Winemaker Notes
The wine shows aromas and flavors of red berries, herbs, and purple flowers. The palate is rich with ripe fruit and medium weight with bright acidity and fine tannins. Aging in 30-60% new Burgundian pièce brings notes of vanilla, toast, and baking spices.
Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts pairs exquisitely with herb-crusted rack of lamb or wild mushroom tart, highlighting its refined tannins, vibrant red fruit, and layered complexity.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Vosne-Romanée Les Beaux Monts 1er Cru shows a little more reduction on the nose than the Aux Brûlées, though it does not disguise the concentration locked into this wine. Yet, as Mathilde Grivot said, it is a bit bashful and more difficult to taste at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with svelte tannins that impart a velvety texture. It has darker fruit than the Aux Brûlées, with a liberal sprinkling of cracked black pepper on the finish. This is a wine that deserves several years in a cellar. Preferably mine.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Decanter
Although the aromas are a bit shy at the outset, they open with time to show a well-developed plummy fruit with plenty of nuance from notes of violets, spice, and earth. This Beaux Monts has all the makings of a great wine. The tannins are firm, and abundant concentration on the palate represents a definite step up in concentration. Cellar this for five to seven years before opening and drink over the ensuing 25.
Barrel Sample: 96 -
Wine Spectator
A spicy style, exuding vanilla, sandalwood, coffee, cherry and menthol aromas and flavors. This red firms up on the finish, where the spice elements linger and an underlying mineral character emerges.
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.”
This is the village for the most die-hard Burgundy fanatics. Vosne-Romanée has for many hundreds of years been the source of the most sought-after Pinot Noir in Burgundy. The village claims six Grands Crus—and some of the most famous at that—but in other villages where owners manage tiny parcels or a few rows of any one vineyard, monopolies dominate the Grands Crus of Vosne-Romanee.
Of these monopolies, Domaine Romanee-Conti (DRC) reigns supreme, claiming not only more total vineyard area than any other producer, but outright owning the entirety of two of the Grands Crus and a majority of two others. In its full possession are naturally Romanée-Conti, as well as La Tâche. DRC also owns most of Richebourg and Romanée-St-Vivant. The final two, La Grande Rue and La Romanée are completely owned by other other produers: François Lamarche and Comte Liger Belair, respectively.
While one could spend a lifetime on the puzzles of land ownership in Burgundy, the point is that Vosne-Romanee contains the most valuable pieces of vineyard real estate in the world. Pinot Noir from any of its vineyards—especially from within its 27ha of Grand Cru or 58 ha of Premier Cru land—is going to rank among the best.
The most outstanding wines from this village have everything: finesse and elegance coupled with the body and sturdiness for incredibly long aging ability. They are intensely floral and exotically spiced. Beautifully ripe, complex and ephemeral throughout, they are robust, yet fine-grained in texture. These wines will stay gorgeous for the long haul.