2023 Vosne Romanee Beaumonts

The 2023 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaumonts reveals aromas of sweet berry fruits, spices and toasty oak, followed by a medium to full-bodied, lively and penetrating palate. With good depth and purity, it will offer a broad drinking window.

This is also quite restrained if elegant and pure with its spicy range of dark pinot, exotic tea and sandalwood-scented nose. Once again the mouthfeel of the medium weight flavors is super-sleek with slightly better density, all wrapped in a firm, moderately austere and compact finale that delivers first-rate length. This is also clearly built-to-age so buy it with the intention of allowing at least some age. Drink from 2035.

The 2023 Vosne-Romanée Les Beaumonts 1er Cru has quite an intense bouquet with black cherry, boysenberry and crushed violet scents that unfurl in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe tannins, a slightly grainy texture and fine sapidity with gentle grip toward the finish. This lingers nicely and should age well in bottle. There's great pixelation and mineralité here. This is outstanding. Charles van Canneyt is a bit stressed. His plane was delayed from San Sebastián, which meant a last-minute rejigging of my afternoon schedule. The silver lining is that it allowed more time, since his was my last visit of the day. Not only could I taste the wines from Hudelot-Nöellat, but also the first three wines from his Domaine des Chezeaux project. This is going forward now that negotiations with Laurent Ponsot reached an amicable conclusion, and I will taste the extended range next year. "We knew it would be a generous vintage, but we weren't expecting quantities like this," van Canneyt admits. "We did a green harvest in some vineyards, mostly in the Bourgogne Rouge and one or two in Chambolle with respect to the younger vines. This helped control yields. We had very warm weather during harvest, so we had to pick early. We began on September 11. There are a lot of differences between producers [in terms of when to pick]. We had to be quick, as the sanitary conditions were declining, but fortunately we have a large team of 50 pickers plus 15 carriers. I decided to do a saignée, which is something my grandfather used to do. I was a bit nervous at first. We removed the riper juice to keep grapes with more acidity, and this helped to naturally concentrate the wines, which is easier to extract. Everything is destemmed as usual, with aging in a maximum of 50% new oak for the Grand Crus. Some of the malos finished just two weeks ago, and I added some SO2 afterwards. I am happy because the wines are ripe but not overripe, refreshing compared to 2019 and 2022. They will probably drink earlier, but the balance means that they should age well."