Winemaker Notes
Bright ruby color. Floral aromas (peony, violet) mixed with lightly cooked red fruit and a touch of spice and vanilla. Well-structured, slightly muscular with a deep and generous texture. Delicate acidity and elegant tannins. Persistent finish with fruity and spicy notes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Deep nose of black cherry and blackcurrant pastilles with lots of licorice and smoke. Generous body and concentration for this difficult vintage, the fruit wrapping nicely around the quite bold tannins. The finish is still slightly firm, but this has very good potential and may well show better after another year or two of bottle age. Well integrated oak all the way through.
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Wine Enthusiast
High-toned aromas of fresh red cherries, crushed overripe strawberries and pomegranates are tossed in a bowl of rosehip, thyme and moss. The generous palate is balanced amongst underripe black cherries, rose petal, clove and salt. This wine is rich and medium bodied with impressive concentration balanced by brisk acidity.
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Jasper Morris
A bright mid red purple. Here there is a high-class nose, showing a fine terroir which has resisted the vintage. The fruit builds nicely on the palate, cherry and raspberry together, the tannins are fine and not vegetal, and there is fair persistence. Drink from 2026-2032.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Wine Spectator
This red offers juicy cherry, raspberry, earth and anise flavors. Tightly knit, nevertheless, with a lingering finish of oak spices. Should evolve nicely in three to five years. Best from 2027 through 2043. 40 cases imported.
Founded in 1750, Chanson is one of the five grand "shippers" of Burgundy's Côte d'Or- an estate steeped in centuries-old tradition and rich in viticultural history. As a négociant (winemaker and merchant) and a domaine (vineyard estate), Chanson has represented the best of Burgundy for more than 250 years, growing its own grapes, partnering with other growers, bottling, selling, and shipping its own wines.
Chanson's holdings comprise some of Burgundy's most coveted vineyards. Located in the heart of the Côte de Beaune (the historical center of Burgundy) and surrounded by some of the greatest vineyards in the world, Chanson can count French philosophe Voltaire, romantic poet Lamartine, and the Bonaparte family among its clients.
Its celebrated bastion, a 15th-century fortress first rented and then acquired in 1794 to cellar the wines, is an internationally celebrated icon of Burgundy (the largest of six bastions that form part of the wall surrounding the city of Beaune).
To visit Chanson is to travel back in time and experience the magic of the 1000-year-old tradition of winemaking. Chanson still vinifies and cellars its wines in the bastion as it has for over 200 years. The 10-meter thick walls of this ancient fortress make it ideal for winemaking.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
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.