There’s no greater pleasure for us than the release of a new Burgundy vintage, especially one with the character and style of 2023. A year blessed by both quality and quantity, our action-packed trip to Burgundy in November saw us visit over 30 domaines and maisons, tasting hundreds of barrel samples per day and catching up with many of our wonderful growers.
In many ways the bumper crop was a real stroke of fortune for collectors. As those involved in our latest Hospices de Beaune Syndicate will know, 2024 is one of the smallest crops in recent history. So, all the more reason to dive into 2023.
Burgundy 2023 offers have already started so please register interest and we'll send you our highlights and our top recommended wines across villages and cru levels. In the meantime below is our general overview of the fascinating, wonderful 2023 vintage.
The Growing Season
The 2023 growing season was kinder and steadier than recent years, avoiding the extreme heat spikes that defined vintages like 2018 and 2020. While the warmer summer temperatures ripened the fruit beautifully, higher hillside plots developed thicker grape skins, offering natural protection and structure.
Abundance was a defining feature of the year, with many producers reporting unusually high yields—ten bunches per vine compared to the typical six or seven. This abundance required careful management, particularly during green harvests post-flowering, where growers removed bunches from the vines to control yields and prevent dilution of the crop. Viticultural diligence paid off, with the quality of vineyard work paving the way for a smoother winemaking process.
Many of our growers, such as Pierre Gros, Pierre Duroche, and Romain Taupenot, described the growing season as “easy”—a relief from the regular refrain of spring frosts and prolonged summer heatwaves. That doesn’t mean 2023 is a cool vintage, far from it. Jane Eyre described the season as “not dissimilar to 2022—it was warm. The difference was that when we had rain, it really rained in 2023, so there was no lack of water in the soils, which is very helpful.”
For Pierre Gros, it was “hot and dry, but not too hot compared to 2019 or 2020.” Whilst average temperatures were well above the norm, as Brian Sieve at de Montille notes, “the sunshine hours were less intense.” The weather in 2023 was thankfully more balanced and harmonious, making smiling faces and enthusiasm the calling card of each address.
Harvest and Winery Insights
For Pierre Meurgey at Domaine Clos de la Chapelle in Volnay, “the big question was when to start the harvest.” The sharp rise in temperatures during late August and early September made harvest timing critical, so Pierre began quite early on the 7th. Benoit Girardin in Santenay also started harvesting whites on the 7th of September, whilst the reds, given the greater yields, were harvested later with more maturity.
Decisions about when to pick and whether to use whole bunches proved pivotal in shaping the vintage’s style. On the whole, we saw more whole bunch fermentation in 2023, with maverick Philippe Pacalet continuing his program of 100% whole bunches to great success. Meanwhile, growers who embraced green harvesting earlier in the season and meticulously selected their fruit entered the winery with healthier, more balanced grapes.
New technology is one of the big talking points this vintage, and wine more generally. Visiting some of the new wineries in Bordeaux can often leave one feeling like they took a wrong turn and wandered onto the set of *2001: A Space Odyssey*, with their gravitational-flow cellars and other avant-garde equipment.
While the Côte d’Or has always been more rustic and approachable than the Médoc, more and more we are seeing amphorae and concrete eggs in the cellar, alongside other technologies. These early experiments are yielding precise, focused wines that beautifully transmit the origins of their terroir. In this respect, we have been particularly impressed by a newer generation of growers, such as Frederic Magnien.
Lastly, perhaps most interesting in 2023 is the rate of development of the wines, which are evolving significantly in barrel and tank. Since our last visit to Burgundy in June, the wines have already changed dramatically (in a good way!) and will likely continue to do so. As Charles Ballot at Domaine Ballot-Millot told us, “tasting is better and better every day,” a sentiment with which we very much agree.
Pierre Meurgey has also been eagerly following the “evolution of the 2023 vintage in the cellars, because they have gained lots of delicacy and precision. They are not showing at all an extreme ripeness. Both white and red are producing wines which are approachable, elegant, and easy to enjoy young, but with real aging potential as well. The balance is here, and this crop was really healthy.”
The Wines
Whites: Elegance and Precision
The 2023 whites are a triumph of floral aromatics, fine precision, and complexity. While they lack the bracing acidity of the most nervy vintages, their balance and finesse are undeniable. From Chablis to the Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais, the wines show great clarity, with layered aromas and a sense of place that will captivate Burgundy lovers.
For Benoit Girardin, the whites reveal “a good balance between sugar and acidity,” whilst Charles Ballot describes 2023 as “a very elegant vintage, with a good balance between acidity and constitution,” excellent “freshness of the fruit” with some lovely “exotic and reductive” character. At Domaine Rapet in Pernand-Vergelesses, the whites had more floral notes and a chalkier backbone than the last couple of years, which were more voluptuous and punchy.
This was also evident at Domaine de Montille, where the Corton-Charlemagne, for example, was exceptionally fine and filigreed in structure rather than being more solar and bold.
It’s a very good year for Meursault, and we were blown away by samples from Domaine de Montille, Domaine Ballot-Millot, and rising star Eric Boigelot, which show lovely structure. In Chassagne-Montrachet it was a pleasure as ever to visit Domaine Philippe Colin & Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard – both on tip-top form, as are the wines from Puligny-Montrachet.
We didn’t visit Chablis, but were able to taste many of the wines, which showed wonderful typicity. 2024 was catastrophic here in terms of yields, so if you’re a Chablis buyer make sure you stock up on your 2023s. Lastly, the sunny Mâcon and Mercurey are as ever great over-performers.
Reds: Terroir and Texture
The reds showcase a brighter fruit profile compared to the richer 2022s, with abundant red and blue fruit flavours and silky tannins. A fascinating distinction emerges between younger vines, which exhibit red cherries and floral notes, and older vines, which deliver darker fruits and more pronounced tannic structure, particularly in the Côtes de Nuits.
Benoit Girardin notes “good fruit and very elegant tannin” in the wines, which required little extraction to maintain the red fruit and aromatics of the wine. Pierre Gros is delighted with his reds: “the fruit is straightforward, the tannins are really soft and most of the wines are showing quite well even though the aging is not finished, so I think this is a vintage that will age relatively long and should also be accessible young”.
Over in Morey St. Denis, Romain Taupenot at Domaine Taupenot-Merme considers 2023 to be “a very exciting vintage in terms of generosity of the yield, and showing wines which are very juicy, balanced, not as alcoholic as recent vintages - somewhere between 12.3 and 13.6 naturally, with red fruit character” that shows the “specificity of each terroir”. The village-level wines at this address are exemplary, with the MSD “Les Riottes" Premier Cru offering exceptional balance and texture.
“I’m quite happy about the wines” opined Jacques Devauges at Domaine des Lambrays. “We were able to control our production in this generous vintage. We have a very nice level of maturity – not overripe – with a lovely freshness, which makes overall a very nice vintage with perfumes, seduction, silky tannins”.
It’s another great year for Gevrey-Chambertin. Pierre Duroche feels that the “quality of the wine in style is a mix of 2017 and 2019”, with red and black fruit depending on the appellation. Henri Magnien is also a real standout for us in 2023, with wines showing big, voluminous fruit and a departure from the dusty rose petal character of previous years. Whilst based in Cissey, Jane Eyre’s 2023s are also fabulous and her popular village Gevrey is on cracking form.
Maison Edouard Delaunay was also a highlight of the trip, and Laurent is thrilled “with a beautiful Pinot Noir character, with nice freshness, good acidity, fantastic fruit expression and I think for me one of the characteristics of 2023 is that the terroirs are very well respected – every wine reflects the true character of its terroir".
We were delighted with both Pommard and Volnay. We had a lovely tasting at Comte-Armand (fabulous Clos des Epeneaux this year), and beautiful Pommard from Domaine de Montille and Launay-Horriot. In Volnay we’re still in awe of Domaine Clos de la Chapelle, which we represented for the first time in 2022. It’s a stunning year for them, with these amazing holdings which are near-contiguous with de Montille, Dujac and Domaine de la Pousse d’Or.
Looking more broadly across the Cotes, the wines from Beaune are marked by their lovely textures and approachable red fruit character, whilst in Nuits the generosity shines through, with red and Morello cherry notes mingling with floral highlights. Mercurey and Rully reds are also stunning, and we are hoping to have an exclusive barrel from the benchmark Domaine Raquillet this year!
Club Syndicates
As always we are most excited to bring you exclusive crowdfunded barrels from our favourite producers. We have already launched our Philippe Pacalet Pommard 1er Cru “Les Epenots” 2023, shares of which are filling up fast. This year we also hope to have a barrel of Domaine Raquillet 1er Cru (the team is very excited about this one!), alongside a barrel of Delaunay Bourgogne Aligote (for Jasper Morris single vineyard Aligote like this is the next big thing). Following another success at the Hospices de Beaune 2024 where we secured three barrels, we also intend to bid at in the Hospices de Nuits 2024 in March.
Events & Closing Thoughts
Our Fireside Chat was a great success and you can watch the recording here. Our 2023 Burgundy En Primeur Tasting is now full but we still have some tickets left for Value Villages on the 22nd, which underscores our approach to finding value in Burgundy via a guided walk-around tasting of a few dozen beautiful wines. Lastly and by popular demand we are also hosting An Evening with Jane Eyre on the 16th of January, so dust off your coats and come along and meet one of Burgundy’s great stars!
Offers meanwhile have already started in December, although the pace will inevitably pick up in the New Year and we hope to have everything ready by the 14th of January. This is a wonderful vintage for collectors, with both quality and quantity, and given that 2024 is going to be very tight in volume, we warmly encourage you to fill your boots.