The tasting room at Henri Gouges was showing a new vintage this week – so why not? 😊

Mainly 2022s, except for the Les St.Georges…

2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Chênes Carteaux
Top of the hill above Les St.Georges etcetera…
Plenty of colour but still transparent. Really open, rounded with a ripe fruit – a little cherry in style but an accent of florals and some herb in that style too. Lovely in the mouth – quite silky and fluid too. The last flavours have plenty of length and a modest touch of bitters. This is already very attractively drinkable.

2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos des Porrets St.Georges
Still a little extra colour. An extra herb – but bouquet-garni – and with a larger scale to this nose, more cherry-stone than cherry, with a small strawberry lift – that’s a great invitation. Extra width, extra flavour energy and complexity too – a big step up in flavour energy here – what an excellent and surprisingly approachable wine. More chalky tannic dryness right at the end – much extra personality after the Chênes. What a simply excellent wine…

2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Pruliers
More powder, high-toned and a little more austere – with air, the aromas are going much deeper. Hmm, the most fluid, and also a little more juicy – some citrus-style bitters – this is more obviously a baby, but I could still drink it. Lovely concentration despite the fluidity. You could carafe and enjoy today, but here I’d wait another 2-3 years…

2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er Les Vaucrains
Another aromatic with excellent scale – powdery, stony fruit here. Hmm, but this is rather an elegant Vaucrains – lots of tannin but also of velour – wow – the first time I tasted a young Vaucrains that’s so approachable – it might be silly to say ‘ready’ – but I would drink this today and certainly ahead of the Pruliers. What an excellent wine…

2022 Nuits St.Georges 1er La Perrière (Blanc)
A generous width of fine citrus, though not overly ripe citrus. A juicy, mouth-watering, palate-cleansing delicious wine. This 22 is still showing some of the textural padding and flavours of the barrel – but it’s delicious with a last twist of tannic dryness on the tongue – chalkiness, as there’s no grain…

Trapet Gevrey 1er Capita

Château de Fleys, Mont de Milieu

2017 Trapet, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Capita
A blend of three 1ers. Not made every year…
An enveloping cushion of fruit and still some vanilla aroma. Like the nose, supple and cushioned – great texture and a slowly mouthwatering stony last flavour. Holding very long. A young wine, and I’d like the vanilla to fade more, but this is still completely delicious…
Rebuy – Yes

2022 Château de Fleys, Mont de Milieu
I was a little late in discovering the wines of this domaine, but here is a fine example of what I’ve been missing! Not all is planted at this time, but this domaine has over 5 hectares in this appellation – I assume that they are the largest owner of Mont de Milieu…
A forward and attractive yellow citrus, ripe but still fresh. Beautiful entry, super-mineral, but also with a width to that stony minerality. A modest ripeness – of the right bank and/or the vintage – but nothing out of place. What a classy Chablis.
Rebuy – Yes

Whilst trying to avoid any sense of voyeurism, I have to report the hail of yesterday…

After the wonderful weather of flowering – and at least 95% is finished in the Côte d’Or – this week, it’s really cooled and become intermittently rainy – it hardly peaked above 16°C yesterday.

I was in Premeaux about 13h15 when the next rainstorm came through – and this one was big; lightning, oh, and some hail too…

The Premeaux hail was very short-lived – hardly a minute and had only very small, half-centimetre ‘stones.’ There was no obvious damage to see in the vines afterwards. It wasn’t like that in the Côte de Beaune.

The ‘best’ images come via Nicolas Rossignol. I’ve seen others with plenty of damaged ‘berries’ too. Of course, at this stage, berries is too large a descriptor – these are tiny, hard grapelets – and with the weather returning to hot and dry from Saturday, yield excepted, there should be very little consequence in terms of quality, or the earliness of this year’s harvest…

But of course, my fingers are crossed…

I tasted the Domaine Trapet 2024s yesterday, but also had the chance to taste their current range from their family domaine in Alsace. I bought some – and why not – aren’t Alsace magnums magnificent? 🙂

Andrée Trapet’s responsibility for her family vines came in 2003. Based in Riquewihr, the domaine is now 30 hectares – larger than their ‘footprint’ in Gevrey-Chambertin. It is Jean-Louis and Andrée’s sons, Louis and Pierre who are responsible for the domaine. As always, the wines see additional ageing in bottle, the grand crus only released 2-3 years after the others:

2024 A Minima Blanc
Sylvaner and Pinot Auxerrois – 4 or 5 others too – but those other cepages are only in small quantities…
Rounder style, slightly creamy with a ripe yellow fruit. Hmm – I was not expecting such a large-scale and juicy wine in the mouth – very aromatic and very delicious…

2024 Riesling Kientzheim
Open, quite airy – not an overt nose of Riesling. Open, juicy – growing in energy – a little extra ripeness of fruit in the middle – lovely juicy, easy style… ‘It’s even better on day two…’

2024 Riesling Riquewihr
Also quite airy but still a fuller and more floral style of aroma. Also super-juicy but more direct in style – a little extra generosity in these flavours but also an extra vibration, a structure even, in this slightly longer finish. Apparently, there’s a little unfinished sugar in this, but I didn’t note it…

2020 Schoenenbourg ‘Premier Cru’
Hmm, spiced and floral too – that’s very attractive. Extra wide with additional concentration, very slowly fading. A beautiful wine…

2020 Schoenenbourg ‘Grand Cru’
Less overt top aromas, but wider and deeper at the base. Extra incisive, beautifully juicy – ooh that’s my kind of wine !! Holding so well with fine energy and just a little confit style to the last notes of fruit – I love it…

They have Rangen Grand Cru for the first time in 2024 – it’s too early to taste that wine for this domaine… The following are two muscat wines – a little too aromatic for my taste, but what lovely juicy energy they have, particularly the last wine with ‘maceration…’

2023 μ (mu) Schoenenbourg (Muscat)
Very aromatic and floral – though not the heavy perfume of a gewurz. Another juicy wine, less impact and density than the 2020 riesling – but with such an impressive width in the finish – I do prefer the riesling though.

2023 Ambre Blanc
This is the muscat again. But made by maceration.
Also, a floral/aromatic but with much extra depth and weight. Extra acidity – this is alive – tension for sure and even a little zesty tannin from the skins. This vibrates with finishing interest and width.

2016 Sporen
Opposite Schoenenburg, this is gewurz… It is harvested 10 days later than other cepages and can have a potential alcohol approaching 20! ‘And gewurz needs to be on the right terroir, if not, I understand why some people won’t like it!’
A more subtle nose – width with a small fizz of energy. Large in scale, layered, sweet for sure – just lacking some finishing interest – it narrows quite quickly after the first hit of sweetness…

2023 Roc des Boutrires, Pouilly-Fuissé
An attractively pale colour. Cushioned fresh citrus – richer at the core. Hmm, a generous wine – it coats the palate with flavour. It could be more incisive, but this flavour is good. Slowly fading. A good wine, but not a wine to search out.
Rebuy – No

2022 Beaujolais Villages Aux Gauthiers
My last bottle. Vines near the Col des Truges – a shame that this exploitation is no more…
Still great, young colour. An inviting dark fruit, and I like this energy too. Tasty, young and juicy. Holding well. There’s a small deposit in the bottle – maybe the last of the tannins – as I didn’t find any in the wine. Delicious !!
Rebuy – Yes

The March 2026 issue of Burgundy-Report, including 50 Reports:
– The 2024 wines of Chablis Part 3
– The (mainly) 2024 wines from Mâcon Part 1
– A Few domaines from the Côte d'Or
Image right: The tractor coming home…

The greatest successes of this issue (alphabetically!):
Jules Desjourneys – 2023 Blancs
Samuel Billaud – 2024
Raveneau – 2024

Don't forget the big summary report of the 2024 Burgundy region vintage
Newly updated:
Vintage 2024

And then all the domaine & tasting visits:

Enjoy !!