Ending 2025 with a Big Burgundy Bang – Two Epic Domaine Jean-Yves Bizot Tastings in London: Part 2 – China Tang at the Dorchester…

Always one of the absolute highlights of visiting Burgundy, tasting at the Domaine Bizot cellar is undoubtedly one of the most coveted appointments a wine professional can attend. Unfortunately, the slightly later December visit schedule this year did mean that I would miss seeing Jean-Yves Bizot in person at his cellar in Vosne-Romanee when tasting the 2024 wines from barrel as he would already be in Asia on tour. We were expertly guided through the sublime barrel tasting by Jean-Yves’s right-hand man, Victor Mignardot, who would also be in London the following week to help tutor two sensational private client collector tasting dinners featuring some of Jean-Yves’s finest wines. The first of these tastings was in the private room at Chez Bruce, one of London’s most famous Michelin stared restaurants. The second tasting dinner took place in one of my favourite restaurants in the whole of London, China Tang at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane.

Originally owned by Sir David Tang until his passing, this Chinese restaurant has come to exemplify top quality food and service over the years. Knowing Jean-Yves own personal penchant for Asian culture and cuisine, it was a fitting venue for the second Domaine Bizot private client tasting dinner. After preparing our palates with a couple of glasses of Champagne Petit & Bajan Promise Brut Grand Cru, a seductive blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir with a 4g/l RS dosage based around the 2019 vintage, we kicked the dinner off in proper style tasting the revelatory maiden release Le Charlemagne 2022 Grand Cru white. For any Domaine Bizot follower, this is certainly a wine that needs no introduction, representing the absolute pinnacle of white Burgundy quality. If I took the liberty to highlight one of my top reds of the year in Part 1, namely the Domaine Bizot Clos de la Bidaude 2023 red, then I would be remiss for not pointing the spotlight on this incredible white that was without doubt my favourite white wine of 2025, having tasted it from barrel and then from bottle three more times.

Domaine Jean Yves Bizot Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2022

The two specific single vineyards of En Charlemagne and Le Charlemagne make up half of this famous appellation, while white grapes grown in seven other vineyards may also be sold as Corton-Charlemagne. As a result there can be a wide divergence in styles between earlier picked south-facing locations and cooler, later picked western slopes around Pernand-Vergelesses. Jean-Yves’s 0.14 hectares of vines are only located in the prestigious Le Charlemagne vineyard and in 2022 produced a meagre two new French oak barrels, or 600 bottles, of this golden Grand Cru nectar. A wonderfully sophisticated wine, it reveals a rich vinous tapestry tightly packed with savoury aromatics of leesy yellow citrus, fresh rain on limestone, wet straw, baking herbs and glacé lemon rind. The concentration on the palate is astonishing – glycerol, piercing, fresh and beautifully crystalline and saline with intense layers of lemon and lime cordial, green apple pastille over an electric laser-like acidity with just a subtle kiss of lemon butter and vanilla pod spice on the finish. An astounding wine of incredible power, focus and precision.

(Wine Safari Score: 100/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Le Charlemagne 2022 was mind blowing the first time I tasted it from barrel and continues to impress with each subsequent tasting. The 2023 vintage was another exceptional wine from a slightly more generous vintage that yielded three barrels. Sadly, just as this astonishing benchmark white Burgundy is gaining its own global cult following, the volumes have cruelly been restricted to only a single barrel in both 2024 and 2025 due to low yields and obsessive fruit selection.

After a brief interlude, the red flights started to be poured by the China Tang sommelier team. As a special treat, Jean-Yves’s Le Clos des Fées ‘100 Phrases Pour Eventails’ Pinot Noir 2023, the fourth release from this IGP Cotes Catalanes project, was poured to illustrate the fluidity and flexibility of Jean-Yves’s winemaking brilliance. From a riper vintage than 2024, the 2023 was sumptuous and generous, fleshy but incredibly silky, pure and precise, finishing with a brambly, damson plum and black berry intensity with a subtle sapidity. (95/100 GSMW) This is a fascinating project in Southwest France and one that is well worth keeping a close eye on if the new 2024 I tasted at the cellar is anything to go by!

For anyone that drinks Jean-Yves’s wines regularly will know, the mantra of “less is more” sits comfortably when tasting both his Domaine Bizot Marsannay Clos du Roy 2023 and his Domaine Bizot Le Chapitre 2022. While the Clos de Roy vineyard was renowned for its quality potential, Jean-Yves has brought his winemaking magic to this appellation and, perhaps with a little help from global warming, has helped elevate this vineyard to a quality level making wines only ever previously seen in the Grand Cru vineyards of the Côte de Nuits.

Myself, Victor Mignardot and China Tang’s Head Sommelier and Wine Buyer Igor Sotric.

Le Chapitre is a regional appellation site, squeezed in between high buildings in the middle of Chenôve whilst Clos du Roy, despite being located in the commune of Chenôve, is a village appellation Marsannay and is the northern continuation of the vineyards around the village of Marsannay. Compared with the lieux-dits sites considered for Premier Cru status in Marsannay, Le Chapitre is just a small 5.5 hectares in size owned by around ten growers including illustrious names like Sylvain Pataille, Laurent Fournier, Domaine Gagey and Drouhin. Always one of my favourites in the Bizot range, the Clos du Roy 2023 is an incredible success for the vintage with a perfumed lift, a textural fluidity, and the most crystalline, finessed finish imaginable (96/100 GSMW). The Le Chapitre too is all about elegance and subtlety, effortless concentration with an earthy, brambly finish – the power of the 2022 vintage making itself felt on the palate (94+/100 GSMW).

For the next flight, we moved back down to Vosne Romanee and Morey St Denis where Domaine Bizot produces several village appellation cuvees. At the first Chez Bruce dinner, Jean-Yves’s Vosne Romanee 2020 proved one of the stars of the night. This time, we were treated to the delightful Domaine Bizot Vosne Romanee Village 2023 vintage, with its pristine and impactful aromatics, lashings of black cherry and raspberry fruits and its beguiling Asian five spice complexity. A benchmark wine within Jean Yves’s range (95+/100 GSMW). Accompanying the Vosne Romanee, we were treated to a repeat showing of the incredible Clos de la Bidaude 2023 Monopole red that continues to seduce collectors globally with its intensity, majestic concentration and fruit purity (98/100 GSMW).

For the grand finale, a surprise Domaine Bizot Echezeaux Grand Cru 2015 was slipped into the lineup to accompany the outstanding Echezeaux 2023. This was quite simply a Grand Cru pairing made in heaven. The 2015 showed incredible depth, power and concentration, fruit ripeness without being overbearing or disrespectful to the appellation’s terroir complexity. Incredibly youthful and harmonious, this wine was indeed a real highlight, showcasing the effortless purity, intensity and precision Jean-Yves has so masterfully perfected (97+/100 GSMW). The Echezeaux 2023 was all charm and elegance, packed with complex red and black berry fruits, whole bunch sapidity and phenolic dry extract, finishing with an alluring minerality on the finish. Another true Bizot star in the making (96+/100 GSMW).

This sensational lineup of iconic Domaine Bizot wines certainly reminded all the private client attendees why they love and covet the red and white Burgundy’s of Jean Yves so much. With last desserts accompanied by the obligatory Jean-Yves sweet wine favourite, the Vin de Constance 2017 from South Africa, the second Domaine Bizot tasting dinner was brought to a close with a few words of thanks from Victor Mignardot and Domaine Bizot’s exclusive UK importer, Andrew Pavli from Musigny Wines.