Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches has a refined yet intense bouquet with billowing red cherry, crushed strawberry and blueberry aromas all neatly entwined with the oak. This is the most satisfying of Chanson's Beaune premier crus at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannin, dense in the mouth with blackberry and spice and plenty of sous bois on the structured finish. Excellent.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Wine & Spirits
Chanson owns a significant portion of this premier cru at Beaune’s southern border with Pommard, 11.1 acres on the hillside, of which 6.2 is planted to pinot noir. Those vines, growing in clay-rich soils over limestone, produced a tangy 2016, expressing its freshness in scents of blood orange and red grapefruit. That tanginess is there in the red glow of the fruit, an equal match to the potent tannins, encouraged by Jean-Pierre Confuron’s maceration of the fruit as whole bunches. Youthful and tight, this has a long life ahead.
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Wine Spectator
A graphite aroma leads off, meshing with the black cherry, blackberry, oak spice and earth flavors. Firm, with a layer of dusty tannins coating the gums. Best from 2021 through 2033. 20 cases imported.
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.