Winemaker Notes
Solely sourced from Pinot Noir planted just above Saint-Romain’s Sous Roche (one of the lynchpin crus of Buisson’s lineup), the 2022 Bourgogne Rouge offers a similar expertly rendered balance of seriousness and breeziness as the Blanc. Saint-Romain’s tendency to produce kinetic red wines of palpable minerality is on full display here, with bright cherry fruit given lift by tremendously vibrant acidity, and while the wine is lithe and without flab it possesses admirable sap and bastes the palate with dense, mouthwatering fruit. Like the Bourgogne Blanc, it spent one full year in entirely used 228-liter barrels with minimal sulfur additions.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a very good generic red. There is lovely Burgundy pinot character, with aromas of dried roses, moss and hints of grapefruit and dried herbs. Quite flavorful but still elegant as a pinot should be, with fine tannins and a pretty finish. From organically grown grapes.
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.