We just spent two weeks in France. We spent the first week in Nice. Then, the second week we split between Burgundy and Paris, with a bit more time in Beaune.
Nice was fabulous, esp. our hotel, the Negresco, which was stunningly beautiful.
But, this is a wine board and so the focus is on three visits to wineries we did in Burgundy.
The first of the three was to Armand Heitz. I have been enjoying their wines more and more over time but they have been getting harder and harder to find around these parts. Not so at the winery. Really enjoyable wines. We tasted mostly 2020s there. For whites, we had a delightful if understated Bourgogne Blanc, a surprisingly rich and powerful PV En Caradeux. and really wonderful wines from CM Morgeot and Meursault Perrieres. A beautiful collection of white wines.
For reds we had very nice wines from Chassagne-Montrachet and GC Les Corvees. Then, I am becoming a fan of their Pommard Clos des Potures as I get to taste it. Love the 2020. Quite elegant for a Pommard, although the 2017 probably was more elegant than this one. We finished with a really rich and majestic Corton les Chaumes.
All in all, an outstanding collection of wines. His 2020s were much more elegant than I would have expected from the vintage. Armand is still quite young at only 35. He is going places and his domaine is getting larger as he is getting vineyards back from leasing arrangements.
The second winery is an old time favorite of mine, Rossignol-Trapet. Probably the best value in wines from GC. We tasted a number of 2022 barrel samples of their wines with Nicolas Rossignol starting with a Beaune Theoron and a Gevrey Chambertin. Both wonderful wines and I am a long-term fan of their villages GC - I am still drinking 2005s of this. We next tasted their premier crus from Clos-Prieur and Petite-Chapelle. Both really good, I esp. liked the Petite Chapelle. Finally, the three big boys - Latricieres-Chambertin, Chapelle-Chambertin and Chambertin. For wines from these appellations, the prices at RT are a steal - at the winery (without VAT) and for the 2021 vintage (no prices yet on the 2022s), 175 Euros for the first two and 290 euros for the Chambertin. The Latriceres and Chapelle 2022s could not be more different. The Latricieres was more elegant with good minerality while the Chapelle was richer and more luscious. The Chambertin was, well it was just fantastic.
Overall, while RT wines are always quite rich, I was amazed at the acidity of the wines given the reputation of 2022 as a warm vintage. They did a great job with the vintage.
We also got to taste a 2021 Chapelle Chambertin. This won’t be bottled until the fall, but boy was this spectacular. While the 2022s were more about richness, the 2021, while still a very rich wine, had a lot of acidity and really was a fabulous wine. Which Chapelle will be better, the 2021 or the 2022, I don’t know (I probably preferred the 2021 and my wife probably preferred the 2022), but I have no doubts that they both will be fantastic.
The third winery to discuss is Domaine Amiot et Fils. This is somewhat an older winery and somewhat a new winery as two brothers split up the old estate so that Jean Louis Amiot could bring his son Leon into the estate. Our History - Domaine Amiot et Fils We tasted with wife/mother Chantal Amiot.
Leon Amiot seems to have his own ideas about winemaking and has started with training vines higher on a sample plot next to the winery to see if they like the results. According to his mother, Leon Amiot has told her that prior generations had overcome phylloxera to keep making great wines in Burgundy and the challenge of his generation will be to figure out how to continue to grow great grapes given climate change (love the attitude). I bet the vignerons of Burgundy will succeed.
In any case, we tasted a bunch of 2021s at Amiot. After having tasted the 2021 Chapelle Chambertins at RT, I was excited to try more 2021s and these were outstanding. I very much liked the MSD les Millandes, but then we tasted a MSD les Ruchots that I liked even more. Ruchots is right next to Chambolle (next to Sentiers) and I have sometimes thought that Ruchots was a wonderful cross between MSD and CM. I certainly thought so here. The next wine was MSD Combottes, another favorite vineyard (it is right between Clos de la Roche and Latricieres Chambertin) and the 2021 we tasted again was really fabulous. Finally, we got to try the star - Clos de la Roche. Long one of my favorites vineyards in Burgundy (the 1999 Truchot is one of my favorite wines of all time), this 2021 was really outstanding and will make a fabulous wine in years to come. Love it.
I don’t have that much experience with Amiot. I tasted there with a friend in 2018 who knew the winery and have had some wines that I bought there then. I have very much enjoyed what I have had and the wines generally are very well priced. But, I thought the 2021s were a step up from what I have had from them before. Don’t know if it is the vintage, the presence of new blood with their son Leon, or what, but these were outstanding wines.
So, here are notes on three wineries, one a winery I have loved for many years and two that I am just more of a newby liking what I am tasting but still learning about the wineries. No Burgundy is really cheap these days, but these wineries sell a whole bunch of wines that are pretty well priced for today’s market given the quality.
My wife and I had a great time visiting these three places.