It is useless to talk about value, or indeed price in general, for the wines of this domaine. But there are lunchtime places in Côte d’Or where these wines are ‘accessible’ for well below retail price.

In this vein, over the last 5 years, I’ve managed to taste the 2017 to (now) 2022, so for your interest:

2022 Coche-Dury, Meursault
A pretty nose of good volume – without the signature reduction of the domaine. A wine with scale and a frame of faintly chalky tannin then a superbly fading diminuendo of flavour. So delicate. Many 2022 whites are tight right now, but I still anticipated more power, rather this is, above all, a simply beautiful Meursault…
Rebuy – Yes (Ignoring the price!!)

Because when you’ve already tasted 26 wines – why not try one from a different vintage?

2022 Rougeot Père et Fils, Pommard Clos des Roses
A width of energetic, already slightly developed nose – super inviting. A wine that melts over the palate, juicy, mineral, melting and even a touch creamy. What a wonderfully delicious wine – bravo…
Rebuy – Yes

Two UK gentlemen addressing the concierge of a Beaune hotel:

“We have a tasting visit booked for tomorrow morning at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. We wonder if you could call them on our behalf to cancel the tasting. Please tell them that we are sorry but that we have to drive to Saint-Émilion…”

Of course, the concierge had to then deal with all the other waiting people who told him not to cancel the tasting and that they would go in their place 🙂

Last week, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Domaine des Croix – doesn’t time fly !!

David put together a celebratory day which started with a look at the terroirs of Beaune. Of course, it was mainly illustrated by the wines of his own domaine, but he extended his coverage of the soils that make up Beaune’s 335.5 hectares of premier crus, with the presence of interesting wines from other producers too. Our discussion was more than ‘elevated’ by the presence of Françoise Vannier:

2021 Boris Champy, Beaune 1er Coucherias
Steep but also high and more south-facing than most of Beaune, and because of the slope, quite a modest depth of soil
Pretty, perfumed, cushioned red fruit with a small chalkiness. Sweeping, wide flavour character. Still red-fruited with a super vibration of wide finishing fruit – again with a small chalky note of finishing tannin. A wine in a quieter phase than 2-3 years ago, but with super length …

2021 Bouchard Père, Beaune 1er Clos de la Mousse
Bottom of the hill with hardly any slope. More marl soils and deeper…
Deeper, richer, darker, ripe red fruit. Widening and losing some of the darker elements as the aroma widens. More generous than the Coucherias and very silky – that’s a beautiful texture. A more energetic core of fine dark fruit. This is showing really well today, the finish retains its darker red fruit and width…

2021 des Croix, Beaune 1er Cent Vignes
From the bottom of the slope with an alluvial soil, it’s also an earlier ripening place.
Larger scale and perfumed energy. Round, slightly generous for the vintage. Wide, lovely energy. Slowly fading, delicious, slightly strict today in the finishing flavours, but it’s a strictness that won’t last. Still such a fine wine…

2021 Joseph Drouhin, Beaune 1er Clos des Mouches
The most southern Beaune 1er, bordering Pommard. Some Dolomite* in the soil here.
A modest generosity and immodest volume of fresh but darker, ripe red fruit. Large in scale – cool fruit – and it’s growing in stature, too. Then comes a super vibration of flavour energy that is rather wide. Far from the minerality of the last wine, but so drinkable and impressively long. What an excellent wine !!
*Limestone turns into ‘Dolomite’ when complexed with magnesium…

We had an interesting discussion of the effect of 2012-2014 hail on the vines of Pertuisots and the few years that followed, where (for a time) the Pertuisots was no longer the class of the cellar – it has now come back, firing on all cylinders, but it took a long time to recover…

And for the road, direct from the cellars of Chateau de Chorey:

1995 Benoit Germain, Beaune 1er Cras
Of course, some browning of the colour. The volume of aroma impresses, of course, also with a very different style of aromatic complexity – here with crushed red plum fruit and more a blend of flowers – there’s nothing primary here. Large in scale. Flavours of soil mixed with fruit – still framed with a young but now almost grainless tannin – now comparable to the 21s. Energy and full of delicious flavour. At this stage no comparison with the primary flavour of the other wines – but what a treat !!

Yes, there was only one – and if I don’t start drinking harder, I’ll never finish my cellar 🙂

2022 AF Gros, Moulin à Vent En Mortperay
I like this wax – flexible enough that it doesn’t shatter as the cork starts to rise…
The lightest of spice, the impression of width too, but it’s shy to start. Ooh, in the mouth that’s concentrated and oh-so silky. Really wide over the palate with the tiniest cushion of grainless tannin. The flavour, with a saline accent to the fine complexity, spreads really wide over the palate – almost panoramic. It’s a super-long finish too. Shy to start and lacking the energy of most Beaujolais, yet beautifully crafted in a Côte d’Or-ian style. A wine of class too!
Rebuy – Maybe

Today a blind wine:

Young colour. But this nose is not so young; freshness but also richness – slowly more floral – but some cushioned texture of- and the aroma of – middle-age. I find density to these flavours, so a warm vintage – or a warm end to the vintage(?) But with a good sizzle of acidity and plenty of floral references. The nose and flavours could say Folatières. Okay, middle-aged Folatières with some richness – so that could be 2015 but the sizzle of energy could say 2016 – Puligny avoided most of the 2016 frost (unlike Meursault) so the density can’t be from a very low crop, but could still be from a vintage finished well-ripened. So, I plump for 2016 Folatières – so I was close (actually 100m away) – that’s not bad in the context of the whole of the Côte d’Or 🙂
2016 Vincent Giradin, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Combettes

2022 Morey-Coffinet, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Caillerets
A hint of extra colour after the 2024s. Impressive aromatic scale, with a sweetness to its cushioned complexity. Direct. The initial linearity gives way as the flavours spread over the palate. The finish is very wide – not quite panoramic – but getting there. Very long finishing, though in a discrete way… Impressively delicious wine…

As I’m making my tour of 2024s, there are often some older wines to taste, so why not include them here – better than a white space I think 😉

Domaine du Couvent, 3x 2023s…

Gevrey-Chambertin 1er La Romanée (Monopole)
Open, airy, red fruits. Mouth-filling, complex, lovely energy. With super finishing intensity. More excellent than the great that I felt last year, but still a wine to be happy to own !!

Clos de Vougeot
Fresh, open, lots of tiny aromatic complexities. So much extra density but still with fluid energy – now that’s already quite approachable and could be a great one – it’s so long lasting…

Nuits St.Georges 1er Aux Murgers
This was bottled in April, the previous 2 were done in July (2025)
Ooh, cordial fruit accented with an (almost) austerity of rose petals. So large in the, so muscular, almost too muscular for me, but without ever losing the perfume – I could be persuaded to take a second glass !!

2018 Pierre Cotton, Brouilly
Deeply coloured with a dark sweet fruit – still quite detailed but now showing a little age-related spice. Large scale in the mouth – like the nose with good detail but also layers of dark, sweet, fruit – maybe too sweet for more than 2 or 3 glasses 🙂 The last glass cloudy from sediment but still completely drinkable. It’s a lovely wine but to be honest, if I had more, I’d be drinking them…
Rebuy – Maybe

2022 Alvina Pernot, Meursault 1er Poruzot
Wax-topped with a strong, long cork however, despite the label being Poruzot with a Z, the cork is Porusot with an S – just saying!!
Depth of toasty aromas – there’s some impact but still plenty of freshness. Large scale in the mouth – oh yes – bright, intense, juicy wine – though with an overt sweetness of toasty oak in these finishing flavours. But it’s still delicious.
Rebuy – Yes

2022 Julien Duport, Côte de Brouilly La Boucheratte
As deep a colour as the Cotton from 2018. The aromas more incisive, more graphite but with equally dark fruit. Far from a wine of shyness – these dark, extrovert flavours have, like the nose, just a hint more incisive and architectural style to them. Also quite a sweet wine – from the dark, ripe fruit – not sugar – this one a mere 13.5% – but less overtly than the Cotton. A wine that drank beautifully over 3 nights – 2 good glasses a night and the bottle was empty! Drink or hold for another 20 years – a simply superb wine.
Rebuy – Yes