Since 1971, and from Chablis to Mâcon, the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) has been selecting cuvées to illustrate the wines of Burgundy all around the world and to be used during the BIVB’s promotional and training activities. Tuesday 20th June 2023 was the 52nd awards ceremony for what has become known as the Cave de Prestige.
Cuvées from 97 Cellars, Maisons and Domaines were selected for the 2023 list – 48 of the producers were relative newcomers, i.e. appearing for the first time or making their return after missing a few presentations. In total, 168 wines were awarded the ‘Cave Prestige’ label after being chosen through more than one jury of tasters, representing 19% of the wines submitted. About 15,000 of these bottles will be purchased for use in the BIVB’s promotional activities for the next 12 months, activities such as:
• Masterclasses in France and abroad, at press dinners, and educational tastings organised by the BIVB’s press service.
• The Ecole des Vins de Bourgogne as part of its training activities
• PR events with partners such as the Cité Internationale du Vin in Bordeaux, VIP visits etc.
You can find the full list of 2023 winners – and their wines – here.
This presentation lasts about 2 hours so there is never the chance to taste all the bottles. The last couple of awards evenings that I attended, I started with whites – which typically meant that I never got started on the reds! So this year I did the reverse!
Here the wines that I managed to taste in the available time:
2023 Cave Prestige
And the winners are:
In ‘blue’ the wines that I would unhesitatingly buy…
2020 Patriarche, Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Poulettes
Easy, open red fruit. Impact and good intensity from a growing concentration. Some oak plus graphite minerality wrapped in a good texture – very good.
2020 R.Dubois et Fils, Nuits St.Georges
More depth of colour. Narrow but here’s a nose of silk. Mouth-filling +/- great scale for the label. Framed with some fine-grained tannin – less structurally seductive vs the last but with a super energy – in fact I’d wait a bit longer for this one – but the finish is excellent, in fact, a bit more persistent!
2020 Albert Bichot, Nuits St.Georges Château Gris
Only faint high tones escape the glass but there’s plenty of depth with some implied aromatic silk. Broad, energetic, very faintly grained with tannin – just a hint of pine needle and a finish with some creamy oak stil showing. The last notes clean and tasty!
2020 Clos des Poulettes, Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos des Poulettes
A more vertical nose – the depth slightly metallic but still bloody and attractive. This does have a very modest pyrazine flavour but that gives an extra complexity. Very good!
A faintly spiced width from this more compact nose. Hmm – I really like the combination of mouth-filling volume and silky texture – high-toned fruit for this wine. The finish is super – if you want to drink Nuits on the young side – from this group here this is an easy choice – excellent wine, indeed a really top villages.
2020 Seguin-Manuel Vosne-Romanée Aux Communes
Higher toned complexity, slightly powdery red fruit too. Easy, open but mouth-filling wine – fluid wine – becoming a little more strict from the middle to finish – but in a good way. That’s lovely.
2020 Beaumont, Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles-Vignes
A breadth of higher tones. Incisive, direct – frank even – great texture and a super mouth-watering style. You will note some impression of oak but this is an excellent, intense, villages wine.
2020 Beaumont, Morey St.Denis 1er Les Millandes
Even more aromatic volume than their Gevrey VV, the high-toned oak apparent here too. Super shape, velvet texture – so clearly a step up. The oak is still present but thats another super wine – an impressive finish here!
2020 Roux Père, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Noirots
A narrower but more fine, pure nose – beautiful red fruit clarity. Fluid, nicely concentrated – like the nose a wine of red fruit clarity. Subtly generous in the middle and finishing flavours. Super again!
2020 Guy & Yvan Dufouleur, Fixin 1er Clos du Chapitre
Here is some colour! Concentrated aromatics, faintly savoury, perhaps with some modest pyrazine. Yes certainly there’s pyrazine in the flavours! Large scale and faintly grained – the finish intense but the greens take away some of my interest – which is a shame, because otherwise, that’s a great finish.
2021 Huguenot, Marsannay Montagne
Ooh – the smoky oak is still rather dominating this nose. In the mouth we have fine scale and a super texture with just a faint dryness of tannin on the end of the tongue. Slowly mouth-watering with a little generosity right at the end.
An easy but silkily attractive red fruit nose – only of modest intensity. Given the nose the nicely incisive and fresh start to this wine is a bit of a surprise – but this is a delicious and juicy thing. A super finish here. That’s a great villages.
2021 Besson, Givry 1er Les Grands Pretans
An airy and attractive width of red fruit. Broad with good energy – a juicy wine thats framed with a fine grain of tannin – but not drying. Good, almost steely finishing flavour. Thats lovely wine.
2020 Belleville, Mercurey Champ Ladoy
High toned, interesting and dark, metallic, almost bloody fruit. Mouth-filling energetic wine – I like the style – surely a little oak adding to the mix but this is a big, tasty, mouth-full of wine
2020 Château d’Etroyes, Mercurey 1er Le Grand Epervier
Higher toned – more open, more silky red fruit nose. Energy and intensity. There’s a grain of tannin here plus a suggestion of oak but this is really very tasty wine!
2021 Suremain, Mercurey 1er En Sazenay
Higher toned, airy. In the mouth, there is a good scale and a tasty, high-tone presentation – very good.
2021 Albert Sounit, Mercurey 1er Clos des Montaigus
Again an airy, more silky, depth of red fruit. There’s a little dark-oak accent to this fruit but this has some generosity and quite some structural sophistication. The flavour is slightly darker red – probably because of the barrels but is delicious.
2021 Catherine & Claude Marechale, Volnay
Pretty high-toned red fruit. Supple and quite concentrated, there’s structure here too. Thats a super medium-term wine. Yum!
2020 Nuiton-Beaunoy, Volnay 1er Chanlins
Clarity and depth – thats a rather good nose! Mouth-filling, with plenty of intensity – there’s some oak showing here too but this a fine wine of both energy and sweet finishing flavour!
2021 Baptiste Guyot, Monthelie
Some attractive high tones here. Fresh attack, with just enough cushion. Direct and pretty, though also with some proper middle structure. The finish is direct and with lovely clarity – a simply super finish.
2021 Catherine & Claude Marechale, Beaune Les Bonnes Feuvres
Nicely complex, high-toned notes – that’s very attractive. Round in the middle, some structure but also with very tasty darker red fruit. Slowly fading. Very good…
2020 Denis Carré, Beaune 1er Les Tuvillains
Hmm, that’s a nose with both depth and interest – very nice. Mouthfilling, fine energy though today with plenty of finishing bitters – keep to 3-4 years before returning.
Silky but also concentrated aromatics. Concentrated wine, with energy too though broad finishing. There is tons of material here and it’s never harsh – more a longer-term wine than many and simply excellent, potentially a great one!
2020 Françoise Andre, Beaune 1er Belissand blanc
Finishing with a white one!
Clean, very slightly lactic, with almost a little coconut complexity. Freshness, energy and concentration – growing more intense as it melts over the palate. A delicious wine!