2013 Domaine Simon Bize, Sauvigny-Les-Beaune, Les Bourgeots, Red Burgundy, France.
Domaine Simon Bize, now run by Chisa Bize after the recent passing of Patrick Bize, is still a very much in demand estate offering wines that over deliver for the price and the terroir, imported by The Source Imports, these wines are desirable and alluring with earthy charms and impressive stuffing, especially the basic village Lieu-Dits, like this Les Bourgeots from the Cote de Beaune region of Savigny-Les-Beaune. Brilliant in hue and with a beautiful nose of earthy floral notes and red fruits which leads to a medium palate that is wonderfully textured and full flavored with complex layers and slightly rustic/brambly in profile with surprising grip and structure for wine that is not a Premier Cru or Grand Cru, it gains mouth feel with air and turns on the sex appeal with pretty plum, black cherry and framboise as well as damp earth, loamy/stones, saline and wild herbs and rose petals along with hints of graphite, anise, dusty spices and a touch of smoky vanilla/oak. This is really well rounded, focused and lovely, especially for the vintage, and digging further into the details finds that the Les Bourgeots, which tastes more like Pommard than Savigny, is set on stony soils over clay, this helps explain why this village lieu-dit has so much depth and richness, this is a red Burgundy that has a real and impressive impact, this is a wine that is everything we love about Burgundy, but interestingly it also shows how great and elegant Pinot Noir is getting in the new world, I mean if you love Burgundy and taste this wine you’ll be thrilled, and you’ll be equally impressed by wines like Cobb, Littorai, Peay, Hirsh and Wayfarer in the Sonoma Coast, Drew Family Cellars, Balo, Paxton, Anthill Farms, Halcon and The Princess & the Peasant in Mendocino County, as well as what you finding in cooler sites in Monterey with Lucia/Pisoni, Joyce and Albatross Ridge being just a few that should be taken seriously as well as Sandhi, Brewer-Clifton, La Voix, Melville and many others in the Sta Rita Hills. Not forgetting Oregon, a place where the Burgundians are investing in a huge way, the Willamette Valley is almost a little French colony! That said, if it wasn’t for such wines like this beautiful Simon Bize Savigny-Les-Beaune we’d have no reference points, this is a wine to savor and cherish, while the 2014 and 2015 look to be better years to have in the cellar, this 2013 is a sleeper and drinking wonderfully, best from 2017 to 2022.
($56 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive
