Joseph Drouhin : Beaune 1er cru "Clos des Mouches" 2023

Drouhin's Clos des Mouches 2023 exemplifies the vintage's potential for delicious whites. The wine has lush, forward aromas of Mirabelle plums and quince with hints of marzipan, butter, and a touch of stylishly smoky reduction. The texture is supple and dense, but the richness is kept in balance and the extract carries the wine to a lingering finish. Parts of the 7ha vineyard have been replanted; the old vines that produce this bottling have delivered a wine of great character.

Cask sample. Cream and lemon curd on the nose. Lots of charming fruit on the nose! Extraordinarily open and friendly and welcoming for a baby premier cru. Dried lime peel and Persian lime. This almost seems to pop in the mouth like sumac-spice space dust. Wonderful clementine sweetness and clementine-peel fragrance loosely laced together by green notes that drift from tomato vine to angelica, lemon verbena to tarragon. This is an orbit of flavour, elliptical in the way it moves, spherical in its sweetness and presence. Long and giving all the way. (TC)

A citrusy, vibrant, generous nose heralds a complex palate that layers strata of aromas, combining fruit, minerality and fresh herbs, all in impeccably balanced harmony. A truly great white Burgundy.