From a parcel in lieu-dit Prevolles that Weber and his team grafted over to Chardonnay, using massale selections from Corton-Charlemagne, the 2020 Beaune Blanc exhibits aromas of citrus oil, pear, hazelnuts and clear honey, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample but precise palate. Concluding with a chalky finish, it's a fine cuvée.
This blend across a number of different village-level lieux-dits in Beaune has a nice citrusy edge. In 2020 the grapes were picked only in the morning because of the heat. The richness of the year comes through in ripe apple and hazelnut aromas and in the breadth on the palate, but the balancing acidity is actually quite interesting. Lovely wine at this level.
The 2021 Beaune Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus 1er Cru is on sandier soil than the rest of Les Grèves. This is more complex on the nose by comparison, a touch more tension, and with greater sapidity. The palate is medium-bodied with a gentle grip, quite firm tannins, good backbone. A solid Beaune Grèves with a welcome dash of black pepper on the finish. There's a tangible difference in quality between this and the regular Grèves bottling this year.
Elegant, smooth cherry nose; smooth, silky, captures the definition of the pure Pinot experience, long, complex and deep with elegance and style.
The 2020 Beaune Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus 1er Cru has a lovely, sensual red berry, rose petal and mulberry scented nose that has fine delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, a little more tension that the Les Teurons with a saline finish. This is a well crafted Beaune.
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.
Bouchard has nearly four hectares of this, perhaps the greatest site in the Beaune appellation. On a modest slope with east-southeast exposure in the heart of the terroir, this has produced a sophisticated, elegant wine in 2020, fermenting out to barely 13.5% alcohol with a pH between 3.5-3.6. The fruit is supremely luxurious and lush, yet underscored with plenty of nuance of spice, smoke, earth, and leather. The texture is dense and powerful yet superbly elegant - a triumph.
(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.
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.
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.
