Domaine Bitouzet-Prieur

The nose here is closed with a little lime verbena peeping out from in amongst the smoky reduction. Always the most austere of the domaine’s white wines, the immediate impression is acidity, along with lemon and lime. Sleek, precise and saline, this is tight and closed but will gain in breadth. Drink 2022-2028.

François is keen to highlight the importance of the solidarity shown by the Côte’s vignerons at the end of April, when everyone came together to burn dampened bales and create cloud cover to ward off the frost. Without such action this could well have been another catastrophic yield. Having avoided this threat, the rest of the season was fairly straightforward with careful vineyard management and harvest began on the 30th August. He feels the whites are a mix of 2015 and 2014, while the reds are pretty and will drink well from an early age.