Santenay
The small spa town of Santenay, just over the departmental border into the Saone-et-Loire, produces full, rich, quite firm red wines which can offer good value for money. One or two vineyards have recently been planted for white wine.
- 254 hectares of village Santenay.
- 124 hectares of premier cru vineyards (10 in all). Best vineyards include Les Gravières, La Maladière, Clos de Tavannes
- Recommended Producers: Lucien Muzard
Prices:
Bottle
£22.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 53cs
Bottle
£23.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 25cs
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 75cl 1cs
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 75cl 52cs
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 75cl 13cs
Bottle
£28.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 10cs
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 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
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
£33.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 6cs
Bottle
£34.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 81cs
With its pretty, stylish nose, this is graceful, elegant and nuanced. It is a wine of finesse, compared with David’s more muscular, dense Clos Rousseau.
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 régime. 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
£35.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 34cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director
Last year it was David Moreau’s “Rousseau” that really impressed me, but in 2012 it’s the Clos des Mouches that steals the show. Forget your preconceptions about Santenay, this is very serious wine, worthy of the more famous villages of the Cote de Beaune. Plenty of red fruit and a wonderful rich mouth-feel, wrapped up in a perfectly judged structure.
Chris Pollington - Private Account Manager
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
£35.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 60cs
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.
A very well-defined ripe redcurrant character on the nose is followed on the palate by a wine of supple structure showing richness of fruit.Javier Perurena, London Shop
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle
£38.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 15cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
David Moreau is very happy with his 2015s, describing it as a vintage without stress. The grapes, picked from 7th September, were ripe but with acidity in balance and with an adequate yield for once. For the vinification, David used slightly more stems this year in the interest of structure and freshness, with a slightly shorter length of time in the fermentation vats. Very encouraging wines.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer
David Moreau is very happy with his 2015s, describing it as a vintage without stress. The grapes, picked from 7th September, were ripe but with acidity in balance and with an adequate yield for once. For the vinification, David used slightly more stems this year in the interest of structure and freshness, with a slightly shorter length of time in the fermentation vats. Very encouraging wines.
Dense, firm fruit is complemented by soft, bountiful tannins and refreshing acidity. As with many wines in 2011 low alcohol prevails and this will make for a beautiful lunch or picnic wine from 2014 onwards.
Gary Owen, Private Account Manager
This cuvée has developed an amazing following over the last few vintages. It has real energy with notes of violets and dark raspberries and good acidity. The 80-year-old vines could well be the reason for its success. This is not to be missed.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director These are brilliant wines once again from David Croix and his team at Camille Giroud and fortunately they were able to make a little more wine this year than last. Alhough the white selection is small, the wines are just as fine as the reds. David has made some inspirational wines from less fancied appellations such as Maranges and Santenay, as well as majoring on the Grands Crus of Corton and the Chambertins. Almost all of the wines are from purchased grapes, but somehow Camille Giroud feels to us much more like a domaine.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
The 2010 red wines are sublime here at Camille Giroud, responding well to David Croix’s deft touch. His style is very much in tune with the vintage. The whites are very good too but there are fewer cuvées this year.
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.