Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Domaine de Bellene Beaune is juicy and nicely layered on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers aromas and flavors of savory spices, ripe fruit, and oak. Enjoy it with baked halibut in a cream sauce. (Tasted: May 9, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Grand in its complexity, this young Beaune already presents detailed layers of supple fruit and mineral power. The wine’s bright gold color glints in the same hue as the sun. Its clean Asian-pear and lemongrass flavors seem like they might be advanced; in fact, they are just precocious, as the wine holds its freshness for days, and sustains that initial complexity. This is compelling to drink now, and would be intriguing to cellar, to see what it might become.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant style, offering lime blossom, peach and honey aromas and flavors shaded by oak spice. Harmonious and fresh, ending with a light mineral element on the finish. Drink now. 20 cases imported.
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.