Announced today, there are 9 in the Côte d’Or:

Côte de Nuits
Domaine Cécile Tremblay
Domaine Dugat-Py
Domaine Roumier
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Domaine Leroy
Côte de Beaune
Domaine d’Auvenay
Domaine Coche-Dury
Domaine Jean-Marc & Thomas Bouley
Domaine Hubert Lamy

Feel free to discuss 🙂

2024 Hamelin, Chablis 1er Beauroy
From the Côte de Savant – planted in 1985 & 1987.
Very open aromatics – perfumed, with a small richness of citrus fruit. I remember this as more incisive at the domaine, but the richness of the nose is also bringing some generosity to the flavour. Yet, here is still a wine of salinity and energy – it’s also quite delicious !!
Rebuy – Yes

2024 J&J Archambaud, Vosne-Romanée
A domaine that I visited for the first time last week. 3 parcels assembled – Communes, Chalandins and Au Dessous de la Rivière – the oldest vines coming from the 1930s, Chalandins has the youngest vines, and these date from the 1990s…
Fine aromatic scale and lots of width to this aroma – stylishly spiced. A wine that’s fluid but also delivers impressive concentration – even ignoring that this is from 2024! Modest but attractive bitters in the finish and excellent texture too. An excellent villages !!
Rebuy – Yes

My apologies.

For the first time in 24 years, Burgundy Report had some ‘downtime’ that lasted more than 5 minutes – it was actually for about 15 hours over the weekend.

Mea Culpa. I updated something that I shouldn’t have updated – or at least not at the weekend with hardly any support cover !!

Sorry…

It’s the start of July, so time to take stock…

Last week it was super hot, with temperatures that are usually reserved for August. This week it’s ‘quite’ warm. What rain was in the last days’ forecast for the Côte d’Or hardly materialised, and the prognosis for the next two weeks is largely dry and getting hotter again – but for some light relief, at least the nights are forecast to be cooler…

So the domaines are mostly trying to avoid any stress for the plants. Few are ploughing or even moving the soil right now as the soil will dry out faster, and likewise, the trimming of the vines has been significantly curtailed to avoid ‘stress.’ So far, there’s no indication of ‘blocking’ in the vast majority of soils, just a few yellowing leaves on flat gravelly (draining) soils or very stony soils without much earth (right)…

It’s a vintage where I’ve never seen so much watering of recently planted vines. As you will know, it is against the rules of AOC to irrigate vines, or they will lose their right to this appellation d’origine contrôlée – the resulting wines become, for example, Vin de France instead of Clos de Vougeot. Young vines, under 3 years old, are the only exception to this rule.

I wonder if we are witnessing a modern 1976 in the making. A vintage in Burgundy where the drought was more marked than the heat of some other regions/countries. This year, it seems that we have both !!

As for the Côte d’Or hail of Wednesday 17th June, significantly hit were Beaune to Pommard, and hail cannons were not used as the storms ‘came from the wrong direction(!)‘ The insurance assessors were in the vines during the last week of June, as much as 30% losses were forecast – but today, 30% ‘of what’ is the fair question. The effect should be less in the pinots, but there was already some coulure in the whites of Beaune, so it could be a ‘real’ 30% here. Then this week (Sunday evening), multiple violent storms came through Beaujolais, mainly bringing some much-needed water, but hail came too. There was some significant damage on the hill of the Côte de Brouilly and the nearby valley of Brouilly Saburin… Too early to say for sure, but vigneron(ne)s are suggesting 60-80% losses, see the images…

Back to the Côte d’Or, Frederic Mugnier told me yesterday, “I’m surprised how the vines currently look – they look fine – but I don’t like this period of heat, we need rain, but there’s nothing in the forecast. The vines looked great 1 week ago and will still be great if we get some rain.”

And where are we in terms of maturity?

Well, already in the last days of June, there were photos of the first (red) veraison – potentially the earliest in a sequence of very early vintages. Assuming no blocking to retard maturity, the crémants will already be harvesting around 7 August and the still whites only a week later, then the first (young) reds only a few days later – but it’s usually the case that the combination of heat and dryness causes the process of maturity to stall and is usually ‘unlocked’ by events of rain…

“The season is clearly ahead of schedule. We have compared 2026 to other great early-ripening vintages—often characterised by heat and dry summers: with mid-flowering on May 24 and bunch closure around June 20–22, it is hard not to recognise the hallmarks of an exceptional season. However, the water deficit since the start of the season is among the most severe ever recorded. Also noteworthy is that June temperatures were 4.4°C above the 30-year average.
Apex Vineyard Consulting”

The hail on the Côte de Brouilly, Sunday 28th June:

If you are looking for upmarket accommodation, there are two new options within minutes of Beaune. First, lets start with Beaune:

Domaine Albert Morot

Wednesday was the official ‘inauguration’ of the Domaine under new ownership and following significant renovations.

It is the husband-and-wife team of Guillaume Poitrinal and Sophie Desmazières-Poitrinal who acquired and renovated this important Beaune property, and not just the property; the winery and the walls of their monopole Savigny 1er cru Clos de la Bataillère (in Vergelesses) have also seen similar treatment.

In the (relatively) short time for renovations here, at least in the glacial timescales of LVMH or Artémis, the work which has been completed still bears comparison with domaines under those marques. The fully air-conditioned mansion-house (the old Château de Creusotte) sports 10 rooms for rent, of course with views over the vines. The impressive kitchen seems shared, but I’m sure that you can bring your own chef! If interested…

I have seldom seen such an assembly of ‘worthies’ of the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits in one place to celebrate the inauguration of another winery – much kudos for that – more people were waiting in the 30+ degree heat of the garden than all of Place Carnot that afternoon!

I will continue to visit and taste the wines of their winery head Jean Pierre Villa who made such a good start with his 2023s…

Hotel Château la Commaraine

Image from the Hotel…

Looking out onto its 3.6 hectare Pommard 1er cru Clos, and after 5 years of construction work, the hotel was finally opened at the end of April. I visited today, and they already had ‘95%’ occupancy.

Integrated into the property’s footprint is the winery of the Commaraine domaine, which covers over 7 hectares – this work should be completed in time for the ‘early’ 2026 vintage…

The château – which dates from the 1100s – now sports 37 rooms and suites, a spa, a swimming pool (a must-have for some visitors) and ‘almost’ two restaurants; the ‘gastronomic’ restaurant will open soon, and the bistro is already in full swing. Paint me impressed !!

Infos here…

2023 Roland Lavantureux, Chablis Vau Renard
Plenty of colour. Depth and ripeness of atoms – I’m not sure that I’d say Chablis, blind. In the mouth though, there’s minerality to balanc the generosity and plenty of salinity too – yes it’s a wine of Chablis, but a generous one…
Rebuy – No

2005 Michel Lafarge, Beaune 1er Grèves
Plenty of colour. The nose is An attractive blend of depth and freshness. Mouth-filling and very wide – framed with slightly drying, young, tannin – but grainless. Finishing flavours with plent of bitters and salinity. What a young wine! I shall continue to enjoy it, whilst mentally noting ‘not for 5 more years’ for the next bottle!
Rebuy – Maybe