Tasted with Boris Champy in Nantoux, 24 November 2023.
Domaine Boris Champy
23 rue de la gare
21190 Nantoux
Tel: +33 3 80 26 03 13
www.domaineborischampy.com
Boris’s Instagram
More reports with Boris Champy
Boris on 2023:
“I’m so happy to have 2 consecutive great vintages. I made wines with half their clusters. The window of ripening was very narrow in 2023 so just about everyone who started harvesting when the grapes had perfect ripeness were harvesting over-ripe grapes in their last couple of days as things moved so quickly.”
Boris on 2022:
“Yes it was a nice volume – it was like a Californian vintage – a summer of no rain yet still volume. Not too much sorting, about 90g for a cluster and no sunburn – lots of juice. Definitely not like 21 on the sorting table. The acidities are quite normal for here pH 3.12 for our chardonnay and a bit higher than normal for reds with about 3.55. I think the reds will have a lot of success with plenty of colour and depth. Volatiles are often quite high in 2022 and here was one stuck fermentation – I haven’t had a stuck fermentation since 2006! Volatiles are at the same level as California 20 years ago… Nothing stuck in ’23 though.”
The wines…
A mixed case of all – I would say yes! I almost feel bad writing ‘Great Bourgogne’ – but I’m not sure that ‘Great Hautes Côtes’ sounds any better. In the future I’ll just write GREAT WINE! Here is a top address for 2022…
All these whites unfiltered and unfined, bottled just over a week ago:
2022 Bourgogne Aligoté Doré
A quite shy nose but with super precision. Hmm, gorgeously silky – plenty of generosity – a wine where the balancing acidity creeps up on you.
Hmm – more open and more floral – that’s a beautiful nose. Ultra silky again – showing a little oak but this is just a fabulous wine – a great one for the second year in a row – wait 2 years!
Also an airy, modestly floral super-attractive aromatic. Hmm, not a fat or generous wine but one with wonderful airy fruit quality. That’s a gorgeous wine – bravo.
A little extra aromatic width and precision – beautiful! Hmm, there’s more structure, more vivid energy and intensity in the middle and finishing – love! – keep it in reserve for a couple of years…
Les reds:
2022 Côteaux Bourguignon, Gamay Fins
This is bottled. All gamay from Nantoux – 3 small plots next to the domaine’s main plots. 50% whole bunches and 3-year-old barrels used here.
A deep core of darker fruit – because it was faintly reduced. Broad, quite concentrated and even a little generous. But easy, accessible and more energtic too in the finish.
The following not yet bottled:
2022 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Altitude
A first cheesy note leaves to glass to bring more open red fruit – it has only very low sulfur at this stage – air making this more and more beautiful. Modestly grained tannin but delicious finishing – keep two years – it will be completely delicious.
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.’
Deeper, more expansive fruit – also cleaner and cleaner with more air. Ooh – so direct, cool fruited and fluid. The tannin is there but no grain – lots of delicious wc flavours (60%) and slowly fading in the finish. Top wine – great Bourgogne!
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…’ 100% whole bunch but no overt wc character vs the last…
Silky, airy beautiful nose – yes! Ultra silky and direct – slowly growing more velvet – and slowly slowly fading. What class – what a Bourgogne! Bravo!!
A cool place for Pommard. Bud-break here is after Nantoux but the flowering comes sooner, so no frost at all here in 2021 whereas En Vigneaux, the next vineyard, lost about half to frost. This is a place that starts to warm up in May.
A larger nose – really aromatic – larger scale and really inviting too. Structure but hardly any grain to the tannin – the barrel is quite evident today in creamy style so I would wait for 2-3 years but here is great villages – well done!
‘Always windy here, so it’s a cooler area. Just up the route de Bouze – after the houses and Route des Vaches
Higher toned, hints of wc. Very direct, melting with juicy flavour, large, mouth-filling with higher energy flavour. Broader and longer finishing too. The Pommard is the more approachable and hedonistic, this is more direct and frank – and this is my style preference.
2022 Beaune 1er Vignes Franches
High, between the Clos of des Mouches and Ursules.
Another breadth of aroma and here it’s a fine, dark-fruited, depth – seemingly cushioned too. Wide and concentrated but with fine energy – the oak is more subtle here than the last wine and this finish has a more austere structure – comparatively. But deliciously flavoured – it’s an interesting balance which will become easier and easier with time – I think totally fine in 2-3 years when it will certainly be very fine, probably excellent…