Joseph DROUHIN (Beaune) -- 2022 Part 3: Red Wines Tasted from Tank and Barrel Samples

Véronique Drouhin, with whom I tasted these wines on her birthday last fall, explained that the wines had been racked and assembled waiting to be bottled.

Véronique Drouhin

It was a hot summer with rain at the end of June, and then dry until rain at end of August unlocked the fruit; wines from grapes harvested before the rain are more austere and tannic. There is some whole clusters in many of the reds. Harvesting began on 22 August in the Côte de Beaune, 26 August in the Mâconnais, 27 August on the Côte de Nuits, and 31 August in Chablis.

The estate wines have long been biodynamic and organic.

I also posted my notes on Drouhin’s 2022’s from a spring 2023 tasting here and here.

We start with the red wines:

2022 Savigny les Beaune   Clos des Godeaux

Harvested 8 September, tasted a month after being racked and transferred to stainless steel. Pure strawberry fruits. Crisp, fresh, precise. Excellent Savigny. (90-93)

2022 Beaune   1er Cru   Les Cras

Floral nose. Rounder than the Savigny, some creaminess of texture. Fresh strawberry and other red fruits. Very old vines — dating to 1960s. (91-93)

2022 Beaune  1er Cru  Clos des Mouches

Creamy texture more body than the Cras, a little wood showing, darker fruit, good complexity. Flowing, elegant, no sense of excess alcohol (13.9º). (92-95)

2022 Vosne-Romanée

Purchased grapes, harvested 5-17 September. Round, Vosne spices, long, red fruits, medium-weight. (90-93)

2022 Vosne-Romanée  1er  Les Petits Monts

A whole extra dimension compared to the village Vosne. Dark and red fruits, great complexity, very good weight, length, constantly changing in mouth. Harvested 2 September, 40% whole cluster. (93-96)

2022 Chambolle-Musigny    1er Cru

Smooth, medium-weight, complex, long, dark fruits. Excellent finesse and length. Wine from the Baudes vineyard is sometimes included in this cuvée, but in 2022 it is separately bottled. Harvested 27 August to 8 September; 25-30% whole cluster. (93-96)

2022 Musigny

Pure and crystalline, dark fruits, still somewhat closed. Harvested on 5 September (a parcel of young vines was harvested on 28 August, but left out of this wine). (95-98)

2022 Echézeaux

From the En Orveaux climat, a parcel purchased in the 1960s. Old vines, all harvested on 6 September, still in barrel when I tasted it. Vosne spices, pure, dark fruits, crystalline, long, sensual. (93-96)

2022 Chambertin-Clos-de-Bèze

Mineral, spicy nose. Crystalline dark fruits, pure, penetrating, fresh. This wine is part from estate grapes, part from purchased grapes; they were vinified separately, then assembled. Harvested 5 September (estate) and 10 September (purchased grapes). Still in barrel when I taste.  (94-97)