Tasted with Jean-Philippe Archambaud in Santenay, 22 May 2024.

Domaine du Château Philippe le Hardi
1 rue du château
21590 Santenay
Tel: +33 3 80 20 61 87
www.philippelehardi.fr

My first visit to this 98-hectare estate that blends vines from the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune and the Côte Chalonnaise.

You will recognise the home of Château Philippe le Hardi as being the Château de Santenay – a beautiful and imposing place high in the village of Santenay – though a domaine with not with many vines in Santenay !!

Here is a property which amalgamates the many vineyard plots of Crédit Agricole – their largest holdings are in Mercurey with 50 hectares of reds and another 15 of white – there’s a symbolic small plot of Santenay in front of the château though. The big expansion here – unsurprisingly in Mercurey – was in the 1950s; mainly from buying unplanted woods that were in the Mercurey appellation. Mercurey is the largest red appellation but much wasn’t planted in the 1950s. Later, a similar approach was made in St.Aubin too with a plot – split in 3 AOCs (Bourgogne, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes, Villages) that covers 20 hectares…

There have been multiple changes here to winemaking; what was once more heavily oaked sees much less and more emphasis on ‘precision’ when it comes to winemaking by doing away with big pumps, small cases at harvest, less pigeage, using a vertical press – all have brought more interest and detail to the wines that I’ve previously seen – today I put that to the test. About 50% of the production is exported from here – the wines were mainly sold in France in previous years – the Nicolas chain remains a strong French client.

Jean-Philippe on the 2022 vintage:
“We’re really happy with the 22 vintage – and it’s a rare vintage in which we don’t really have a preference for either red or white. We liked the grapes at harvest but didn’t really have the expectations that the wines would turn out so good. The bottlings here were done roughly between December and April 2024.”

The wines…

Many classy wines can be found in this wide range of cuvées – some close to being great wines for their label. And much work is ongoing in the cuverie with the aim to achieve even better. Well done !!

Not the whole range but not far off it’s a significant idea of what’s produced here – 90% from the producer’s own vines… A mix of diam-style sealed wines and some NDTEC-sealed wines at the top of the range. ‘Diam is the least bad solution and it works:’

2022 Mercurey Bois de Lalier
East-facing, quite steep hillside – and 10 hectares here too
A round but pure red fruit that’s a good invitation. Nice shape – very good texture – just a faint chalky tannin. Nice texture and a juicy finish – delicious wine to start.

2022 Mercurey 1er Les Puillets
A hint more colour. Broader, brighter aromas – more airily complex and very inviting. Extra silky texture to start, slowly becoming more visible tannin but hardly drying. Broad and very delicious this is a simply excellent wine – elegant but holding such a persistent finish.

2022 Mercurey 1er Les Crêts
This with cork – used for some of the smaller bottlings – here it’s just 0.3 ha.
A more vertical nose with impressive and fresh depth of darker red fruit. Larger in the mouth – really wide, the tannin – no grain – asserting itself more. But here is a wine that’s more feisty and with good lithe muscle. I’d keep it 2 years before opening but I think it very tasty and large-scaled in the finish too. Yum

2022 Mercurey 1er Les Champs Martin
Fresher top notes yet darker red fruit too with a faint floral accent. Large scale again – the structure more visible, almost but not quite grainy tannin framing the flavour. This has more finishing bitters in the nicely textured width of finishing flavour. Keep at least a couple of years before opening…

2022 Santenay 1er La Comme
1.4 ha of this.
Also a bright nose – open with a little extra depth to the aroma. Extra concentration for sure – a little more direct – a texture of velour – but also juicy and concentrated finishing. Clearly an excellent wine with just a suggestion of barrel flavour in the finish – it will be gone in 6-12 months.

2022 Beaune 1er Montée Rouge
They also have Clos du Roi in the bottom part of the vineyard that they harvest first – maybe 2 weeks before this!
A lovely perfume – there’s a hint of herb complexity too which adds interest. Hmm – I love this mouth-filling energy – juicy but open – complex too. Like the last, a hint of barrel in the finishing flavours – but more smoky than creamy. Wide and very tasty.

2022 Pommard ‘Petit Clos’
Next to the wall of the Clos of Chateau Pommard
Fresh, airy but darker fruit too – maybe the first wine with some aromatic oak. Large in scale and with more density too, despite that there’s fine energy and even a modest fluidity to these flavours too. A larger wine but with a smaller but no less delicious finish than the Beaune. Lovely.

2022 Aloxe-Corton Les Brunettes & Planchots
2.4 ha here – I like the approach of adding multiple climat names on the label….
A nose of red-fruited concentration with a higher tone of attractive perfume. Rounder but still concentrated, extra tannin but extra flavour that sticks to your gums too. Wide and deliciously complex – just such a super villages – certainly excellent, perhaps even better.

Cote de Nuits:
This range the result of purchasing a domaine in Gevrey-Chambertin in 2019, previously Domaine Francois Perrot:

2022 Bourgogne Côte d’Or Pressonnier
Part of this vineyard is Gevrey level but here the the vines are only this regional enclave.
Narrow but high-toned aromas and with properly inviting perfume. Here is more density than you expect after the previous wines – a more visible structure too – but it’s only a fine grain to the hardly drying tannin. Wide, clean, textural – but I’d keep it 2 years. Delicious wine for its label…

2022 Chambolle Les Fremières
Airy higher tones, here with some smoky oak. In the mouth, it’s clearly a textural step up from the Bourgogne. Quite a fluid wine with a nicely energetic flavour profile. The finish is slightly more structural and holding well onto the last, almost cherry-stone, flavours. Lovely wine…

2022 Chambolle Les Condemennes
A silky, smoky aroma – compact versus the previous. Larger in scale in the mouth with extra silk in the texture. Juicily delicious – a wine of intensity, fine texture and lovely finishing – I love it !!

2022 Chambolle 1er Les Baudes
For the first time here, a wine with some wc – about 25%
A little floral accent but a lot more depth of fruit aroma. Extra silky and much broader – almost panoramic – flavoured. Extra complexity – some from the stems, some from the barrels but the wine itself is no slouch either. That’s a really super Chambolle 1er – that will be even greater in 3-5 years time.

2022 Gevrey-Chambertin Champerrier du Dessus
Higher toned, more airy aromas. Direct, cool, juicy – that’s delicious – quite intense finishing too – hard to follow the Carougeot though 😉

2022 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Petit Chapelle
Two parcels amounting to 0.65 ha – but with almost a week of difference in harvest dates – separate elevage but blended at the end.
High toned again – also a little compact – less obvious energy than the last but with such a beckoning impression. Extra depth and sucrosity to these flavours – a clear jump. Gorgeous wine.

2022 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Au Closeau
The smallest 1er of Gevrey with 0.5 ha, almost ‘within’ Perrière
A lovely aromatic – open with larger scale than the Clos Prieur. More fluid in style too – this flavour melts over the palate – the smoky barrel evident in the middle flavours today but probably not more in 12 months. Depth and impressive complexity finishing – the Clos Prieur is easier today but in 5 years this will be an excellent wine.

2022 Charmes-Chambertin
This a contract from true Charmes – first vintage – half whole cluster fermentation.
Airy – some perfume but also a little reserved today. This is more impressive in the mouth though – enveloping, with slightly cushioned concentration, complex and generous wine. Tasty wine too.

2022 Clos de Vougeot
Two parcels of 0.2 ond 0.65 ha – two harvests as the vines not ripe at the same time – though bough are roughly mid-slope in the Clos.
Freshness and precision – almost a little vertical with fine aromatic depth. A little cushion of concentration like the Charmes – but here is a more immersive flavour experience – scale great shape and a fine, lingering, finish. That’s a very lovely Clos de Vougeot today. It will be excellent…

Les Whites:

2022 Mercurey La Brigadière
High, north-facing vines but harvested early to avoid over-mature notes.
Some dark oak and a direct, faintly reductive, aroma. This has good shape and concentration in the mouth. Broad too – I’d carafe this today to minimise the reduction.

2022 Mercurey Bois de Lalier
4ha of this…
This is wider and a more citrus-styled aromatic. Fresh, direct, properly juicy wine but still with some breadth of finishing flavour – slightly tannic finishing too – this is showing much better than the previous wine today.

2022 Mercurey Le Closeau
North of appellation – it had some frost damage this year
A zesty citrus nose. More scale again and in this case more concentration – a small oak adding to the middle and finishing flavours – a well-structured wine, with an almost mineral finishing style. Tasty!

2022 Bourgogne Côte d’Or Clos de la Chaise Dieu
This in a parcel of 20 ha together with Hautes cotes and St.Aubin depending on the altitude lieu-dit Sous les Foires
Some riper fruit at the core of this large aromatic – good freshness. Very good volume and presence in the mouth – ripe, sweet but not cloying – a faint reduction again so carafe. The finish has a nice vibration of energy… Very good…

2022 Bourgogne Hautres Côtes de Beaune Les Foires
From the highest part of the same parcel – 400m.
A smaller nose but still with some bright freshness, even a floral perfume is suggested. Faintly textured with tannin – less overtly sweet than the previous Bourgogne – I prefer this and its juicy finish. Yum!

2022 St.Aubin En Vesvau
The lowest part of this 20 ha parcel. There’s a lot more clay in the soil here
Hmm – really a completely different nose – more citrus energy. In the mouth – we have scale to the flavours and lots of citrus energy too. Easily the most delicious of this trio – lovely wine.

2022 Santenay 1er Beaurepaire
Extra width – a more creamy accent to this citrus aromatic. Cool, mineral – beautiful – even with the oaky flavour accents – noticeable in the finish too. This has beautiful shape and flavour energy – a simply excellent wine.

2022 Santenay 1er La Comme
Deep, faintly reductive – but very attractively reductive and oaked – that’s a lovely nose. The oak flavour – together with the small reduction – is more overt here. I really like the shape and energy but I’d be waiting 3 years for this oak to fade…

2022 Meursault 1er Genevrières
A contract – just two barrels but a long-term contract
That’s got a very lovely perfume, some oak but less overt. Fluid, beautiful shape and slowly mouth-watering energy. The same style of smoky oak as in the other wines. A completely delicious wine – as it should be with this label! Wait a couple of years for the oak to fade.

2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er La Garenne
Here’s a lovely perfume and at least to start, I don’t sense the barrels – just the citrus precision. There is depth to this flavour – impressive weight that’s deftly delivered. Slowly fading with a little chalky tannin. A lovely wine !

2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Embazées
Vines that almost touch on Santenay in the south of the Chassagne appellation in Morgeot.
That’s the most perfumed of all these wines – only faintly oaked – it’s a beauty. Hmm – wide, energetic – extra depth and construction – this is easily my favourite of these whites – even more than the Genevrières – again I’d wait 2 years for the smoky oak to fade but what a delicious wine – great for the table too.