2012 Savigny Les Beaune Les Peuillets

The 2012 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Peuillets has a compact bouquet with darker fruit than the Beaune Premier Crus: just a little more opulence emanating from the single new barrel that goes into this blend. The palate is medium-bodied with firm, dense tannins and a sinewy mouth-feel. It does not quite have the finesse and refinement of the aforementioned Beaune and I suspect that it will require four or five years in bottle before it reaches its plateau. Apparently Becky Wassermann once amusingly gave Loire-born David Croix the nom de plume “walking winemaker” since he commutes between the two domaine under his charge, Camille Giroud and Domaine des Croix on foot. But he ought to be referred to as the “cycling winemaker” since his mode of transport is by pedal. Sure enough, his brakes screeched to a halt as I waited by the entrance of Domaine des Croix. Now in his mid-thirties, David has a wise head on young shoulders and has already overseen a rejuvenation in Camille Giroud, an 19th century negociant utilising mostly bought-in fruit, and Domaine des Croix, a smaller operation whose vineyards were acquired from Domaine Duchet in 2005, and subsequently Jean-Claude Belland five years later, to give a total of six hectares. David’s approach here is very simple: prudent use of new oak, minimal use of sulfur with comparatively longer lees aging. Having said that, when I spoke to him in September 2013 he was considering a racking just to move the wines on since they had remained on the reductive side following malo-lactic fermentation (the barrels at Camille Giroud more so than Domaine des Croix.) “The wines (2012s) can be unusually concentrated, perhaps a little compact,” commented David. “It is a vintage where it is critical to make the right decisions during the elevage. I had never seen the skins so thick. You chew them in your mouth and think ‘Wow.’ So now I am doing slightly longer post-fermentation skin maceration in order to keep the brightness and the texture. We suffered everything during the year: sunburn, hail, and downy mildew that all affected yields. The average yields were around 25 hectoliters per hectare in 2012 compared to 41 hectoliters per hectare in 2009. But we did not get any botrytis and the figures are textbook in terms of acidity, pH, tannins and alcohol.” Importer: Becky Wasserman Selections (Le Serbet) and through various US importers (see www.leserbet.com for full list.)