Reviews & Awards

(production was 30 hectoliters per hectare, which winemaker Frederic Weber describes as "a good year" for these vines): Healthy dark red. Aromas of kirsch, black raspberry and dark chocolate are lifted by an element of pungent minerality. A distinct step up in sweetness and depth from the preceding samples, at one broad and fine-grained, showing excellent clarity to its silky flavors of dark fruits, spices and minerals. Really saturates the palate with flavor and echoes on the long finish, with the suave tannins glistening on the aftertaste.

The 2015 Beaune 1er Cru Les Grèves Vigne de l'Enfant Jesus is very successful in 2015, offering up a very black-fruity bouquet of crushed cassis, red cherry, caramelized orange, asphalt and cedary new oak. On the palate, the wine is concentrated, intense and full-bodied, with sappy acidity and considerable length, its fine-grained tannins asserting themselves on the firm, grippy finish. While this is currently rather primary, its raw materials are impressive and it should develop very well: tellingly, an open bottle improved over several days.

This 9.7-acre monopole at the center of the Grèves premier cru was the property of the Carmelite order until church properties were sold off after the French Revolution. The Bouchard family purchased the vineyard in 1791 and its wine remains one of the signatures of the domaine. It’s treated like a grand cru, with 50 percent new oak in top vintages, and in 2017 the oak and fruit are finely married, destined to evolve together for years in bottle. The dark cherry fruit is intensely floral, girded by gingery spice in the tannins, tight, juicy and cool.

Good dark red. Black cherry, licorice and bitter chocolate on the nose, plus a whiff of menthol. Juicy and deep, showing excellent definition and lift to its black cherry, chocolate and mineral flavors. Very good energy here, with the tannins avoiding dryness.

Rich, evoking black cherry, blackberry, iron, tobacco and spice flavors. Solidly built, with a base of tannins, yet finds good equilibrium on the long finish. Very juicy and vibrant.

A refined nose for Beaune with raspberry pastry and red cherries with a violet-flower edge. The palate has delicate and fine tannins with great structural integrity. The length and balance are very convincing. Approachable red fruit at the finish.

Intense and tightly wound, this red displays a laser beam of cherry and berry fruit, with an underlying mineral element and steely structure. It's concentrated and long, yet needs time to reveal all its facets.

The 2018 Beaune Les Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus 1er Cru, from the 3.9-hectare monopole in Grèves, has a lovely, floral, very pure bouquet that frankly puts Bouchard's other Beaune Premier Crus in their place. The medium-bodied palate delivers supple tannin, fine acidity and pure black cherry and blueberry fruit with wonderful details on the finish. This is very classy and punches with many more expensive Premier Crus in the Cote de Nuits.

Revisited from bottle, the 2018 Beaune 1er Cru Les Grèves Vigne de l'Enfant Jesus is showing very well, unfurling in the glass with a brooding bouquet of dark berry fruit, ripe cherries, warm spices, baking chocolate and subtle soil tones. Medium to full-bodied, deep and muscular, it's rich and powerful, with ripe tannins and a voluminous core of fruit, concluding with a long, heady finish.

Bright ruby-red. Liqueur-like ripeness to the aromas of purple fruits, bitter chocolate and cotton candy; smells very concentrated. Plush and large-scaled, displaying outstanding density and a seriously mouth filling quality to its dark cherry and dark chocolate flavors. A very tactile, broad Beaune wine with a finish that's ripely tannic and very long--and not at all over the top. The best of an impressive set of Beaune premier crus in 2015.