Winemaker Notes
Red wines from Beaune tend to show red fruit character that can range from fine and delicate to plump and succulent, depending on the location of the vineyard. Les Toussaints often shows more black fruit and riper flavors with accents of smoke, violets and spice.
Red Burgundy might be the world's most flexible food wine. The wine’s high acidity, medium body, medium alcohol, and low tannins make it very food friendly. Red Burgundy, with its earthy and sometimes gamey character, is a classic partner to roasted game birds, grilled duck breast, and dishes that feature mushrooms, black truffles, or are rich in umami.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
On the nose, a core of blackberry is gently framed by mushroom, thyme, turned earth and flaky salt, making for a complex nose. This is a straightforward but refined expression with dark fruit that stays long through the midpalate and finishes with turned earth and spice. Enjoyable now, but additional cellaring should be beneficial.
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Wine Spectator
A dark, almost brooding red, displaying flavors of blackberry, black cherry, iron and tar. Dense and a bit rigid now, yet with plenty of fruit locked inside, this should come into its own in 3 to 5 years. Best from 2024
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Jasper Morris
Dark purple with density. Plenty of juice here. Rich, complex dense and dark, though approaching the border of having sun-dried tannins, but staying on the right side of the line. Very good length.
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.”
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.