2023 Vosne Romanee Les Suchots

The 2023 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots is another of the standouts this year, wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, licorice, rose petals and spices. Medium to full-bodied, deep and textural, it's layered and seamless, with sweet structuring tannins and a long, perfumed finish.

Fresh and spicy aromas of exotic tea, a plethora of floral elements and various dark berries leads to solidly concentrated and powerful medium-bodied flavors that presently conclude in a raspy and firm finish that exhibits a touch of astringency that I suspect comes from the saignée. This may well age out successfully but for the moment it’s less well-balanced and most of the wines in the range. Drink from 2035.

The 2023 Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots 1er Cru has a gorgeous bouquet, with pure black cherry and raspberry fruit, light floral and crushed violet scents. The oak is seamlessly integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with candied orange peel and wild strawberry fruit tones. Filigree tannins frame the finish that delivers the controlled opulence that you expect from a Les Suchots. This is superb. Charles van Canneyt is a bit stressed. His plane was delayed from San Sebastián, which meant a last-minute rejigging of my afternoon schedule. The silver lining is that it allowed more time, since his was my last visit of the day. Not only could I taste the wines from Hudelot-Nöellat, but also the first three wines from his Domaine des Chezeaux project. This is going forward now that negotiations with Laurent Ponsot reached an amicable conclusion, and I will taste the extended range next year. "We knew it would be a generous vintage, but we weren't expecting quantities like this," van Canneyt admits. "We did a green harvest in some vineyards, mostly in the Bourgogne Rouge and one or two in Chambolle with respect to the younger vines. This helped control yields. We had very warm weather during harvest, so we had to pick early. We began on September 11. There are a lot of differences between producers [in terms of when to pick]. We had to be quick, as the sanitary conditions were declining, but fortunately we have a large team of 50 pickers plus 15 carriers. I decided to do a saignée, which is something my grandfather used to do. I was a bit nervous at first. We removed the riper juice to keep grapes with more acidity, and this helped to naturally concentrate the wines, which is easier to extract. Everything is destemmed as usual, with aging in a maximum of 50% new oak for the Grand Crus. Some of the malos finished just two weeks ago, and I added some SO2 afterwards. I am happy because the wines are ripe but not overripe, refreshing compared to 2019 and 2022. They will probably drink earlier, but the balance means that they should age well."