Cote de Beaune
With its vinous pillars of Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault, the Côte de Beaune’s Chardonnays are considered the finest in the world. Seven of Burgundy's eight white Grands Crus are found here though, ironically, more red wine is made in this southern half of the Côte d'Or than white. Its finest Chardonnays are known for their incomparable intensity and complexity, while its Pinot Noirs convey softness and finesse.
Learn more about Cote de Beaune
With its three musketeers of Chassagne-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault, alongside the imperial Corton-Charlemagne, the Côte de Beaune is home to the finest Chardonnays in the world. It hosts seven of Burgundy's eight white Grands Crus, along with a single red Grand Cru. Ironically though, much more red wine is made in this southern half of the Côte d'Or than white.
Stretching 30km south past the town of Beaune to Cheilly-lès-Maranges, the Côte de Beaune has a more expansive feel and gentler slopes than the Côte de Nuits. Its finest Chardonnays are characterised by an incomparable intensity and complexity, while its Pinot Noirs generally have softness and finesse as their calling cards. The best reds come from Beaune, Pommard and Volnay, and the powerful Grand Cru of Corton.
As in the Côte de Nuits, the fragmentation of the Côte de Beaune's vineyards brings the single biggest hurdle for any wine lover, namely the unpredictability of its wine. The human factor is paramount, and sadly too many lazy or unscrupulous growers and merchants have produced disappointing wines from some of the region's greatest names, while their more talented and quality-minded neighbours craft exquisite examples from the same terroir. Happily, quality is now higher than it has ever been here and organic and biodynamic methods are increasingly popular – especially amongst the younger generation.
Wines labeled `Beaune' come from the appellation adjoining the town while those labeled Côte de Beaune (red or white) emanate from a group of vineyards on the hill above. Côte de Beaune Villages is a red wine that can be made from a number of lesser, named villages in the region, while Hautes-Côtes de Beaune (mostly red) is produced from vineyards in the hills to the west of the appellation, divided in two by St Romain. These tend to be light yet often fine wines, especially in hot years like 2003 and 2005.
Prices:
Bottle
£19.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl30cs
Bottle
£19.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl75cs
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director This is an exciting new discovery for us: David Moreau has taken over part of his grandfather’s domaine in Santenay and has produced wines there since the 2009 vintage. Prior to that, he had worked with Olivier Lamy and Domaine de la Romanée Conti, as well as doing a stage in New Zealand at Neudorf. David made significant changes in both viticulture and vinification compared to the ancien regime. The vineyards were almost all planted in the 1960s so he has old vines to work with. They are mostly pruned by cordon royat to minimise vigour, and the land is either ploughed or left with grass depending on the circumstance of a given plot.
Bottle
£19.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl18cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
We have been buying from David Moreau since his first vintage in 2009 and are delighted to have found such a class act at the southern end of the Côte de Beaune. There were little bits of hail in 2012 here but nothing very serious compared to other appellations. David chose to harvest relatively late, around 27th September, with yields between 18 and 33 hl/ha.
Bottle
£22.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl67cs
Borthers Jean-Baptiste and Benoît Bachelet recently took over the running of the estate from their father and have set about making lots of small improvements which add up to a big jump in quality. Derrière la Tour literally refers to the vineyard’s position behind the fortified tower in the hamlet of Gamay, which is currently occupied by the mayor of Beaune.
The vineyard’s south-facing aspect provides soft, plummy fruit whilst the valley location gives a balancing freshness and careful oak maturation adds a smoky, spicy edge to the floral aromas. A versatile wine which would pair well with charcuterie and barbecue food.
Adam Bruntlett - Wine Buyer
Bottle
£22.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl6cs
Bottle
£23.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl92cs
Bottle
£24.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl1cs
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl2cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer David Croix picked relatively late for his reds, from October 3rd to 16th, but he wisely took the whites in first from 29th September to 2nd October. Overall he has been able to source more wine than for the pitifully small 2012 crop. These are beautiful wines, a marvellous expression of Pinot Noir, suited for medium term keeping.
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl47cs
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl89cs
Caroline’s village Chassagne Rouge is always bottled before the next harvest. It has a beautiful clear purple colour, with really elegant, pure fruit and floral notes. A graceful vintage, she says, while it is still young, fresh and vigorous. Fans will definitely want to follow this.
Bottle
£25.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl8cs
Bottle
£26.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl3cs
David Croix started picking here on 11th September, two days before he began at Camille Giroud. This was a much easier harvest than 2013, as there was much less hail than the previous vintage. The wines have an elegance and freshness to them that appeals enormously, and yet does not hide their impressive concentration.
Bottle
£26.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl37cs
Tasting with David Croix at Camille Giroud is always a pleasure, especially so this year as the range of 2014s is delicious. David feels that the wines are all about drinkability and balance rather than exceptional power. His theory is that the great start to the growing season kept the vines healthy through the cool, damp summer.
Bottle
£26.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl63cs
The progress we noted with the 2013 vintage here has been further developed with an excellent range of 2014 wines. Extra details apparent this year are the enhanced use of lees after racking and the minimal use of sulphur without risking oxidation. The Château de Puligny rises a further few notches up the ladder. Étienne de Montille notes that, in 2014, “there was super clean fruit and we could pick at leisure”.
Bottle
£26.95
Bottle 12 x 75cl5cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
There have been some changes in vinification this year, making the wines a little more Jean-Marc Roulot in style: the grapes are now crushed before pressing, there is less settling of the juice, very little new wood is used and the wines are racked into tank after a year but still kept on their lees. The grapes were picked during the last week in September. Overall, this is an excellent result for the team at Château de Puligny.
Bottle
£27.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl47cs
Jasper Morris MW,Berrys' Burgundy Director Sylvain has become a superb purveyor of interesting white wines which deliver both quality and value for money, with the two Ladoix Cuvées being particularly noteworthy. He is also softening his style of red wine vinification. All the wines age for up to 18 months in his gloriously cool stone vaulted cellars in Chorey-lès-Beaune and from 2011, all of Sylvain Loichet’s own vineyards are certified AB (Agriculture Biologique) organic.
Bottle
£27.50
Bottle 12 x 75cl3cs
One of the exciting aspects of a buyer’s job is to discover new talent on the way up: David and Blandine Moreau clearly fit that description. David began his sixth harvest on 11th September for the white wines and 17th September for his more numerous reds. He is happy with the yields, and characterises the 2014s as having “fresh, crunchy fruit”, finding them more concentrated than 2007, not as strict as 2013 and overall a millésime de plaisir.
Bottle
£27.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl20cs
This was a near-perfect harvest for Sylvain, with scarcely any need to sort the healthy grapes, and better volumes across the piece apart from a little hail in Ladoix. He has cut back on his négociant activities and all the wines below are from his own domaine. The whites are predictably beautiful this year and the reds much less reductive than in the past.
Bottle
£27.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl37cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Winemaker and general manager, David Croix, has been grumbling that he feels he has the temperament of a grower rather than the deal-making knack of a born negoçiant, so he hasn’t found it easy to fill the cellar in 2012. We also find that tasting with him feels like being in a grower’s cellar, though Camille Giroud only owns a couple of vineyards. There are, nevertheless, one or two really exciting new wines here this year, notably the Volnay Santenots, and the whole cellar is on top form.
Bottle
£28.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl3cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
With prices in Burgundy still rising, even if often for understandable reasons, the appellations Bourgogne Blanc and Bourgogne Rouge are great places to look for affordable wines. You get the opportunity to drink wine from a top winemaker, from vines which are adjacent to the famous villages, and which will be accessible earlier. The 2005 Bourgognes Rouges are still delicious and youthful more than 10 years later, but most wines have been drinking well for a few years now.
Bottle
£28.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl92cs
Orchis Mascula, the early purple orchid, is a flower widely seen in the Hautes-Côtes. The wine itself comes from three plots which offer fruit, power and structure respectively. Together they make a wine with bright, medium-red colour and a very attractive, floral nose. There is lovely fruit through the middle with a touch of acidity behind and integrated tannins.
Bottle
£28.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl2cs
Tasting with David Croix at Camille Giroud is always a pleasure, especially so this year as the range of 2014s is delicious. David feels that the wines are all about drinkability and balance rather than exceptional power. His theory is that the great start to the growing season kept the vines healthy through the cool, damp summer.
Bottle
£28.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl30cs
Bottle
£28.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl16cs
Bottle
£28.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Cherry-red and as fresh and cheery as could be wanted - a really lovely, satisfying red Burgundy wine for drinking soon after shipment and at a very sensible price.
Tom Cave, Fine Wine
Etienne has retained his two preferred vineyards, Les Plantes and Les Clous, and sold the rest. A bright mid-purple with a perfumed dark raspberry nose, good energy on the palate and a lively finish assisted by one third whole bunch vinification. A delicious wine for relatively early drinking.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
The Château de Puligny, run by Etienne de Montille on behalf of its owners for the previous decade, was purchased by Etienne and his sister Alix in 2012. They already knew what they wanted to do with the property: sell off the least interesting vineyards, switch a couple of cuvées across to their family domaine and concentrate on a more limited, coherent range of appellations for the château. As it happens, the range has been further reduced by hail. The estate is now certified organic, having been farmed biodynamically since 2005, and with the benefit of Alix’s proven skills as a white wine maker, the wines are already showing a greater sense of purity and definition.
Bottle
£29.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl7cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl2cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl1cs
Olivier Lamy went through his red vineyards three times before the 2014 harvest to remove any damaged berries, which especially posed a risk on the clay soils. The white crop, meanwhile, was superb, with healthy grapes and a respectable yield; picking began on 12th September. Olivier notes excellent definition between the different terroirs, which he says is typical of a cooler year. He plans to give the whites a slightly longer élevage than usual, while using minimal new oak, about 10 percent for the Premiers Crus. Drink 2018-2022
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl35cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Olivier Lamy began harvesting early for certain plots (on 16th September) and then took the time to pick individual vineyards as they ripened. It proved to be a small but perfectly healthy vintage in St Aubin, with superbly concentrated wines. Olivier has decided to use very little new oak; 20% for his red wines and none for the white. The reds didn’t need much sorting and the colours and fruit extract came out very quickly in the fermenting vat. A great vintage chez Lamy but, alas, a very small one, though it is enhanced by the addition of one or two new vineyards.
Bottle
£29.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl5cs
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer
David Croix picked relatively late for his reds, from October 3rd to 16th, but he wisely took the whites in first from 29th September to 2nd October. Overall he has been able to source more wine than for the pitifully small 2012 crop. These are beautiful wines, a marvellous expression of Pinot Noir, suited for medium term keeping.
Bottle
£29.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl39cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
As far as supply is concerned it’s a topsy turvy position in 2012. Overall, Ben has made plenty of wine but some cuvées are missing this year. The best volumes are with the Chassagne-Montrachet Premiers Crus, which are always a strong point chez Benjamin. From a standing start in 2007 Benjamin has made truly exciting progress, and has grown his business a little more quickly than expected as great opportunities have come his way. Yet each year he still doesn’t seem to have quite enough wine to satisfy demand. Wines marked † are bottled under stelvin screwcap closures.
With notes of lemon zest and freshly-mown grass, this somewhat restrained Auxey-Duresses is the perfect partner for January-detox salads.Nicola Giacomelli, London Shop
Bottle
£29.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl7cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
We have been buying from David Moreau since his first vintage in 2009 and are delighted to have found such a class act at the southern end of the Côte de Beaune. There were little bits of hail in 2012 here but nothing very serious compared to other appellations. David chose to harvest relatively late, around 27th September, with yields between 18 and 33 hl/ha.