Gevrey Chambertin

The Majestic Vintage 2024 Burgundy Wines of Jerome Galeyrand Profiled on His Annual London Visit…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Good winemakers can make good wines in great vintages, but only great producers can make great wines in difficult vintages. This is what I saw when tasting Jerome Galeyrand’s 2024 wines at his new cellar in Gevrey-Chambertin in December 2025. I already commented the previous year, that he had produced some of the most serious Pinot Noir expressions in the “lighter and more accessible” 2023 vintage. But 2024 dished up an entirely different buffet of viticultural challenges, all of which Jerome seemingly brushed aside to produce one of the most complete and impressive line-ups of red and white wines of the vintage. 

But for Jerome, the hard work never ends, because as soon as his back breaking toiling finishes in the vineyards, it continues in his new winery in Gevrey-Chambertin where he vinifies all his wines. But that’s not where it stops. For the past several years, Jerome has made an annual pilgrimage to London after harvest to showcase his newly bottled releases with his exclusive UK agent Musigny Wines, alongside a selection of recent back vintages. This year, Jerome and Musigny Wines hosted two superb private client tasting dinners that I was gratefully invited to.

Andrew Pavli from Musigny Wines with Jerome Galeyrand.

The first event was held in London’s Wimbledon Village at Light on the Common restaurant. A relaxed jovial evening, Jerome used this setting to show off a stunning selection of his newly bottled 2024 wines. Tasting through Jerome’s finished bottlings, not only were my enthusiastic En-primeur barrel scores and reviews vindicated, but they started to look almost conservative in nature compared to how the wines were showing in their completed state. Sitting alongside two very big Burgundy collectors for the evening, their reaction to Jerome’s 2024 wines was very insightful – both of them were simply blown away with the quality of the wines, and this was after both had already tasted many of Burgundy’s top domaines’ new releases during January’s En-primeur tasting week.

Below is the stunning selection of 2024s presented by Jerome:

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Bouzerons Cran 2024

A classical expression boasting the complexity of this village, packing in musky talc perfume, limestone minerality, lemon bon bons and a chalky sherbety depth. The acids are intense and tangy, the fruit weight fleshy, concentrated and glycerol.

(Wine Safari Score: 92/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Marsannay Est-Ouest Rouge 2024

Deep and broody, this shows depth and beautifully perfumed complexity, full of black cherry, saline cassis, and wild strawberry. Super precise, steely and tightly wound with piercing length. Wow!

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Nuits Saint Georges Vieilles Vignes 2024

The 2024 NSG announces itself from the glass with aromas of damson plums, blueberries, Christmas spices, dark chocolate and delicate woodsmoke nuances. Medium-bodied, this impressive young wine is ample, fresh and perfumed with a sweet core of broody black berry fruits, powdery tannins, and an elegant persistence. This fourth vintage could be Jerome’s best yet.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Gevrey-Chambertin La Justice 2024

The aromatics resonate with rose petals, pink musk, lavender, and red cherry rock candy over subtle limestone nuances. The focus and the precision marry tart tangy acids, silky tannins and fleshy red and black berry fruits in a seamlessly balanced expression that rides high on its purity and finesse! Simply enchanting.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Gevrey-Chambertin En Billard 2024

An enticing aromatics of strawberry candies, violets, and cherry sherbet with a delicate undertone of limestone minerality. The concentration is massive with layers of unctuous black plum, black berry fruits, and strawberry jam nuances. Wow, what concentration and power. This is simply knock out.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Gevrey-Chambertin En Croisettes 2024

A seductive aromatics with a blueberry and black cherry lift, violets and saline cassis with a maritime nuance and a bloody, steely strictness. The concentration is intense, piercing with tart tangy acids and a rich, generous fleshy plummy finish. Very classy but also quite classically structured.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Marsannay Clos du Roy 2024

A mere 3 barrels (900 bottles) produced in 2024 of this benchmark expression that shows delicate notes of potpourri pressed violets, rose water and black cherry. The focus, purity and precision are phenomenal, seamless finesse, perfect ripeness, and a magical balance. This is not to be missed.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Cotes de Nuits Village Les Retraits 2024

This iconic vineyard next door to Frederic Mugnier’s Clos de la Marechale Monopole offers an intricacy and complexity almost unmatched. Layered aromatics with limestone, chalk, sapidity, wood spice and black cherry follow to a fully loaded palate packed with bramble berries, blueberries, piercing salinity and a velvety concentration that leaves you gasping for more. Massive concentration, effortless power, and undoubtedly one of Jerome’s finest Retraits expressions to date.

(Wine Safari Score: 95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Meursault Village 2024

Aged for 14 months in barrel, 25% new oak, this is another very classy expression of Meursault with complex aromatics of green apple, lemon grass, and wet stone minerality. Youthful and punchy, the depth and power are eye-watering, full throttle tangy acidity, green apple cordial, white peach and a leesy, oatmeal biscuity depth. Phenomenal concentration, precision and harmonious balance. Undoubtedly Jerome’s best example yet.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Jerome’s second dinner in Chelsea featured a similarly stunning array of wines including a tighter selection of 2024 new releases alongside a line-up of slightly older vintages from 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. As always, Jerome’s opening salvo came from his delicious and highly accomplished Aligote. The Les Blanches 2022 was outstanding and certainly merits being highlighted even when tasted alongside Jerome’s superb Meursault Au Village 2024 white.

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Aligote Les Blanches 2022

Few producers produce Aligote with the verve and vigour that Jerome Galeyrand manages to illicit from this Burgundian white grape. His beautiful Les Blanches 2022 is another evocative examples with pithy aromatics of lemon and lime peel, crushed limestone, lemon grass herbs and hints of saline brine. This 2022 vintage bursts with tangy, salty yellow citrus, delicately savoury maritime notes, a liquid minerality and a finish that’s loaded with zippy sour yellow plum nuances. Such incredible energy in this beautiful expression.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Three superb Lieu Dit Gevrey Chambertin.

As the Domaine Jerome Galeyrand wines sell out so quickly on allocation, I normally only get the opportunity to taste older vintages when visiting with Jerome at his cellar in Burgundy. The opening line-up of reds commenced with the Galeyrand Marsannay Combe du Pre 2019, a wonderfully characterful wine that possessed all the blue – black fruit power of the best Marsannay reds but with extra sapidity, spice and mineral complexity. After another taste of Jerome’s Nuits Saint Georges 2024 offering, a real treat – tasting a back vintage line-up of his Gevrey-Chambertin En Billard 2020, the incredible La Justice 2020, and a stunningly fresh, mineral and structured En Croisettes 2019, the Cotes de Nuits only producer labelled ‘En Croisettes” lieu dit. After another reprise for the sensational Cotes de Nuits-Village Les Retraits 2024, it was time to enjoy two big guns… Jerome’s first and second vintage of his epic Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru.

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2023

Big and deadly serious, Jerome moves into the big league and knocks it out the park with four barrels of Clos de Vougeot! Packed full of blue and black berry fruits, it shows effortless power, a piercing acid vibrancy and freshness, layered with violets, cherries and pink musk. An incredibly substantial wine with taut power, structure and depth from a vintage associated with accessibility and upfront opulence.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2024 (Tank Sample)

Only two barrels produced with 18 months of ageing in barrel and bottled in April 2026. The aromatics offer up a wealth of depth and breath with plenty of earthy savoury black berries, wood spice and smoky complexity. The palate shows weight and power, creamy mineral limestone mineral depth with chalky tannins and ample black plummy bramble berry length. A very complete wine.

(Wine Safari Score: 94-96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Magnum of Marsannay La Combe du Pre 2020.

The fine wine market is on an eternal crusade, vintage after vintage, to find the next big thing… and in Jerome Galeyrand, you not only have the next big thing but also the complete real deal. I expect his masterful wines to become some of the most sought-after and allocated wines in Burgundy in the coming years, and rightly so. After the tremendous showing of Jerome’s 2024s, the opportunity to visit him again in Gevrey-Chambertin later this year to taste his 2025s, the first wines he will have produced in his stunning new cellar, will be a tasting not to be missed. Collectors and connoisseurs will be dazzled and delighted when they taste his new 2024 releases – the precision, purity and focus of the wines complemented by impressive structure, acid freshness, and textural polish. These are, quite simply, wines collectors are going to want in their cellar.

The iconic Les Retraits 2024.

The wines of Jerome Galeyrand are exclusively imported into the UK by his agent Musigny Wines. For more allocation and pricing information, contact: andrew@musigny.wine

Reviewing One of the Most Coveted New Producers in Burgundy – Tasting Through the Full Kei Shiogai 2023 Range of Wines…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Travelling to Burgundy to taste the previous vintage’s creations can be a somewhat tricky affair especially when producers across the region, in the Cotes de Nuits, Cotes de Beaune and the Maconnais all experienced such incredibly difficult vintage conditions in 2024. So, perhaps tasting through their more plentiful 2023 range serves as a timely distraction for a producer. I was very fortunate to be introduced to Japanese young gun Kei Shiogai several years ago and have gratefully been granted access to taste his wines every year from barrel and bottle since his maiden 2020 commercial releases. A relative newcomer to the Burgundy region, Kei is understandably quite protective about his winemaking philosophy, his pristine cellar and his overall privacy. Quite rightly, he prefers to let his wines do the talking.

In complete contrast to 2024, the 2023 harvest will be remembered for a plentiful, abundant harvest with generous yields, ample ripeness, and notable concentration usually commensurate with the quality of the wines’ individual terroir and level of appellation classification. While 2022 saw easy conditions for vignerons across the board, the weather circumstances in 2023 perhaps posed a few more questions, but ultimately yielding energetic, crystalline Chardonnays with a notable minerality and freshness alongside the fruit ripeness, and Pinot Noirs with delightfully sweet strawberry and red cherry-laced berry fruits that display plenty of clarity, a bright translucent purity together with linear fresh acids. Overall, the across-the-board vintage quality for red and white wines was incredibly consistent across villages with excellent balance, moderate alcohols, and elegant fruit purity.

While the 2023 vintage was neither cool and wet like 2021 or hot and dry like 2022, the season was marked by an initial warm, dry winter with a meagre amount of sunshine. The rains returned in March while the months of April and May were bright and sunny but relatively cool. Excellent flowering in May and June with perfect conditions, sealed the requirements for a potentially very generous crop. If June was warm, unseasonally cooler conditions in July and August prolonged the ripening somewhat before several heat spikes arrived in late August and early September to bring the fruit to full ripeness. Some are calling 2023 another solar vintage, or années solaires, but this description perhaps simplifies conditions unnecessarily. 

The Charmots 1er Cru has been in new oak barrels for 25 months when I tasted it again in December 2025. This wine will be bottled and released in 2026. Not to be missed. Could possibly be one of the most exciting red Burgundy releases of 2026?

The general wine merchant consensus is that 2023 is a very generous, fruit forward vintage with joyfully fresh whites that will even appeal to the classicists, and reds that range from lighter-bodied, fresh, and remarkably drinkable examples already through to more structured, riper, denser wines where producers clearly made a conscious effort to coax a little more structure and tension from their wines in light of the potential dangers of dilution from higher yields. 

Being one of the most sought after and collectable producers in Burgundy at the moment undoubtedly carries with it a few added headaches for Kei – from endless new requests for primary first release allocations in new and historical markets to highly inflated secondary market prices that always seem to benefit speculators rather than the producers themself. Nevertheless, fame at this level understandably always comes at a price, but so far, Kei is keeping his head down and focusing (or more like obsessing!) over the purity, precision and focus of his incredibly ethereal, elegant “new style” Burgundies that have captivated the global market.

Kei Shiogai Gevrey-Chambertin Village 2023

An enticingly perfumed aromatics bursting with violets and lilac, luscious red berry fruits, red plum, red cherry, pink musk and sweet strawberry confit. Silky, wonderfully fine boned and supple with incredible purity and precision with soft powdery tannins and a crystalline red berry purity, this is signature Kei Shiogai that finishes with a hint of sapidity and spice.  A very pretty wine indeed. Drink from 2025 to 2035.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Gevrey-Chambertin “Baraques” 2023

The Baraques cuvee shows a deeper, darker, bolder black plum colour in the glass with a broodier aromatics of black cherry, ripe strawberry, and black plum. Inviting notes of saline creme cassis and pink musk follow to the palate that shows a regal finesse and clarity as well as all Kei’s hallmark purity and pinpoint precision. Spectacular translucent fruit purity, weightless silky tannins and a long, intense brambly finish. Quite sublime. Drink from 2025 to 2036+.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Pommard Poisot 2023

A sleeping giant of a wine packed with dark broody purple and black berry fruits, black cherry, strawberry and saline creme de cassis. Taut and stony on the palate, this shows the power and tension of Pommard with a vein of graphite and limestone minerality, yielding tight grained polished marble tannins, pithy black berry fruits and a chalky dry extract grip on the finish.  A classic “iron fist in a velvet glove” expression. Youthful but already magnificent. Drink from 2026 to 2038+.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cherbaudes 2023

An intricate floral aromatics with fabulous poise and precision, boasting violets and cherry blossom, creme de cassis, wild strawberry, graphite and piquant mineral spices. The clarity and purity are mesmerising, the light touch intensity and focus simply astounding. No shortage of piercing red and black berry 1er Cru power here, with notable concentration and creamy mouth coating tannins. True Gevrey class on display. Drink from 2026 to 2036+.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Echezeaux Grand Cru 2023

A broody beast of a wine offering an aromatic depth of Asian spices, graphite, violets, wild strawberry, earthy cured meats and savoury Christmas spices. Full, broad and fully loaded in the mouth, the concentration is rich, glycerol and intricately textural but supremely powerful, distinguished, yet beautifully precise. The Kei Shiogai signature style applied with classical winemaking. Surely a true unicorn wine of the future. Drink from 2026 to 2040+.

(Wine Safari Score: 97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Bourgogne Blanc “Les Famelottes” 2023, 13% Abv.

Located in the commune of Puligny Montrachet, the Les Famelottes shows a beautiful melange of wet limestone, yellow stone fruits, pear and green apple, roasted nuts with delicate dried herb nuances. So supple, soft, and fleshy in the mouth with a generous depth and subtle balance. Really very impressive and also truly delicious making this a good introduction to Kei’s precise winemaking style. Drink from 2025 to 2032+.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes 2023

Cool, taut mineral aromatics reveal the true class and majesty of this great appellation. The aromatics are full of pithy lemon peel, pear, waxy green apples and a pronounced limestone mineral vein. The balance and textural precision are second to none, crystalline and beautifully focused, showing purity with immeasurable intensity and effortless elegance. Truly sublime. A great expression of this 1er Cru terroir. Drink from 2025 to 2036+.

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Puligny Montrachet Village 2023

Taut and broody, this is 100% new oak expression shows no overt oak characters on the nose but merely the faintest complexing hints of dried herbs, lemon grass and lemon herbal tea before more classical notes of grilled nuts, salted pistachios, and dusty limestone minerality. Power packed and pithy, but also quite a taut, classical Puligny expression. Drink from 2025 to 2035.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Chalumeux 2023

Fabulously cool, pure, and crystalline, this barrel sample reveals incredible wound spring tension, a stony limestone core, lemon rind, lemon grass, and toasted almonds. Precision personified on the palate, the concentration is weightless and harmonious, the finish long, glycerol and delicately savoury and nutty. Wow! Another stunner from Kei. Drink from 2025 to 2036+.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Chassagne Montrachet Village 2023

This Chassagne shows beautifully attractive aromatics of lemon cordial, wild herbs, pithy wet limestone, and yellow stone fruits. Plenty of “gras” or weight on the mid-palate but still deliciously fresh, creamy, and harmonious. This is another delicious addition to the repertoire of great Chassagne whites! Drink from 2025 to 2035.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Puligny Montrachet Les Petit Grands Champs 2023

This lieu dit Puligny shows an intense, lemon and lime saline intensity with tangy bright acids. Beautiful balance and harmonious mouthfeel. Also great length with just a kiss of white toast and freshly baked brioche on the long, persistent finish. Drink from 2025 to 2035+.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2023

This fabulous terroir really shines in Kei’s hands, showing liquid minerals, wet limestone, lemon grass, sweet baking herbs, and warm buttered white toast. Plush textured and densely layered with notable dry extract but also a seamlessly creamy texture and an incredibly harmonious, balanced equilibrium on the palate. A decidedly more terroir driven, linear, minerally infused expression of Corton-Charlemagne than some of the more unctuous, buttery examples produced. Undeniably a profound wine and simply drop dead gorgeous. Drink from 2025 to 2038+.

(Wine Safari Score: 97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The wines of Kei Shiogai are imported into the UK exclusively by Musigny Wines. Contact Andrew Pavli to request an allocation.

andrew@musigny.wine

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa – Tasting the Astonishing Wines of One of Burgundy’s New Superstars… 

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

There is simply no denying the global wine trade’s perpetual fascination with Japanese winemakers, whether they are plying their trade in New Zealand, in France’s Jura region or in Burgundy’s Cote d’Or. The focus, precision, balance, and purity they managed to coax out of their grapes is simply next level, whether the fruit is grown by themselves or bought in from the negociant market. Over the past two years, I have been privileged to visit one of the most exciting Japanese producers several times, namely Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa in Gevrey Chambertin.

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa’s new cellars in Gevrey Chambertin.

This domaine, located in Jean-Marie Fourrier’s father’s old cellars, was founded in 2000 by Japanese sommelier and oenologist Koji Nakada and his Korean wife Jae Hwa Park. The journey started back in 1996 when Koji Nakada moved to Burgundy to study oenology at the University of Beaune, after which Koji started a wine business with negociant fruit, bottling a maiden Nuits Saint Georges Vieilles Vignes in 2000. Their first domaine plots of land were only purchased several years later in 2012, including treasured vines in the village of Gevrey Chambertin and Marsannay.

Koji Nakada in Gevrey Chambertin

Koji Nakada’s respected negociant label, bottled under the Lou Dumont name, is a combination of the name of their goddaughter, Lou, and the French translation for ‘mountain’, which pays homage to the regions of Japan and Korea where Koji and Jae Hwa grew up. The Kanji symbol on the label – sky, earth and man – refers to the natural elements whose perfect balance is a key ingredient for making fine wines, allowing the unique characteristics of site and terroir to shine through in the wine’s purity, elegance, and complexity.

The tiny La Brunelle Gevrey Chambertin vineyard just behind the winery.

As a winemaker, Koji Nakada’s goal is to produce pure, authentic Burgundy wines that clearly show their unique terroir, made from grapes grown with organic viticulture and a minimal intervention approach in both the vineyards and the cellar, using indigenous yeasts for fermentation and only adding low quantities of sulphites at bottling. Koji also pays special attention to very light touch pumping over and punch downs to ensure utmost purity during extraction. Today, Koji and Jae Hwa produce a stunning array of red and white wines from over a dozen different appellations with fruit purchased from respected premium vineyards with vines averaging 30 to 40 years of age. 

Tasting in London with Koji.

On the first of my two visits to Koji’s cellar in November 2024 with his exclusive UK importer Musigny Wines, we arrived only to be told that Koji was still in Champagne tending his precious 1.5 hectares of vines in the Aube region where he makes some stunning Champagne. So we were shown around the winery by Koji’s wife Jae Hwa and also tasted with their tall, semi-pro tennis playing cellar assistant. On our return visit, Koji was back from Champagne and was pleased to show us around the labyrinth of old and new cellars under Jean-Claude Fourrier’s old house. 

My tasting notes below are a combination of bottle and barrel tastings from these two cellar visits but also include some subsequent additional notes taken during Koji’s recent Michelin star tasting dinner at Cornus Restaurant in London hosted by his UK importer Musigny Wines.

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Coteaux Bourguignons Blanc 2022, 13% Abv.

Parcel purchased in 2012 near Nuits St Georges, pulling out the Aligote and replanting Chardonnay. Potential for 2000 bottles but allows the younger vines to settle by only making 700 bottles. Incredible aromatics of struck match, flint, sweet pear, bergamot, and wet limestone. The palate is delicate yet intense, fabulously bright and concentrated with tangy lemon pastille, green apple, salty toasted sourdough, and a gently phenolic chalky finish. Absolutely delicious expression.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa La Hautes Cotes de Nuits Violette Pinot Noir 2022, 13% Abv.

1 hectare vineyard near Gevrey producing a meagre 1,500 bottles. First vintage 2019. 80% whole bunch. 30% of grapes vinified in oak barrels, 70% in Stainless. Biodynamic cultivation. Bright and striking cherry ruby red in the glass, the aromatics tower out the glass, perfumed, seductive, beautifully perfumed with notes of violets, rose petals, pink musk, red cherries, cranberries, and hints of darker saline black currant. The balance and precision are pinpoint, the texture silky soft, powdery, and incredibly elegant. The concentration is intense yet weightless, crystalline, and beautifully red and black fruited, finishing with tangy acids and mouth-watering pithy wild strawberry nuances. Simply astonishing quality.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Bourgogne Pinot Noir “Vieilles Vignes” 2022, 12.5% Abv. 

80% whole bunch used. 30% of grapes vinified in oak barrels, 70% in Stainless. 70% of vines over 60 years old, some of the vines planted in 1908. The aromatics on this beauty are a little more earthy and dark fruited with pink musk, lilac, earthy strawberry, damson plum, and earthy black berry. The wine is impressively structured by the bright vibrant acids that are caressed by silky tannins, before pithy tangy red and black berry fruits, hints of wood spice and a long limestone mineral finish. Once again, beautiful clarity, finesse and purity. Wow.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Marsannay En Leautier Rouge 2022, 13% Abv.

A profoundly enticing aromatics of perfumed violets and lilac, white flowers, intense black cherry and saline earthy bramble berry fruits. The precision on the palate is majestic, crystalline yet lifted, cool and steely yet oh so genteel and seductive. The energy and purity very impressive, the focus, energy and strict structure classical and mineral. Beautifully sappy and mineral, this is a spectacular bottle of Marsannay that defies its appellation status but ably justifies the cult status bestowed on this great estate.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Maison Lou Dumont Marsannay “En Combereau” 2022, 12% Abv.

An enticing aromatics suggest seductively complex notes of violets, a blue and black berry fruit melange, and subtle soy and umami notes. The mouthfeel is a little more rich, tangy and fruit forward with only 50% wholebunch versus 80% on the Domaine Marsannay. The acids are bright and vibrant, the fruits crunchy and very intense. This offers incredible sweet fruited opulence with precision, brightness and crispness but perhaps with slightly less high toned perfumed intricacy seen in his domaine bottling.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Maison Lou Dumont Gevrey Chambertin 2022, 12.5% Abv.

Same production as domaine wines with a slightly lower 50% whole bunch portion employed and only 20% barrel fermentation. The aromatics are rich, dark fruited and complex with notes of earthy black berry fruits, pomegranate, blood orange, and a perfume of violets and white flowers, earthy musk and subtle rose petal hints. With Koji working these Gevrey vineyards, this negoc fruited red wine is much closer to his domaine style. The fruit profile is so cool, crystalline and pure, seductively sweet fruited and attractive, offering up a phenomenal quality not generally seen with most Negoc-fruit wine styles. This is a very serious expression of Gevrey that will definitely seduce a new generation of Burgundy drinkers.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Aligote 2023, Premeaux-Prissy, Burgundy

From over 100 year old vines (1908) from a vineyard near Nuits Saint Georges, fermented and aged in new oak. Shows attractive rich savoury notes of lemon and oak meal biscuit, buttered white toast, with seductive nutty hints. There is great intensity and concentration, vibrant energy and power, finishing with lemon herbs and delicious pithy white citrus. A unique style.

(Wine Safari Score: 91-92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Marsannay Le Desert Blanc 2023

From grapes sourced from within Les Champ Perdrix. Rich and expressive with toasty savoury aromatics of grilled nuts, waxy lemon peel, honeycomb, oatmeal, and leesy biscuit notes. The stony soils reveal themselves on the linear palate with ginger, lemon balm and limestone minerality. Rich but taut. Simply fabulous.

(Wine Safari Score: 92-93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Bourgogne La Violette Rouge Vieilles Vignes 2023

A beautifully complex aromatics of saline cassis, piercing red cherry, incense, lipstick perfume and an incredible fragrant intensity with an enticing reductive hint. The acids are deliciously tangy, the tannins taut and stony with an intense limestone minerality, black cherry and black currant intensity. Wonderfully mineral and mouth-wateringly saline. Delicious.

(Wine Safari Score: 91-93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Gevrey Chambertin La Brunelle 2023

0.1-hectare parcel delivers a broody, slightly reductive hint of smoky black plum, bramble berries, and earthy meaty, savoury black currant aromatics. The precision and focus on the palate are simply superb, revealing sleek, polished limestone mineral tannins, fresh glassy acids and an elegant, sweet berry fruited generosity on the finish. Really attractive style. Total class.

(Wine Safari Score: 93-95/100Greg Sherwood MW)

UK importer Andrew Pavli with Koji Nakada in London recently for a private client tasting dinner.

Maison Lou Dumond Fixin 2023

Another incredibly cool fine and fresh expression with delicate rose petal purity with hints of violets, cranberries, and tart red currant over undertones of limestone minerality. The purity is pinpoint, the palate tightly packed with saline black cherry and picante black currant fruits beautifully framed by polished mineral tannins, finishing with clear linearity and wound spring tension. A delicious glassful of wine.

(Wine Safari Score: 92-93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Maison Lou Dumond Gevrey Chambertin 2023

From the Belle Vigne lieu dit, the aromatics are elegant and delightfully perfumed with rose petals, violets, black berries and subtle saline limestone minerality. The purity is exceptional, with notes of oyster shell, nori seaweed, black cherry and pithy mineral spice. Lovely tension, purity and stony depth slightly out of the norm for this juicy accessible ‘23 vintage. Very classy but super serious too.

(Wine Safari Score: 93-94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa Gevrey Chambertin La Brunelle 2017

Revisiting an archive Gevrey Chambertin La Brunelle 2017 release… shows a beautiful earthy savoury bramble berry depth, blue and black berry fruits, sous bois and hints of blood and iron. The purity and focus is clearly evident, layered with peach pith, wild strawberry, sweet guava, and exotic tart red plum nuances. The tannins are fine grained and spicy, the finish savoury and super sleek, revealing not only the class of the vineyard but also the winemaker.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Lou Dumond and Domaine Koji et Jae Hwa wines are imported exclusively into the UK by Musigny Wines. Email Andrew Pavli to check vintage availability or to request a new vintage allocation:

andrew@musigny.wine

Burgundy’s Brightest New Talent at Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Present An Astonishing Line-up of Block-Buster 2023 Wines…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 1 Comment

Burgundy by nature, is the slowest evolving of the classical regions in France. Afterall, they do already have over 900 years of quality winemaking history in the bank. But the past decade has started to see the pace of change pick up a fair bit as the older generation of many family owned domaines start handing over the cellar keys to a younger, savvy, next generation who have been primed for succession. With these new minds and able hands come new ideas, new energy and also new vision. Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet does not fully fit into this model as Michael Le Guellec left the family estate for many years, only returning in 2018 to pick up the reins of the estate from his elderly grandfather who retired in 1990. This also marked the return to domaine bottled wines instead of selling off the bulk of their grapes in the Clos Champ and Les Jeune Rois lieu dits. 

The old family house next to the Clos Champ monopole vineyard in Brochon.

Michael Le Guellec and business partner Arnaud Ducouet have now been producing wines since the 2019 vintage and the 2023 releases are simply the finest expressions produced yet. With some handy consultation advice from the famous guru Pierre Millemann, the Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet wines are now among the most exciting village level Gevrey Chambertin wines being produced at the moment, without exception. With their slight anonymity comes exceptional value for money. But once the quality of their 2022s and 2023 vintage starts to be fully appreciated by consumers, you can expect these wines to become incrementally collectable and sought after. So my advice is get in early while you can!

Magnums of the Domaine’s Gevrey Chambertin Clos Champ 2022.

Le Guellec-Ducouet Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles Blanc 2023, 13% Abv.

First tasted in November 2023 from barrel, this beautiful new (non-domaine) white from Michael Le Guellec and Arnaud Ducouet really got everyone very excited and was a rather pleasant surprise to taste it for the first time in the domaine cellars especially seeing as their consulting oenologist is the famed Pierre Millemann, who’s own Corton-Charlemagne white made from grapes just down the road, is regarded as one of the top white wines in Burgundy. This new Pernand Blanc retasted in January 2025 is youthfully energetic showing a certain palate ripeness and aromatic complexity more in keeping with a warmer vintage, with seductive notes of honeysuckle, waxy citrus rind, lemon pastille, white peach, grilled nuts, and warm buttered white toast wafting out the glass. The palate is taut and fabulously crystalline with a chiselled bright Puligny Montrachet’esque acidity, hints of freshly baked buttered pastries and a pronounced stony, liquid limestone minerality on the finish. The final blend was assembled from one 500 litre new Cadus French oak barrel and three smaller second passage barriques. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, this impressive wine does have more than a hint of the genius of Pierre Millemann about it. This Pernand-Vergelesses Blanc punches way above its weight grade and is an utter delight. I expect it to sell out instantly. Drink on release until 2034+.

(Wine Safari Score: 94-95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Arnaud and Michael at their cellar in November 2024.

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Hautes Cotes de Nuits Rouge 2023

As of the miniscule yielding 2024 vintage, this Hautes Cotes de Nuits red will become a Fixin Rouge appellation wine. For now, the 2023 is astonishingly bright fruited and intense with complex layered aromatics of crushed raspberries and black cherry compote with a seductive wild strawberry component. Such incredible energy and vibrancy on display, showing an overtly generous accessibility and an invitingly sweet fruited opened knit texture with expertly integrated silky oak spice tannins. If the final bottling comes close to this deliciousness, it will be a “must buy” wine for short to medium term drinking. Drink from 2025 to 2032+.

(Wine Safari Score: 91-93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey Chambertin Les Jeunes Rois 2023

Tasted from multiple Francois Freres barrels including new French oak barrels (that will make up circa 30% of the final blend) as well as used barrels, this fabulous lieu dit ‘single vineyard’ wine already displays deep dark alluring aromatics that whispers notes of black currant, sloe berries, dark forest berries and sweet Christmas spices. There’s a medium bodied silky soft fine texture together with beautifully suave sophisticated supple tannins interwoven with cool bright acids and incredibly intense finish that’s long and pure fruited with an unobtrusive kiss of oak spice. A genuinely sophisticated 2023 Gevrey that offers a notable mid-palate tension and structure that is seemingly lacking in many other domaines’ wines. Drink from 2025 to 2035.

(Wine Safari Score: 93-95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey Chambertin Champ ‘Cuvee 93’ 2023

Again, tasted from multiple Tonnelerie Hermitage new French oak barrels as well as new Cadus barrels, this wine coming from 2 hectares in the Champ lieu dit is packed full of alluring blue and black berry fruits laced with exotic Christmas spices, clove and cinnamon stick, before damson plum and savoury bramble berry spice. The acids are deliciously tangy and mouthwatering, the palate texture sleek and finely polished, coating the mouth with a weightless old vine concentration of red and black raspberry fruits. Sophisticated but also very subtle and seductive with the Cadus barrels adding a little more fatness and flesh as well as crispier acids and impressive tension on the finish. Drink from 2025 to 2034.

(Wine Safari Score: 92-93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey Chambertin Clos Champ Monopole 2023

Tasted from multiple second fill Francois Freres French oak barrels including some new Rousseau oak barrels, the wine is already incredibly lifted and perfumed with exotic aromatics of creme de cassis, black berry compote and saline black currant. Such invigorating energy and vibrancy reverberate through the wine, showing sun raisined black cherry, beautifully polished marble tannins and a cool, taut, pinpoint focus on the delicately brûléed oak spice finish. Super complexity and class from this monopole vineyard make this another ‘go-to’ wine for avid collectors in 2023. Drink 2026 to 2035+.

(Wine Safari Score: 93-94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Le Guellec-Ducouet Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles Blanc 2024

The maiden 2023 vintage of this (non-domaine) wine was simply a revelation and this new 2024 edition, tasted from a 500-litre new Cadus French oak barrel, shows deliciously succulent notes of yellow citrus fruits, white peach, lemon cordial, bergamot and crushed limestone minerality. The texture is supple and gentle, unforced, nakedly pure and sophisticated with a pervading elegance and finesse, finishing with a delicate stone fruit persistence. A subtle, understated, but supremely classy white wine. Drink from 2026 to 2034+.

(Wine Safari Score: 92-94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Michael Le Guellec in his cellar.

Le Guellec-Ducouet Savigny Les Beaune Blanc 2024

This is an exciting new white for the (non-domaine) Le Guellec-Ducouet range made from bought in fruit. Tasted from a 500-litre new Cadus French oak barrel, complex aromatics of lemon balm, lemon grass, sweet herbal tea, citrus pastille, and waxy incense notes waft from the glass. Despite its rumbunctious juvenile state, the palate is notably creamy and delicately lactic but with the purity and pithy limestone intensity of top notch white Burgundy. Already impressively harmonious and accessible, this is a wonderful new addition showing great potential. Drink from 2026 to 2032.

(Wine Safari Score: 91-92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Fixin Rouge 2024

An early examination of the 2024 Fixin Rouge in barrel (previously the Hautes Cotes de Nuits Rouge), reveals itself as aromatically seductive and smoky with deliciously broody savoury black berry fruits, earthy black currant, and smoky savoury damson plum nuances. Plush, polished, and sophisticated on the palate, this shows a gentle elegance and seductive, light touch accessibility. Very early days but developing very nicely indeed. 

(Wine Safari Score: 89-92/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet wines are imported exclusively into the UK by Musigny Wines. Email andrew@musigny.wine for an En-primeur 2023 offer.

Tasting Burgundian Rising Star Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet 2022 Releases – A Celebration of Terroir and Passionate Artisanal Winemaking…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

The force of gravity is more intense in Burgundy. Why else would time move so slowly there? Occasionally, a domaine will pass from father to daughter, or from mother to son. Sometimes a few rows of vines may be sold from one grower to another. But as the sun sets over the top of the region’s south-east facing slopes, it sets on the same patchwork of Grand Crus, Premier Crus and Village wines generation after generation.

Romanée-Conti is Romanée Conti, and Chambertin is Chambertin. Yet spend enough time amongst the vines and occasionally you’ll spot an anomaly. In Gevrey-Chambertin, the anomaly is a young man with a look that’s more Santa Barbara County than Hospices de Beaune: hipster beard, possibly a sleeve tattoo under his plaid shirt, an easy, laid-back personality. It’s Michael Le Guellec who is definitely not part of the old guard, but scratch below Michael’s surface and you’ll find that his vineyard land has been in his family since 1920, with some of his oldest vines planted just ten years later. You’ll find a respect for tradition – for Michael’s winemaking grandfather of course, but also for the terroir, for the environment, and for the style of wines typical of Gevrey-Chambertin: rich, flavoursome, powerful, and muscular, yet with incredible finesse. Pinot Noir that can only come from one place on earth. 


Michael Le Guellec in November 2023.

For now, the domaine is still relatively unknown. Since Michael’s grandfather retired in 1990, winemaking has been on the backburner, and it’s only since Michael took over with his friend Arnaud Ducouet in 2018 that the renaissance has begun. That the domaine is already producing such exquisite wines is no accident. With winemaking overseen by Pierre Millemann, it is no surprise that the wines are luscious and elegant. This is a grower destined to become one of the must-haves of Gevrey-Chambertin. For the time being, just a few thousand bottles are being produced each vintage – from Clos Champ, the only walled vineyard in the lieu dit (planted in 1930) and from Les Jeunes Rois (planted in 1965). Other vineyards are being reworked before they’ll be considered worthy to produce wines under the domaine’s label. Eventually around 15,000 bottles could be made – and the whole world will want them. These are fabulous wines being made by imaginative, energetic, and passionate young people who want to carry their region forward, while remaining true to its history. They’re also an absolute steal… for now.

The total Pernand-Vergelesses production.

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles Blanc 2023, 13% Abv.

Another new wine and a rather pleasant surprise to taste it for the first time in the Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet cellars especially seeing as their consulting oenologist is Pierre Millemann, who’s own top Corton-Charlemagne white 2022 made from grapes just down the road, was recently rated 99/100 in Decanter Magazine. This new Pernand Blanc is still embryonic but already shows a certain ripeness and aromatic complexity for a warmer year, with notes of honeysuckle, waxy citrus rind, lemon pastille, white peach and warm white toast wafting out the glass. The palate is taut and crystalline with a chiselled acidity, hints of freshly baked buttered pastries and a pronounced stony, liquid limestone minerality on the finish. All components tasted from new large oak barrels but already this wine shows a wonderful core of fruit with vibrant acids and a certain linearity on the finish. An utter delight.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Looking up to the home of Michael Le Guellec.

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Bourgogne Cotes de Nuits Village 2022

Produced from grapes sourced from vineyards lying between Brochon and Fixin, the 2022 reveals a rich, intense aromatic tapestry of violets, purple rock candy, blueberry and vanilla spice. Creamy and cool, the wine shows a fabulous balance and purity with saline black currant and pithy black cherry hints. Full and compact with a sleek mid palate density and a vibrant, energetic finish. Really quite superb.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey-Chambertin Les Jeunes Rois 2022

This famous lieu dit is blended from a mixture of new and used oak barrels and displays a smoky, intense aromatics of piercing black fruits, cassis, black cherry, and black berry oyster shell reduction. Full and very fine with notable intensity, weightless concentration, supple sweet tannins, tangy mouthwatering acids, and a soft, seamless, harmonious finish. 

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Looking into Clos Champ… the walled monopole.

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Champ 2022

Produced from a wonderful old 0.8 hectare walled vineyard planted in 1930, like its sibling Les Jeunes Rois, it is a majestic blend of new and older oak portions that show a multi-layered elegance with great minerality and limestone linearity, freshness, and focus. Subtle oaking lends an added presence to the perfumed aromatics of Parma violets, black cherry, blueberry, and bramble berry fruit notes tempered on the palate by a cool glassy freshness, sweet tangy acids with purity but also great focus. A vibrant, concentrated wine that’s beautifully balanced and shows plenty of promise.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

‘Clos Champ’ Mini Vertical Tasting: 2019 to 2021

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Champ 2021, 13% Abv.

This small, concentrated vintage exhibits a spicy complexity of crushed limestone, gun smoke, and sappy spice with delicate notes of frais de bois, red plum and earthy red currant confit. The palate is incredibly compact, cool and concentrated with superb purity and precision, a beautifully harmonious creamy mouthfeel and a long, blood orange and pomegranate-tinged fleshy finish. Cool and very classy.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Champ 2020, 13.5% Abv.

The 2020 vintage consisted of six barrels with a 30% whole bunch portion included in the fermentation. The aromatics are wonderfully vibrant, with a lifted exotic perfumed expression and the exoticism of a warm dry vintage. The nose shows strawberry and raspberry notes over dusty crushed limestone minerality before a sleek, fine grained polished texture with savoury red fruits, spicy blood orange, strawberry compote, and a creamy, sappy savoury finish. 

(Wine Safari Score: 92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Le Guellec-Ducouet Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Champ 2019, 14% Abv. 

Another rich, savoury expression that opens with perfumed aromatics and lifted exotic red fruit nuances, strawberry compote, kirsch cherry and earthy red currant. The texture is soft and fleshy, quite gentle, silky, and harmonious with a supple, elegant spicy finish. 

(Wine Safari Score: 92/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The wines are imported exclusively into the UK by Andrew Pavli at http://www.Musigny.wine

Contact: andrew@musigny.wine

A Brace of New Iconic Burgundies Released By the Maestro Jerome Galeyrand – Tasting His Riveting New Meursault and Clos de Vougeot 2023 Wines…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

It is always a great pleasure to travel to Burgundy to taste with the vignerons themselves in their own cellars. But the privilege is amplified when you visit a producer like Jérôme Galeyrand who is currently being lauded as one of the most talented vignerons in Burgundy at the moment and a domaine “at the top of its game.” Jérôme Galeyrand is a discreet, soft spoken and incredibly thoughtful winemaker whose wines are personified by perfumed precision, refinement, purity, and elegance – wines that are not only serious, but seriously delicious to drink.

Jérôme Galeyrand produces a little over 2,000 cases per year depending on the vintage, but the highlights of his exceptional range are undoubtedly his four famous reds: Gevrey Chambertin La Justice, Billard, Croisette and his Les Retraits Red from the Cotes de Nuits-Village appellation, which will now be joined by two new scintillating heavy hitting wines… a white from Meursault and a new Grand Cru red from Clos de Vougeot in the Cotes de Nuits.

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Meursault 2023, Burgundy

When news started to leak out that Jerome Galeyrand had produced a tiny amount of Meursault, merchants worldwide instantly started the desperate scramble to secure a treasured allocation. Jerome’s winemaking style has been intricately developed and cultured over the years, seducing drinkers with his phenomenal Aligoté expressions and his pristinely complete reds. This new Grand Vin Blanc from Meursault represents yet another new pinnacle for Jerome’s fast evolving winemaking career. The aromatics on this embryonic white are icy cool, pure, and fine, showing elegant notes of white citrus, freshly sliced fennel, white pear, yellow apple, and dusty crushed limestone. But its on the palate where you see the complete synergy of Jerome’s precise winemaking style come to the fore, slowly opening to reveal a medium-bodied Chardonnay with a satiny bright sheen, elegantly fleshy and soft textured yet simultaneously crystalline, pure, and bright, seductively offering up concentrated layers of hazelnuts, yellow citrus, ripe white pear, and a subtle, mouth-wateringly fresh dry chalky finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 94-95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Jerome Galeyrand Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2023, Burgundy

As if a new Meursault from Jerome was not enough to get the international wine trade into a complete frenzy, this new white wine will be joined by a couple of barrels of Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru red, produced from vines situated near to the water tower centre left in the Clos when looking down from the castle. Frustratingly, I walked the vineyard with Jerome in January 2024 but was sadly not able to taste the wine in barrel back then. Thankfully, my patience has been rewarded and a “work-in-progress” sample made its way to me in July 2024, and this exciting new wine is everything one could have hoped for. This Grand Cru is built around two barrels of Clos de Vougeot Pinot Noir, one a new French oak barrel and one aged in a multiple passage French oak barrel, blended together to reveal a fabulously multidimensional wine loaded with aromatics of sweet red and black berries, rose petals, sweet Asian spices, and subtle blood orange nuances. The palate is broad and creamy, tight knit, expertly balancing optimally ripe sweet berry fruit concentration with chalky fine-grained tannins and deliciously tangy bright acids. But it’s the final elegantly muscular assembly and the pristine purity of the wine that really resonates. I feel privileged to have tasted this phenomenal wine in its youth as the queue to try and secure merely a bottle or two of Jerome’s masterpiece will no doubt be a challenge given the worldwide demand for his wines.

(Wine Safari Score: 95-96+ Greg Sherwood MW)

Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2023 barrel sample.

The wines are available from the Burgundy specialist merchant http://www.Musigny.wine in the UK. The Meursault 2023 was released for £550 IB per 6. Price not yet available for the Clos de Vougeot 2023.

Andrew@wimbledonwinecellar.com

Highlights of Burgundy En-Primeur 2022 – Reviewing the Domaine Jean-Marie Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos Saint Jacques 2022…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ 2 Comments

Over the last twenty years, Domaine Fourrier has turned out to be one of the great success stories in Burgundy, proof that a talented grower with good sites can rise out of near obscurity to make wines that have become some of the most sought-after in the region. The man behind this rapid rise is Jean-Marie Fourrier, whose father generously handed over control in 1994, when his son was twenty-four. He is lucky to have a large stock of old vines, but as ever, the secret to his success is meticulous work in the vineyards.

Jean-Marie does not follow organic methods specifically, but rather he tries to keep chemical treatments to a minimum and is more of an ‘intuitive anticipator’ of vineyard problems. While always remaining true to their terroirs, his wines have won over a legion of Burgundy collectors and followers with their unashamed ripeness, textural polish, and an all-round seductiveness that is normally instantly recognisable, but without ever compromising on the wines’ age ability.

Vintage 2022 in Burgundy:

The 2022 vintage undoubtedly represents a return to a warmer and dryer style of season after the trials and tribulations of the complex, frost affected, low yielding but high quality 2021 vintage. The 2022 conditions and wine styles have more in keeping with the trilogy of riper years in 2018-2019-2020 despite the region having had several near misses with frost during the season with low -4c temperatures recorded in April.

Fortunately, after a very meagre but high quality 2021 harvest, the volumes of 2022 rebounded, as is often the case with frost affected vines, with some generous grape yields of excellent quality for both reds and whites after a warm, dry summer without any heat spikes. Harvesting generally began towards the end of August in the Cotes de Beaune and in early September in the Cotes de Nuits and Chablis. The resultant wines are beautifully ripe and vibrant, with invigorating fruit concentration, crystalline purity, and delicious mouthwatering intensity.

Domaine Jean-Marie Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos Saint Jacques 2022, Burgundy, France

A very classy, plush aromatics which suggests great pedigree and power but announces it with true elegance and soft-spoken restraint. There’s a lovely melange of both red and black fruits, strawberry, black cherry, red currant and plum spice. The palate is deliciously bright, sleek and fleshy but also beautifully delineated, with fresh underlying acids punctuating the focus and purity of fruit. All wonderfully in balance, the fleshy sweet fruit is tight knit, taut but silky, the tannins powdery and mineral. Very elegant and supremely classy with the archetypal Fourrier fruit purity and palate concentration but importantly with energising, revitalising acids in this warm ripe vintage. Yet again a thoroughly seductive Gevrey-Chambertin from this blue chip 1er Cru vineyard. Drink on release and over the next 10 to 15+ years.

(Wine Safari Score: 94-96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Wines of Kei Shiogai – One of the Most Exciting Talents to Come Out of Burgundy in More Than a Decade…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

Burgundy is full of talented wine makers, but every now and then, a new name comes along almost out of the blue, with incredible flair – this is Kei Shiogai – a superstar in the making. Originally from Japan, Kei left Tokyo to travel to New Zealand as he was so interested in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. After a short spell there, he was strongly encouraged by locals to pursue his passion in the true home of these varieties – Burgundy – where studied viticulture and vinification in Beaune and Dijon.

Kei arrived in Burgundy and proceeded to work with several top producers including Philippe Pacalet, Domaine Rousseau and Domaine Roulot. Indeed, his earlier vintages in Beaune were produced while he was still working at Domaine Roulot. Even with his 2020 vintage, Kei started to turn heads and draw attention to his wines with their incredible elegance and purity of fruit produced from modest “village level” sites.

Kei is hard working, especially when it comes to taking care of the vineyards. The purposely low yielding vines ensure that he harvests only the best quality of grapes which he vinifies using whole clusters, without sulphites. He has a very precise vision of what he wants to achieve and is undoubtedly a perfectionist when it comes to wine making. His roots are subtly integrated into his passion and the knowledge and inspiration he gained from his various work experiences in Burgundy, can be seen in his own wines. This natural fusion combines with respect to the soils, while targeting the finest characteristics from each of his terroirs.

My first encounter with Kei’s wines was here in London, sadly not in Burgundy, where he operates out of a small but spotless cellar. 2021 was of course an incredibly small but high quality, concentrated vintage in Burgundy and Kei’s wines are simply astounding, explaining why he has acquired a cult following around the world in such a short period of time. From all accounts, his 2022s are even more impressive than his phenomenal 2021s, suggesting there is going to be a massive scrap to get hold of precious allocations. With wines of this quality, Kei Shiogai definitely deserves to take his place in the Burgundy hall of fame even at his tender young age.

Kei Shiogai Gevrey Chambertin 2021

A beautifully lifted, dusty, sapppy mineral led aromatics underpinned by pink flowers, wet chalk, crushed red cherries, wild strawberries and subtle petrichor notes. The palate purity is pinpoint, focused and intense, the saline red and black berry fruited concentration piercing, almost overwhelmingly so. Simply stunning for a village level wine.

(Wine Safari Score: 95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Pommard 2021

Very classy effort shows beautiful aromatics of purple flowers, cherry blossom, violets and purple rock candy with subtle undertones of sweet sappy oak spice following to a taut, elegant palate with the texture of polished marble, a black berry intensity, hints of bramble berry and a sweet, pure, concentrated finish. A wine that really grows and puts on weight in the glass. Very impressive with all traces of Pommard rusticity banished.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Cherbaudes 2021

Majestically perfumed and lifted with hints of crystallised cherries, strawberry compote, wet chalk and a sappy, black bon bon fruited candied exoticism. Silky and soft textured, beautifully precise and pure with incredible focus, seamless harmonious balance and a long, lingering mineral finish. Positively regal and very, very impressive indeed.

(Wine Safari Score: 96+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Kei Shiogai Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru 2021

After tasting this incredible wine, you can only conclude that the Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru vineyard can no longer be considered the poor cousin of the likes of Ruchottes, Mazy and Clos St Jacques. The perfume on this wine is simply intoxicating, overwhelming the senses such is the supreme intensity and florality on display. Seductive layers of sweet kirsch cherry, salty black currant, blue berry pastille and chalky liquid minerality tease the palate. Full, plush and elegantly fleshy, the mouth-coating intensity floors you with its sheer concentration, breadth and harmonious depth. Simply mind blowing in terms of young, pure, vibrant red Burgundy. A paradigm shifting wine.

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The 2022 releases will be available in the UK from Wimbledon Wine Cellar.

A True Burgundy Star On the Rise – Tasting the New 2018 Red Releases from Bruno Desaunay-Bissey…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

So much has been written on or about the iconic domaines and wines of Burgundy making it so much more satisfying coming across a top drawer producer that I have not encountered before. Discovering the incredible wines of Bruno Desaunay-Bissey and unravelling the story behind this family domaine has been a great pleasure. These are wines with wonderful focus and purity of fruit, carefully considered extraction, impressively creamy concentration and an understated power all polished off into a final artisanal expression in bottle that shows an authenticity of style that represents Bruno’s own personal taste and passion for wine.

Together with his wife, Marie-Christine Bissey and his son, Bruno manages this small family domaine based in Flagey-Echezeaux that consists of 6 hectares, some of which is owned by the family, including prestigious old vine plots in Echezeaux and Grands Echezeaux, with additional plots farmed on a “fermage” basis. A fermage is a piece of land which is owned by someone other than the person cultivating it, or a farming tenancy in effect.  It is estimated that in 2010, two-thirds of all French agricultural land was tenant-farmed. Because vineyard land tends to inspire affection in the families who own it, even when they have become involved in other activities, fermages are very common in French wine regions even though this may not necessarily be identified on the producer’s wine labels.

With first vintages produced in 1975, it seems almost inconceivable that wines of this quality have managed to enter the market almost unnoticed, especially considering the current clamour and fervour of wine merchants to discover “the next big thing” in Burgundy. Over the years, some of the production was sold off to other domaines and as recently as the mid-1990’s, several of Bruno’s valuable barrels of Grands Echezeaux were being sold to illustrious names like Dominique Laurent. The Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru appellation takes the shape of a triangle with its northern point orientated towards Musigny, its eastern flank bordered by the Clos Vougeot Grand Cru and its western flank by Echezeaux Grand Cru. The Desaunay-Bissey old vine parcel, planted from 1928 onwards, is located on the point of this triangle.

Since 2007 Bruno uses no herbicides or pesticides and all the soil is tilled. Bruno’s winemaking is very terroir-expressive, doing short pre-fermentation macerations, using only indigenous yeasts and crucially, not too much extraction.  Barrel-aging is on average about 33% new except for the Grands Cru reds where a slightly higher percentage is used.  Since the early 1990s, the wines are neither fined nor filtered.  Bruno’s wines are normally only racked twice, once after malolactic fermentations and once before the assemblage.

Bruno cultivates, together with his father-in law, Daniel Bissey, several other parcels of very old vines situated in Vosne (some 80+ years), Echezeaux (some 110+ years) Grands-Echezeaux (70+ years), Chambolle (90+ years) and Nuits St. Georges (60+ years).

Bourgogne Vieilles Vignes 2018, 14.5 Abv.

This ‘entry level’ Bourgogne appellation Pinot Noir displays some of the most seductive exotic notes of purple flowers, pink musk, blueberry and black cherries showing where the old vines start to make their influence felt. On the palate there is focus and tension, powdery tannins and fine textural shape all framed beautifully by bright fresh acids. A delicious offering with intensity and blue and black berry length, hints of wild strawberry and a beautiful saline bite on the finish. This really punches above its weight. Drink now to 2028+.

(Wine Safari Score: 91/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Gevrey-Chambertin 2018, 14% Abv. 

Deep and alluring, this Gevrey shows an impressively broody depth of black currant, blueberries and a savoury, brambley, meaty complexity with a kiss of graphite spice. Pure and expressive, there is impressive concentration and focus on the palate with Parma violets, caramelised cherries, blueberry crumble and some attractive chalky limestone mineral grip on the finish. Vibrant, energetic and textually very polished, this should evolve beautifully over a few more years in bottle but it’s already so mouth-watering and delicious. Archetypal premium quality village Gevrey. Drink from 2022 to 2034+.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Chambolle-Musigny Combe d’Orveaux Vieilles Vignes 2018, 14% Abv. 

This famous Chambolle plot yields a richer, earthier expression with a wonderful overlay of perfumed dried flowers, potpourri and subtle savoury Chinese five spice hints. Laser like focus on the palate, the wine shows a potent intensity of red and black berry fruits, mouth-coating richness and a long, liquid minerality on the finish. A very pretty wine that displays impressive powerful and tension behind a classy, elegant demeanour. Drink from 2022 to 2035+.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Vosne Romanee Vieilles Vignes 2018, 13.5% Abv. 

Initially this displays a deep, earthy, broody dark fruited aromatics with bramble berry, black currant and layers of savoury Vosne spice. With a little more coaxing, this wine starts to yield notes of pink musk, violets and blueberry hints which follow to a wonderfully chiselled, focused, tight knit palate with incredibly chalky, fleshy sweet tannins. Again, plenty of concentration, blue and back berry fruits, purple rock candy and all the textural power and drive that you could hope for from a top Vosne Romanee producer. Despite being perhaps a little less intricate and exotic, this wine’s power, concentration and pure focus are alone enough to bowl me over and make me contemplate pouring a second glassful. Absolutely delicious. Drink from 2022 to 2034+.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Les Beaux-Monts 2018, 14% Abv. 

Sourced from an 80+ year old vines, this wine shows pure class and allows its pedigree to shine through in this serious expression of Vosne Romanee. One of the most respected 1er Cru vineyards delivers quality in bucket loads in 2018 with even more perfume, lift and intricacy than the village wine. The aromatics display a splendid array of crunchy wild strawberries, red and black cherries, subtle dried herbs and alluring Vosne spice. The palate reveals incredible depth and breath with piercing mouth-watering concentration, fine-grained tannins like polished marble and a tart, bright maritime salinity on the finish that retains a seductive kiss of pink rock candy. This is a very serious effort indeed. An utterly seductive Pinot. Drink from 2022 to 2038+.

(Wine Safari Score: 95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Echezeaux Grand Cru 2018, 14% Abv. 

Made from old vines planted in 1902, 1940 and 1945, this Grand Cru red shows a more reticent and broody demeanour to begin with before revealing a complex melange of red and black berry fruits on the nose, seamlessly integrated oak and a subtle freshly tilled earth savoury note. Broad, suave and texturally plush, this is a wine to savour, to lose yourself in and to allow the more intricate finery to reveal itself slowly over time in the glass. The texture is dense, compact, almost creamy, with powder fine tannins, layers of bright blueberry, cassis and Fraises des Bois notes that linger for an age on the finish. Grand Cru Burgundy is not just about more volume, it’s about intricacy and complexity of rhythm, more drum, more base and an altogether more melodic crescendo. Drink from 2022 to 2038+.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru 2018, 14% Abv. 

There is plenty of fragrant intricacy and complexity evident on this big hitting Grand Cru all delivered with the most considered delicacy, complexity and subtlety. The wine shows notes of rose petals, violets, pink musk and perfumed red and black orchard fruits underpinned by a grounding of chalky, stony minerality. The palate displays a broad seductive rainbow of flavours starting with tart red berry fruits and strawberry pith before fading to more darker blue and black berry fruit notes. But it’s the tension, taut energy, stony minerality, focus and length of flavour that really makes this a real eye opener. Quality comes at a price and this is certainly worthy of top echelon Grand Cru Burgundy status. Drink from 2022 to 2040+.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Wines available in the UK from Importer Wimbledon Wine Cellar London and Handford Wines.

Domaine Armand Rousseau’s New 2018 Pinot Noir En-primeur Releases Shine Brightly Once Again…

~ Greg Sherwood MW ~ Leave a comment

The En-primeur tasting season gives wine merchants and consumers a last look at the new Burgundy releases before most of them are bottled between March and May. After Domaine de la Romanee Conti, there is probably a small handful of Burgundy producers that every collector wants in their cellar. Close to the top of this list has to be the spectacular wines of Domaine Armand Rousseau.

Tightly allocated in every global market, buying Armand Rousseau’s wines on release at beneficial En-primeur prices is every collectors holy grail. So any opportunity to taste and assess these exceptional wines before they disappear into deep dark cellars must be considered a valuable learning experience whether you’re a novice or a professional Burgundy collector.

I recently had a snap shot tasting of three of this producer’s delicious wines drawn from barrel samples.

Domaine Armand Rousseau Gevrey Chambertin Clos du Chateau Monopole 2018

Showing a gently scented, sweet fruited nose with hints of Gevrey spice, earthy bramble berry, sweet clove and grilled herb spices. Palate is both opulent and plush yet softly textured with underlying Christmas spices and savoury red and black berries. An approachable, concentrated style that’s juicy and harmonious without being profound.

(Wine Safari Score: 92-93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Armand Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 2018

This opulent red shows plentiful notes of earthy bramble berry fruits, wood spice, grilled herbs, stewed winter fruits together with botanical herbs and incense spices. Supremely polished and elegant, there is a phenomenal core of sweet blue and black fruits, black cherry confit together with energetic acids that are beautifully harmonious and integrated into the concentrated palate fruit. Shows all the gentle, seductive understated Charmes Grand Cru elegance and finesse that this vineyard is so well known for. Very impressive.

(Wine Safari Score: 94-96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Domaine Armand Rousseau Chambertin Grand Cru 2018

This grand vin shows distinctive aromatic notes of earthy winter fruits, bramble berries, Christmas pudding and sweet grilled herbs and botanical spices with an undertone of savoury cured meats. The palate is focused and elegant yet power packed and intense with more vibrancy, energy and acid freshness than the aromatics initially suggest. Sweetly fruited with a dreamy creamy palate texture, this wine finishes with a long, lingering persistence of kirsch liquor, macerated black plums and wild strawberries. A hugely impressive wine in its infancy but with a long promising regal future ahead.

(Wine Safari Score: 96-97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)