Tasted in the Clos de Vougeot, 12 November 2026

This year’s top wines; the result of tasting 871 wines during the year. And, it’s the first time I’ve ever been disappointed by the selection:

NV Paul Robin, Crémant de Bourgogne Rosé
Open, easy, pretty…
Rebuy – No

2022 Philippe Livera, Bourgogne
Deep, quite attractive, dark fruits. Large, a little menthol – lots of scale and vibrant flavour. The structure is a little rustic but with fine flavour.
Rebuy – No

2022 Anne Parent, Bourgogne Côte d’Or
Wider, more red fruit. Good scale, also a decent support of tannin, but quite a lot less rustic. Fine last flavours – very good
Rebuy – No

2025 Partiarche, Rully la Crée
Actually, 2023 is the currently commercial vintage.
Pretty red fruit. Wide, silky, juicy – the first wine that I’d say was delicious… !!
Rebuy – Maybe

2023 Aurelie Berthod, Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Creux de la Net
Some smoky reduction. Scale, some pine needles, but fine shape on the mouth. Still a little herbal for my taste…
Rebuy – No

2023 Mongeard-Mugneret, Vosne-Romanée 1er En Orveaux
Modest colour. Some pretty and accessible cushioned red fruit aromas. A silky width, melting flavour over the palate. Still some oak, so wait 2 more years (to start), but the finish is long and tasty.
Rebuy – Maybe

2023 Dominique Gallois, Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles-Vignes
The most focused dark fruit nose. In the mouth, it’s supple, and the flavours are melting with delicious dark fruit energy – super!
Rebuy – Maybe

Les Whites:

2024 Cave de Vinzelles, Pouilly-Loché 1er Les Mures
Hmm, that’s quite a pretty nose; complex with a little pineapple. Mouth-filling, generous but nicely complex too. Tasty wine.
Rebuy – No

2024 Bouchard Aîné, Beaune 1er Les Marconnets Blanc
A modest width of aroma, but this is a quite deep nose, and with an attractive reduction – though less than the Duc de Magenta wine. Wide, complex plenty of flavour energy and complexity – very tasty!
Rebuy – Maybe

2022 Nicolas Morin, Pernand-Vergelesses
A heavy bottle and a good, robust cork.
Dark colour. Deep dark fruit aromatics – some overt whole-bunch rose aromas too – impressive though today, not elegant – time in the glass brings much more class! Hmm, the width and generous depth of flavour is on a higher level than any normal villages wine; if it was served blind as, for instance, a 1er cru En Caradeux, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid! Deep flavours that are subtly reductive and, like the nose, just get better and better with air. For the label, this is a great wine!
Rebuy – Yes

“Beaujolais Nouveau is not really an appellation; it’s a moment that you pass and enjoy with friends…”

More tasting reports on Beaujolais Nouveau

The statistics are not yet official, but – like everywhere else – the Beaujolais region was hot and dry in 2026.

The resultant crop, versus the recent average production, was at least 35% lower.

For these primeurs, we should also note that given the very early harvest, the elevage is almost a month longer than traditional for a Nouveau.

With these Beaujolais Primeurs – or Nouveau to most people – we have a glimpse of what 2026 might bring in another 6-12 months.

Since the first vintage I did this tasting (2017?), this is the largest selection of wines that have been presented, but it still represents less than 20% of the producers who commercialise a ‘Nouveau’ – estimated to be about 700 domaines. Though many of those make only ‘micro’ cuvées of 1,000-2,000 bottles…

My* Beaujolais Nouveau Statistics Dashboard

*Helped by Claude(!!) who integrated all the stats available in my previous reports and assembled them with some new ones from the 2025 campaign, provided this year by InterBeaujolais.

You will have to click on the above to visualise the worrying trend seen lower down the page, but sales are down nearly 50% in 10 years… But I’m hwere top talk about wines not the sales of wines, so:

Good hunting!

All of the wines were tasted and selected blind. It was only after the tasting that I got a copy of the spreadsheet with the names to match to the numbered bottles:

Here are 30 wines that are worth your time:

Excellent Wines – Beaujolais Nouveau
From 73 examples, I found ten excellent wines – see below – but no ‘great’ wines. To be fair, this selection was quite variable, as you will see from the notes:
Famille Couzon, 1ère Cuvée
Julien Mathon, Toutencanon
Cave du Château de Chénas
Jean-Marc Aujoux
De Champ Fleury, Joyeux Beaujolais
Ruet, Les Trois Poulettes
Oedoria, Cuvée du Zèbre
Romuald Petit
Jean Loron, Vieilles Vignes
Mommessin

Excellent & Great Wines – Beaujolais Villages Nouveau
What a great step up in quality – both concentration, texture and drinkability – probably the best, most accessible ‘villages’ that I’ve tasted at launch: 17 from 75 were excellent, and three were great wines, but that small-ish number belies how many were very tasty and drinkable !!
Excellent:
Cave du Château des Loges, Les Trois Madones
De Rochemure
Manoir du Carra, Dame Nature
Château de Poncié, Gamaia
Lavernette de Boissieu, Le Jeune
Dominique Piron
Des Nugues
Béroujon, Sans Sulfite
De Thulon
Burnichon
Trenel
Tano Péchard
Georges Duboeuf
Le Fagolet – Famille Girard, Pur Jus de Granit
La Combe au Loup – Méziat
Du Penlois, Tu M’fais tourner la tête
Cave de Juliénas-Chaintré, Cœur Nature

Great:
De Colette, Natur’elle de Colette
Gaget, Vinum Memoria
André Colonge, Colonge Landry

Click on ‘Read More…’ below to see the full notes for the 153 wines in the order that they were (blind) tasted on Thursday 05^th November 2026:

 

Read more…

2021 Méo-Camuzet, Nuits St.Georges 1er Aux Murgers
Only a modest depth of colour. Very red fruit, which is accented with a ripe gooseberry – but boy is that attractive! Hmm, flavour that spreads very nicely over the palate – subtly grained with tannin but without dryness. Not a powerful wine, but most definitely long-lasting and delicious wine – ooh, and that’s a properly great finish too – it just goes on and on…
Rebuy – Yes No doubt about it !!

2021 JC Ramonet, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot
Hmm, lucid, floral elegantly aromatic wine – I don’t know what I expected, but this wasn’t it. The experince is similar when tasting: Ethereal wine that’s so full of delicious details. Wow wine! And a that you can drink and drink – and drink… A gorgeous Morgeot…
Rebuy – Yes

*And just for info, it’s cheaper in Chassagne’s very own ‘Papi’ restaurant, than it is in Chassagne’s very own Caveau de Chassagne, wine shop!

2022 Henri Gouges, Nuits St.Georges 1er Les St.Georges
Powdery red fruit – there’s clearly both (aromatic) scale and power, these notes are going deep, even showing some orange-zest and floral complexity. Texturally, this starts in very silky fashion, but the flavours grow and grow so that, for a while, texture is forgotten! Here’s a finish that vibrates with energy – lots of very fine bitters without ‘bitterness’. Clearly plenty of sophistication here despite the concentration of this wine. And surprisingly delicious and open today !!
Rebuy – Yes if I ignore the price…