Tasted in Beaune with Jerôme Despres & Lauriane André, 02 May 2023.
Domaine Francoise André
7, Rempart Saint-Jean
21200 Beaune, France
Tel:+33 3 80 24 21 65
www.domaineterregelesses-francoiseandre.com
More reports with Domaine Françoise André.
Lauriane & Jerôme on 2023 – so far:
“We’d like it to have rained a bit more and there are one or two places where we lost a few buds due to the frost – but in other places we are now debudding!”
Lauriane & Jerôme on 2021:
“It really depends on the particular parcels but across the whole domaine, it’s about half a harvest – the better parcels, unfortunately, having the lower volume – all the wines are bottled the last were done towards the end of February. A number of the cuvées are already sold-out. A bit more young oak but no new oak in this vintage – we were happy with this decision – the wines supported less new barrels vs those vintages that preceeded it and it wasn’t a vintage for trying to extract.”
The wines…
The whole range is simply excellent in 2021 – a couple of wines even worth a special search. There’s a bit more barrel-cream than I like in the flavour profile of some whites – but that’s about taste – not quality!
The domaine uses the ‘plastic’ Ardea seal for all their wines – red and white. Versus the first few years that they were on the market, they seem easier to extract these days…
2021 Bourgogne Côte d’Or
Third vintage for this label – vines in Chorey. Next to villages Chorey vines.
Hmm – that’s a lovely nose – open, faintly smoky perfumed – a super invitation. Supple, mouth-filling a modestly rustic frame of tannin but delicious and fine shaped. Simply excellent Bourgogne.
2021 Chorey-lès-Beaune Les Tue-Boeuf
Same parcel as their white but older vines.
Extra colour. Ooh, that’s got both freshness and depth – darker fruit, faintly spiced – lovely. Lovely energy too – a direct and juicy style. The finish widens with fine precision and a little floral perfume…
2021 Beaune les Bons Feuvres
From lower slope vines close to the border with Pommard (And Beaune Epenottes).
A depth of aroma again, suggesting a faint reduction. Slightly narrow aromatics but fine clarity once more. Extra depth and width – flavour energy too – not the silkiest Beaune – showing a little structure but the flavour complexity is just such wonderful fun – delicious, excellent wine!
2021 Beaune Montée Rouge
Airy, pretty red fruit – open and attractive – lite but inviting. Good impact – I love the combination of width and intensity – that’s a simply super, juicy-finishing wine.
A single vineyard of 1 hectare and 40-year-old vines.
Starting warmer and rounder – slowly opening with air – still fine and red with a little cushion in this case. More architectural – open and mouth-filling there’s extra scale here. Bravo – great villages Savigny!
Just started their second year of organic conversion in this vintage. 1.20 ha
Plenty of colour. Narrow but then bursts with width as it takes up air – really perfumed – yes! More supple and velvet texture – sensuous over the palate. Leaching direct and juicy (again!) flavour over the palate. Clarity of perfume in the finishing flavours. Top!
2021 Savignyy-lès-Beaune 1er Les Narbantons
Only 0.16 ha – just a (larger) barrel for elevage – used for white before.
More direct and very faintly reductive – but this seems very promising. Broad, slightly muscular, depth and complexity – that will make a simply excellent bottle maybe even better than that – give it a couple of years for the last of the reduction to fade.
2021 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Vergelesses
Sited next to the domaine’s white Vergelesses.
Open and airy – much less overt density than the previous few wines. But super scale – really open and mouth-filling a slightly creamy depth to ample fruit – layered, always red but with successive waves of finishing flavour.
Always the most beautiful grapes.
Depth here – again with a subtle suggestion of reduction. Velour – a width of velour. Supple, a wine of generosity but never overstaying its welcome. Simply excellent – potentially great Beaune.
2021 Corton-Renardes
First vintage was in 2014. Just one barrel.
A narrow nose – more compact than most. Ooh! But this is so sophisticated in the mouth – direct, silky with mobile, complex, flavour. Certainly a nose short of brilliant today – but only that!
Les Whites:
Elevage is always in 350-litre barrels:
Next to the domaine’s vines in Chorey – planted by the domain in 2015 – the land en friche before. All barrel elevage. For bottling in the new year. Already AB as it’s newly planted vines – so the conversion was from when there were no grapes…
Ooh – boiled sweet freshness here – very inviting. Wide, supple, super texture for the label – that’s a great Bourgogne!
2021 Chorey-lès-Beaune Tue-Boeuf Blanc
40 year-old vines – planted by Sylvain Pitiot when he was at the domaine – one of the pioneers of Chorey Blanc here.
Less attack but more clarity of minerality here. Extra direct and intense – juicy – that’s lovely – chill for the summer apero! A finish that’s sneakily floral too!
2021 Pernand-Vergelesses Les Pins
From Les Pins on the hillside near Sous Frétille, plenty of stones in the clay here.
A vertical nose – faintly citrus top notes and a hint of minerality in the bass-line. Ultra-mineral, ultra-cool – strict in the best sense – until a surprisingly broad and, again, floral-perfumed finish.
2021 Beaune 1er Belissand
Fourth vintage – originally ‘all’ planted to red – but about 60% of the vines were missing when purchased, so decided to replant in white.
A breadth of aroma – less in focus than previous wine – very young vines still. Despite the nose, here it’s got a beautiful shape and texture – almost a clarity with superbly delicious flavour. Excellent wine – it can only get better if the nose comes together…
2021 Savignyy-lès-Beaune 1er Les Hautes-Jarrons
Like the two new reds the first vintage here. Roughly 70-year-old vines.
Also a modest volume of aroma but with a fine and very attractive width – very nice clarity. Extra intensity but a similar, sinuous, silky presentation that balances obvious middle concentration.
2021 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Verglesses
Near the vines of the Hospices de Beaune – 70-year-old vines – east-facing with very little soil, ‘a good vintage might bring 30 hl/ha, but that’s been a while.’
Here the nose is a little more open – and how fine is that! Direct, a depth of creaminess to this flavour, mineral though too – I find the cream a little distracting but there’s fine and growing energy – salinity, even… Super wine.
2021 Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Sous Fretille
From old vines.
More open, relaxed, aromatics – fine small precisions here. Good, structural but balanced with a little cushion – more expressive I think, I really like the finishing complexity and lack of cream 😊
2021 Corton-Charlemagne
From the Pernand side – 0.35 hectares of 30 year-old vines.
Another nose that’s a little compact – though there’s fine purity in the top notes. Oh yes! So silky, mobile, growing in intensity – becoming a little saline too – super length. This will become an excellent Charlemagne – give it the 5 years in the cellar that it deserves and you will be rewarded….