My white report will be out in not much more than a week, covering over 40 domaines’ wines and the white vintage assessed in detail.

But here’s a weekend red – my first bottled 2018 red burgundy at home – and it’s more than a good one for the vintage – though I’ve only visited 44 (mainly) red domaines so far. Dominique Gallois has made super, punchy, balanced wines with fine energy in 2018 – they are well above the average – but here you can see, firsthand, the (my) stylistic conundrum of the vintage:

2018 Dominique Gallois, Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Very deep colour. Directly from the fridge (as all my wines), I can’t really describe this as pinot from Burgundy, it smells more like a good gamay cru – but at least there’s no bubble-gum here. Likewise in the mouth, this starts in direct, concentrated, even assertive style. It’s fresh, you might even convince me that it’s pinot – but, initially, not from Burgundy. As the wine warms in the glass the texture becomes more overtly velvet, the structure and flavours relax over the palate – even the nose smells a little more like pinot. It’s absolutely delicious wine of sufficient freshness, purity of (dark) fruit, no hard edges and a concentration that you don’t often find in a villages wine. It is a great regional wine – if you like the style – I can happily drink it despite its overt sweetness, but stylistically, 10,11,12,13,14 are all much more attractive to me. And blind, I still wouldn’t guess that it was from Burgundy…
Rebuy – Maybe