(2024) Quite old vines here, and around 10% barrel fermentation for a Chablis that is restrained and perhaps lacks just a bit of the zing and kimmeridgean freshness of the best. But it is elegantly proportioned, showing cool but rounded fruitiness and a suggestion of summer blossom on the nose, then a creamy palate that just hints at salinity in the finish. Drinks well, and although there are no fireworks here, it is a fine village level wine.
(2024) From a vintage described as 'joyous' after a more difficult few years, this cuvée is a selection of the best quality Cabernet Sauvignon, with small berries and high skin-to-juice ratio. Fruit was optically sorted before a portion was fermented in new French oak barrels, the rest in stainless steel and concrete tanks. The wine was then blended with 6% Petit Verdot and aged 22 months in French oak, 95% of the barrels new. There's so much depth and lush, plump black fruit in the nose, with vanilla and spices, dark chocolate and yet a floral, violet and kirsch element that lifts the aromas too. The oak is sensitively and beautifully done. In the mouth the plush concentration of the black fruit is silky and velvet-rich, the creamy oak adding a light veneer of toast, and yet the cherry-skin bite of the acidity and dusty, very fine tannins adds savoury complexity. Really very impressive wine, which Beaulieu Vineyard suggests will cellar for 30 years.
Note that this wine will not be available until September 2024.
(2024) From producer Luigi Scavino, a wine made in a combination of barriques and large botti, with minimal new oak. The colour has an elegant age, with amber on the rim of medium-pale garnet. The nose is lovely, rose-hip and violet nuances oven through raspberry and a touch of cedar. The plate is medium-bodied and quite firm, the acid relatively prominent along with spicy wood and firm, endive-like tannins. But there is most certainly fruit too, with small red berries and a slightly sauvage quality of bramble and wild strawberry. The finish is again quite grippy with that tannin and acid axis. I don't know this producer and wine well enough to guess at its potential longevity, but it drinks really well, if a touch lean, at time of review.
(2023) Made in stainless steel and matured on fine lees with occasional batonnage, this comes from selected parcels of vineyards in Episkopi. A particularly vibrant, aromatic and vivacious example, salts and citrus dominate the nose. The palate has a frozen grapefruit iciness, the sherbetty brightness of the nose echoed here. Zingy and sparkling with fruit and acidity.
(2023) From a Pinot Noir focused (obsessed?) estate I have followed for several vintages, this is a concentrated and powerful, yet balanced expression. The nose has balsamic-drizzled cherry and even strawberry notes, just lovely fragrance with florals, herbs and spices all in the mix. The palate shows delightfully ripe and sweet red and black berry fruits, nicely etched by its acidity and a herbal edge, and the support of some oak and firm but ripe tannins underpinning the finish. A very good vintage of this wine, and undoubtedly a wine with 10 years cellaring potential.
(2022) This vineyard was re-planted in 2003 with French Dijon clones, with very close spacing (1.5m x 1.5m), across the road from the Old 1979 Chardonnay block of the Tiers vineyard. It has real intensity; a hint of buttercup to the colour and a hint of grippiness like citrus peel and sharp apple, as well as a peachier underbelly. In the mouth that firm, decisive lemon pith character persists, one-third new French oak adding creaminess to the gentler and sweeter mid-palate fruit, swept up in acidity and the wine's strict (no malolactic) grippy finish.
(2022) From an expansive, east-facing slope that has 25% clay, 15% active lime. Fruit was destemmed and fermented with vineyard yeasts, before being transferred to French wooden cuves and barrels for 18 months. Around 4,850 bottles produced. Beautifully svelte and more muscular than Angel Fire perhaps. Full silky fruit, but dark, brooding and intense. So sweet and plush on the palate though, with fabulous liquorice intensity, enough earthiness and spice to add extra savouriness.
(2022) A steeply inclined, east facing block boasting 30% clay, and 15-20% active lime. Foot crushed and whole bunch pressed, with vineyard yeast ferment in used French oak barrels. 20 months on lees in barrel, then six months stainless steel prior to bottling. Around 2,700 bottles produced. Subtle at first. Thrust of lemon, succulent mandarin orange fruit and acidity. Fruitier than the Field of Fire for me, but still a vin de meditation, and still showing that saline streak across the mealy flavours and texture of the finish. It's horses for courses for which you prefer between these two lovely Chardonnays.
(2022) This steep, north-facing block was planted between 2000-2002 on coarse, shallow soils that are 15% clay, 5-10% active lime. Fruit was destemmed before fermentation in tanks with yeasts from the vineyard, before being transferred to French oak cuves and
barrel for 18 months. 4,850 bottles produced. Fine stripe of liquorice here giving intensity, but it's plush, with perfumed, floral-touched black fruit, cherry, plum and damson. There's a real juiciness, a jewel-like shimmer to this on the palate, energising acidity and taut tannins seeing to that.
(2021) Again that darker hue, but not at all dense in colour, the terroir speaks again, a lifted, beguiling perfume showing rose-petal and delicate red fruit aromas as well as a twist of something darker discreetly in the background. Dry tannins add a little grip and then the intensity of acids and compact, juicy fruit is delicious. Great energy.
From a vintage described as 'joyous' after a more difficult few years, this cuvée is a selection of the best quality Cabernet Sauvignon, with small berries and high skin-to-juice ratio. Fruit was optically sorted before a portion was fermented in new French oak barrels, the rest in stainless steel and concrete tanks. The wine was then blended with 6% Petit Verdot and aged 22 months in French oak, 95% of the barrels new. There's so much depth and lush, plump black fruit in the nose, with vanilla and spices, dark chocolate and yet a floral, violet and kirsch element that lifts the aromas too. The oak is sensitively and beautifully done. In the mouth the plush concentration of the black fruit is silky and velvet-rich, the creamy oak adding a light veneer of toast, and yet the cherry-skin bite of the acidity and dusty, very fine tannins adds savoury complexity. Really very impressive wine, which Beaulieu Vineyard suggests will cellar for 30 years.
Note that this wine will not be available until September 2024. 