2019 Domaine Camus-Bruchon, Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru “Les Narbantons” Red Burgundy, France.
The Les Narbantons 1er Cru, with its northeasterly exposition, is always taut and structured, but the 2019 Domaine Camus-Bruchon version is surprisingly open, silky and rich with only a touch of reduction, that blows of quickly and the palate is lush with red fruits and ripe tannins, it is an easy to love Red Burgundy at an incredible price. The light earthy and barnyard notes fades fast to reveal supple layers of black cherry, wild berry, plum and candied orange fruits along with a fine stony note, tea spices, delicate florals and subtle wood shadings. While the 2018s were fabulous, these 2019s look to be pretty close in style and quality from the Beaune area and I highly recommend both vintages as made by Guillaume Camus here at Camus-Bruchon, which are remarkable values, these wines are always guilt free, a rare thing these days in quality Burgundy! Once open, there’s a lot to admire here and the brambly red berry fruit and chalky essence make it a classy and food friendly wine.

As mentioned in my recent reviews, Guillaume Camus is one of the rising stars in the Côte de Beaune, who’s Domaine Camus-Bruchon is making delicious Pinot Noir wines from vineyard holdings in Savigny-Les-Beaune, like this Les Narbantons, as well as plots in Pommard and Beaune. His age worthy wines are sourced from mainly old vines, these are at least 35 years old and in some cases, as the winery notes, very old, like the 95 years old “Grands Liards” vineyard, which is always one of my favorites in his lineup. In the winemaking, Camus is very traditional, he only uses about 15% new oak for the aging of his red Burgundies. Camus-Bruchon uses indigenous yeasts and the fermentation(s) are done in cement vats with Guillaume employing an extended maceration of at least 18 days, to extract a full range of flavors and structural elements with regime of gentle handling and manual cap management. The wines are bottled unfiltered and unfiltered, and are pure terroir expressions, as seen here in Camus-Bruchon’s brilliant Les Narbantons Premier Cru Savigny-les-Beaune, drink this one over the next 10 to 15 years.
($45 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive

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