2022 Domaine Camus-Bruchon et Fils, Savigny-Les-Beaune “Aux Grands Liards” Vieilles Vignes, Red Burgundy, France.
The beautifully drinking, sensual and earthy dark garnet/ruby 2022 Aux Grands Liards by Camus-Bruchon is a fabulous red Burgundy that delivers a densely concentrated palate with a sense of poise, purpose and fine balance from start to finish. Winemaker Guillaume Camus has the sultry nature of Pinot Noir here from these old vines in Savigny-Les-Beaune and while not as exotically ripe as the 2020, this is a lush and silken wine with black cherry, earthy mulberry, dusty plum and grilled orange fruits leading the way with hints of rose garden, dried herbs, leather, cedar and subtle mineral coolness. This wine has the full range old world Pinot flavors and complexity in the glass and is much benefited by food, where it can unwind and deepen, this is very impressive again from Camus. This Aux Grand Liards, a favorite of mine, as I’ve said many times herein my reviews and a personal go to, especially for the price, comes from vines set on clay and limestone soils that are over 90 year old, this Aux Grands Liards Vieilles Vignes just might be the best Pinot, in certain years, for the money in all of Burgundy. All the vineyard sites farmed by the Camus family, as I’ve mentioned before as well, are dome using sustainable methods and with great respect for the lands and to promote healthy soils, these wines really showcase each site’s distinct micro climates and are really respectful of history of this region.
Domaine Camus-Bruchon and neighbors Domaine Pierre Guillemot prove this region, Savigny-Les-Beaune has a wealth of quality, and both these houses are producers I try never to miss given the opportunity and you can’t spend your money any wiser when it comes to Burgundy than here. Guillaume, now a fully establish star in the Cote de Beaune, is making an outstanding set wines from his vineyard holdings, as mentioned, here in the Cote de Beaune, with many parcels in Premier Cru sites, especially in the Savigny-Les-Beaune area where he has some almost 100 year old vines, like this wine has. Like his father Lucien, Guillaume, of Domaine Camus-Bruchon, again as noted here, has a light touch and very much a winemaker that makes his wines in the vineyard, rather than in the cellar, everything he does is to showcase each vineyard site and produce wines of raw purity. He uses approximately 15% new oak in any given year, including in his top Premier Cru bottlings, preferring to follow the Domaine’s tradition of crafting transparent, balanced and graceful Pinots. The Camus-Bruchon wines see an extended maceration to fully extract the terroir and structure with about 18 days in total for the period of fermentation. The wines, all de-stemmed, are all done with indigenous yeasts in old school concrete vats before being racked of to the French oak for over a year and then they are bottled unfined and unfiltered to capture every nuance and the full sense of place. A shame that the cost of these have gone up in recent years, but they are still unreal quality for your dollar.
($55 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive