Tasted with Boris Champy in Nantoux, 07 July 2021.
Domaine Boris Champy
23 rue de la gare
21190 Nantoux
Tel: +33 3 80 26 03 13
www.domaineborischampy.com
More reports with Boris Champy
Boris on 2020:
“2020 yields were not so bad – 39 hl/ha on average – the chardonnay was about 35 hl/ha and we saw 42-43 hl/ha in Hautes Côtes. We did no de-leafing in Beaune so we avoided the scorching and drying of the grapes in the first heatwave and kept our green leaves. In the second heatwave, we got some yellowing of the leaves but the grapes were still fine. All the malos were completed in November – the lack of sulfur spraying in the vines is likely to be the reason as there was nothing to ‘brake’ this process. The Hautes-Côtes part of the domaine covers 10 hectares, the Beaune & Pommard sectors an additional 2 – we finished harvesting 12-13 September with some aligoté but the majority of our vines were already picked by the end of August!”
It seems that Boris is doing something right, his young domaine’s allocations were already sold out to 3-star restaurants – now they have reopened!
We took a tour through Boris’ Nantoux vines and the grapes looked really fine – at this stage, the only nod to the difficulties of the 2021 vintage was the occasional leaf with a little mildew showing.
The wines…
I liked Boris’ first vintage – the 2019s – but that was him finishing the work of Didier Montchovet. For these 2020s he did all the work and either he or the vintage has pulled out a little extra clarity to the wines – I like that a lot. These are excellent wines.
2020 Côteaux Bourguignon, Gamay
All gamay from Nantoux – 3 small plots next to the domaine’s main plots. 50% whole bunches and 3-year-old barrels used here.
An attractive freshness – here is a proper invitation to drink. Vibrant gamay fruit – some higher tones but not quite pyrazine. Open, fresh and completely delicious – a crunchy fruit style.
2020 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune 421 En Bignon
A parcel with 421 metres of altitude between Nantoux and Bouze – ‘Very red soil with lots of clay – it doesn’t make a wine of lots of structure and the 500-litre barrels help to bring some generosity.’
Plenty of aromatic depth. Lovely texture again, fine finishing. Super – despite barrels coming from Pomerol 🙂
4.5 ha of mid-slope vines, was once owned by the Château de Nantoux and was called the Clos des Château once – some of the old vines dating from 1900. Unlike the last, if you have rain, here you can still walk in the vines… 65% whole bunches used here, aged in 1-year-old 228-litre barrels. 13.4° – the highest of the range.
A narrower but also deeper nose – lots of glossy dark fruit. Airy and perfumed, with stem-inflected flavours. A faint rasp of short-lived tannin but not a short-lived finish. Beautiful, aromatic wine – bravo.
2020 Pommard En Boeuf Part 1
A cool place for Pommard This destemmed. Bud-break here is after Nantoux but the flowering comes sooner.
High-toned dark berries – almost blueberries and raisins de Corinth, very pure. Supple, a small rasp of tannin, airy fine fruit flavours – very comfortable wine, ripe and really delicious.
2020 Pommard En Boeuf Part 2
This with whole clusters. They will be blended before bottling
Fuller, the whole clusters are there but not super-overt, remaining rather perfumed. The shape of the tannins are different here’s some grain but it’s still a very fine villages.
2020 Beaune 1er Aux Coucherias
‘Always windy here, near the Route de Bouze, so it’s a cool area.’
Lots of colour. A depth of dark fruit, great clarity, higher is a little whole-cluster perfume. Hmm – structural, fresh, but still with a depth of concentration too. That’s another very delicious wine that’s only slowly fading in the finish. A beauty but different, rather than better than the Hautes Côtes
2020 Beaune 1er Vignes Franches
High, between the Clos of des Mouches and Ursules. ‘The candles saved some of the buds here in 2021 – the neighbours who didn’t use them were simply fried…’ 50% new Troncais barrels, 50% 1-year-old barrels.
High tones and depth once more – whilst more expansive it’s less directly easy to find the attributes – though no less appealing. A more sophisticated mouthfeel – great texture despite a little grain of tannin. Super wine.
Les Whites:
There was an aligoté and a Hautes Côtes ‘382’ Blanc. I tasted samples of both with stainless and barrel elevage but Boris was unsure if he would be blending them into two wines or keeping them separate and bottling 4 white cuvées. For this reason, no notes here.