Charodon

Located just five minutes from Beaune, Charodon is the project of Louis Vallet, his brother Thibault, and their father, Bernard. The Vallet family is from Gevrey-Chambertin, where Bernard is still part-owner of the successful Pierre Bourrée estate. However, Louis decided to take a different direction. He lived the life of a flying winemaker for many years, producing two vintages each year: one in Burgundy and one in the Southern Hemisphere. He gained experience from Pascal Marchand. Louis made his first vintage at Château de Charodon—1,200 bottles in 2010—and by 2021, he was producing more than ten times that volume.

While Louis stands to inherit several hectares from the family holdings, these are currently rented out on long-term contracts. Production comes from a mix of purchased fruit and farming contracts. This is a hugely exciting project, and we are delighted to be a part of it.

Louis’ production is growing quickly to keep up with demand, and he has made 42,000 bottles this year. The biggest challenge is perhaps renovating the buildings around the château to create more space for tanks and barrels. While always optimistic, Louis is much happier with the 2022 vintage than the 2021s. Last year, he missed several cuvées because he couldn’t secure enough fruit. However, the ’22 vintage has allowed him to produce his full range of wines and add new lines.

Louis has made the kind of wines he loves in both colours: forward, fruit-driven, and generous. Like him, these wines wear their heart on their sleeve.

Cote de Nuits Villages

The wine appellation of Côte de Nuit Villages in Burgundy includes wines from a small number of villages, mostly in the extreme north and south of the Côte de Nuits: Fixin and Brochon in the north, Comblanchien, Corgoloin and Prissey to the south. The wines are usually red and are often good value.

Côte de Nuits Villages lies above the basic AOC Bourgogne in the hierarchy of local appellations. Hautes-Côtes de Nuits is also mostly red and is produced in the hinterland to the south-west of Nuits-St Georges. 

Recommended producers: Sylvain Loichet, Patrice et Michele Rion

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.

Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.

Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.

The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.