Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Chanson Pere & Fils Pernand-Vergelesses Premier Cru Les Vergelesses delivers superior staying power on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas of berries, boysenberries, dried earth, and dried mushrooms. Try it with grilled lamb chops. (Tasted: February 16, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
A bit reticent at first, but opens with a bit of time to show a dark plummy fruit with an earthy edge. The wine is tannic and slightly rustic in nature, but with a bit of time to round out in bottle it should show well. Chanson has more than 5ha here planted to Pinot, and another 2ha to Chardonnay. The soils are fairly heavy clay, but the southeast-facing slopes ripen fruit well - some lots came in above 14.5%. The grapes are partially destemmed and gently fermented.
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Wine Enthusiast
A fresh expression loaded with ripe strawberries and a touch of vegetal and cumin spice on the nose. The palate is refreshing with additional layers of white strawberry, red cherry, tossed earth and a saline finish.
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James Suckling
In the nose, this is unlike any other red Burgundy I can remember, due to the olive-tapenade aroma that accompanies the deep blackberry fruit. Some smoke and a hint of fire-embers, too. A dense and quite robust wine for this appellation and it will need some time to integrate the firm structure. But impressive concentration. Almost monumental at the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Fruity, yet with underlying tangy notes of spice and mineral, this blackberry- and plum-flavored red is driven by vibrant acidity. Balanced and inviting, with a lingering aftertaste of oak spice.
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.”
Occupying the most northerly combe (the French term for a valley that cuts through a hillside) of the Côte de Beaune, Pernand-Vergelles sits to the west of and behind the hill of Corton. The most sought after whites of the village come from the slope of Pernand on the side of Corton where Pernand-Vergelles shares the Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne with Aloxe-Corton. The best red producing Cru is Les Vergelles, which overlaps into Savigny-les-Beaune. Reds here are fleshy, seductive and structured while whites are both lively and age worthy.