmm, that’s a fine vibration of not just fruit, but floral, energy too. Fine, almost chalky. Good scale here – this is really mouth-filling. Transparency and slowly growing depth of fine flavour – I love it. Still a notch behind the great Pertuisots, but what a wonderful wine…
2021 des Croix, Beaune 1er Grèves
About the same height on the slope as Bouchard’s Enfant Jesus, but further north.
Also, a lovely width of darker red fruit energy – it shimmers. Larger, more chalky, and more obviously framed by its grainless tannin. Great wine with an explosion of finishing flavours, even the tannins have more flavour. The Morot is the more accessible wine today, the Croix has the extra austerity (with a small ‘a’) of youth. Drink your Morot today – and tomorrow too if you can find it, as it’s often just 1 barrel – the Croix for a very long future…
And for the road, direct from the cellars of Chateau de Chorey:
1995 Benoit Germain, Beaune 1er Cras
Of course, some browning of the colour. The volume of aroma impresses, of course, also with a very different style of aromatic complexity – here with crushed red plum fruit and more a blend of flowers – there’s nothing primary here. Large in scale. Flavours of soil mixed with fruit – still framed with a young but now almost grainless tannin – now comparable to the 21s. Energy and full of delicious flavour. At this stage no comparison with the primary flavour of the other wines – but what a treat !!
It is useless to talk about value, or indeed price in general, for the wines of this domaine. But there are lunchtime places in Côte d’Or where these wines are ‘accessible’ for well below retail price. 
Because when you’ve already tasted 26 wines – why not try one from a different vintage?
