Winemaker Notes
This outstanding vine is entirely hand-worked. The soil is weeded by nature and regularly mowed. Trellising is raised, offering a sufficient foliage surface, so that we can get high qualitative grapes. The harvest, extremely healthy, was vinified in whole clusters over more than 3 weeks.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2019 Beaune Les Grèves 1er Cru comes from vines planted in 1904. The well-defined bouquet presents a nicely focused mixture of red and black fruit, white pepper and sage and touches of black truffle. The palate is medium-bodied with good grip and notes of white pepper and cumin, deepening toward the finish. Superb structure and probably the most length of Potel’s Beaune Premier Crus. Classy.
Barrel Sample: 91-93
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.”
A classic source of exceptional Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir, the Côte de Beaune makes up the southern half of the Côte d’Or. Its principal wine-producing villages are Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet.
The area is named for its own important town of Beaune, which is essentially the center of the Burgundy wine business and where many negociants center their work. Hospices de Beaune, the annual wine auction, is based here as well.