Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Santenay 1er Cru Le Beaurepaire is especially good, and the vintage would have appeared to have played to this site's strengths. Delivering musky aromas of orange oil, bergamot, nutmeg, peach and pear mingled with hints of freshly baked bread, it's medium to full-bodied, satiny and charming, with a fleshy, enveloping core of fruit, lively acids and an open but precise profile.
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Vinous
The 2021 Santenay Le Beaurepaire 1er Cru Blanc has a lively nose with white peach and Conference pear aromas; there's fine mineralité here. The palate is tensile on the entry, very well balanced, not amazingly complex per se, yet refined with an appealing pithy finish; a touch of bitter lemon lingers on the aftertaste. Lovely.
Barrel Sample: 89-91
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.
In the far southern end of the Côte de Beaune, Santenay forms a little notch that juts into the otherwise straight border with Côte Chalonnaise.
Santenay red wines show the true essence of red Burgundy at good price points and without demanding a lot of cellar time. Enticing aromas of rose-petal, violet, red fruits and licorice lead to sturdiness on the palate. With soils rich in oolitic limestone and marl, this is the home of well-constructed, hearty Pinot noir and represents a fantastic region to explore if you are just beginning your understanding of red Burgundy.
Reputable vineyards of Santenay include La Maladière, as well as the Premier Crus of La Comme, Clos de Tavannes, and Les Gravières.