2023 Beaune Les Boucherottes

Notions of sweet red berries, anise and rose petals introduce the 2023 Beaune 1er Cru Les Boucherottes (Domaine des Héritiers Jadot), a medium to full-bodied and seamless wine built around succulent acids and powdery tannins and concluding with a flavorful finish. Winemaker Frédéric Barnier and his team have once again delivered a strong portfolio chez Jadot. Barnier stressed the importance of sorting and of vigilance during élevage, in particular where acid rot made an appearance, and he didn't hesitate to perform a saignée for cuvées where yields where high. As I've written before, in the cellar, foudres and 500-liter barrels now complement classic 228-liter pièces, a further evolution adapting to warmer, riper vintages. What's more, barrels are now used four rather than three times, meaning the percentage of new oak overall has fallen. A cold room also helps chill down any fruit that's too warm when it enters the winery, something especially important during the warm 2023 harvest. This vintage also marks the third vintage of organic conversion for the Domaine Louis Jadot and the Domaine Gagey.

The 2023 Beaune Boucherottes 1er Cru offers darker fruit, mixing blackcurrant with autumn leaves mad sous-bois scents. It comes across more introspective, especially compared to the Clos des Couchereaux. There is a subtle estuarine influence here. The palate is medium-bodied with edgier tannins than the other cuvées from Beaune, a tad more energy with a bright, slightly piquant finish that lingers in the mouth. This is actually better than the 2022 was last year and should drink well for several years. As tradition dictates, I undertook a comprehensive tasting of around 100 wines from Louis Jadot at the winery in Beaune, divided into two sessions for the white and red. Readers should note that I interviewed head winemaker Frédéric Barnier. "The wines are 0.5% higher in alcohol in 2023 than 2022, but with exactly the same level of acidity," he adds, after I had filmed the video. "Everything from our own vineyards was around 13.5% while some fruit that we bought was over 14%. Many of the vines resisted excessive sugar accumulation. We introduced foudres so there is less oxygen whilst using the same level of SO2. The challenge was the purity of both the reds and the whites. The fermentation was not so easy for the latter, and we stopped the malolactic a little earlier. There is 0.8gm/L malic acid on 2022 and 1.1gm/L in 2023. There is 0.5% more alcohol but with the same acidity as the 2022."

Cask sample. Lightish cherry red. Inviting, sweet red fruits and lightly floral on the nose. Deliciously fragrant. Light on the palate; gentle, smooth tannins. A little lacking in intensity overall after the promise of the aroma. (JH)