Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of ripe cooked apples, honey and candied lemons follow through to a full body with a beautiful, dense palate and just the right amount of bitter lemon and honeysuckle on the finish. Blend of 13 crus from the appellation. Drink now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Blackberries with a fresh bouquet of white rose and iris greet the nose. The palate reveals its reductive nature with initially overwhelming tannins and clear cut of acidity. With enough aeration, it becomes silky with an earthly layer of shiitake mushroom that melds with plum and blackberries.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant white, this offers floral, apple, lemon and spice flavors, allied to a vibrant structure. It's open and harmonious, leaving a lemon element on the lingering finish. Drink now through 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aromas of fresh pear, citrus oil, white flowers and warm pastry preface the 2018 Beaune 1er Cru du Château Blanc, a medium to full-bodied, layered and attractively incisive white that's crisply fleshy and nicely balanced, concluding with a delicately chalky finish. Open and expressive, this will drink well young.
Barrel Sample: 88-90
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
While the city represents the epicenter of wine production in Burgundy, the term, “Beaune” also refers to the specific sub-appellation of the greater Côte de Beaune, whose vineyards climb up the pastoral slopes that border the city to its west. Originally founded as a Roman camp by Julius Caesar, the city of Beaune eventually became the seat of the dukes of Burgundy until the 13th century. Today it is home to top négociants such as Louis Jadot, Joseph Drouhin, Louis Latour, and Bouchard Père et Fils.
The appellation, dominated by Pinot Noir plantings, represents a lovely and charming place to begin to understand red Burgundy. Its sandy soils create light and supple, floral driven Pinot Noir. These wines are designed to be enjoyed within five to 10 years. The vineyards of Beaune span a broad swath of Premier Crus from Savigny-lès-Beaune to its border with Pommard.
Chardonnay acreage here has been increasing here in the more recent years.