Guillaume Camus said that over the summer (late July and early August), some leaves were taken off the vines. There was a green harvest for certain parcels, mainly the village Savigny-les-Beaune. He began harvesting on 7 September. There was a triage in the field, but very little needed to be eliminated. vines. Yields were generous, almost at the limit.
Some of the cuvées had low malic acidities, but others were higher. There was no bleeding of the vats (saignée). For the reds, he kept 30% of the stems. There was a little chaptalization for the parcels most affected by the drought. The Savigny village wines are 12.7-13º alcohol, the Chorey 13º, and the premiers crus also are around 13º. The Pimentiers, Grands Liards, and the Savigny and Beaune premiers crus were raised in part in 500-liter barrels.
As usual, there is outstanding quality here and great value.
2017 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
This wine is spicy and mineral with good concentration and energy. It has saltiness and red fruits. (87-89)
2017 Chorey-les-Beaune Le Grand Saussy
Chorey-les-Beaune is essentially a flatland, generally not the the most desirable for top-quality wine, but in vintages where dryness is an issue, Chorey has an advantage because of water retention in the soils. This wine has pure, focused, mineral dark fruits along with some red cherries. It is very precise with good acidity and freshness. These vines were somewhat less damaged by frost in 2016 than the estate’s other vines. (89-92)
2017 Savigny-les-Beaune cuvée Reine Joly
The nose here shows spicy dark fruits. The dark fruits continue in the mouth with freshness, good density of fruit, and concentration. (89-92)
2017 Savigny-les-Beaune Pimentiers
Like the Grands Liards below, the Pimentiers is only a village vineyard, but both always give wine worthy of a successful premier cru. Both vineyards have very old vines well-situated and densely-planted (12,000 vines per hectare). The wine is pure with dark berry fruit, old vine smoothness of texture, depth, and minerality. (91-93)
2017 Savigny-les-Beaune Les Grands Liards
Part of Camus-Bruchon’s Savigny-Grands Liards vineyard is more than 100 years-old. The wine has dark fruit and is light on the tongue, not as velvety as the Pimentiers. There’s great length in the mouth and the wine is fresh and precise with purity and finesse. There was some green harvest in 2017 here. In short, a tremendous success. (92-94)
2017 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Aux Gravains
The vines here are planted on a vein of limestone that continues to Corton-Charlemagne. Before 1970, when the vines were replanted to Pinot Noir, there had been mostly Chardonnay here, and Guillaume would like to replant part of the vineyard in Chardonnay again. There are dark fruits in this wine and a smooth texture with good underlying structure and depth. For the moment, the wine is more reserved than the previous wines and the tannins are more apparent. Good freshness here, too. (90-93)
2017 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Lavières
The Savigny-Lavières features an intense nose of blueberries. The mouth is intense and concentrated, with old-vine texture, density of fruit, some salinity, and a touch of iron. This plot is next to the Gravains on very shallow soils (30-50 cm). The vines date to the 1950s. (91-93)
2017 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Narbantons
Camus-Bruchon’s Savigny-Narbantons is from the southern slope of Savigny and on deep clay, limestone soils. The nose is floral and mineral with depth to the dark fruits. The dark fruits continue in the mouth with a velvet texture, some salinity, and great depth, purity, and precision, and the wine has great freshness with no heaviness. From vines planted in 1951. (92-94)
2017 Beaune 1er Cru Clos du Roi
Contrary to the other wines, harvest here was only half of normal (my notes, unfortunately, don’t say why). The nose and mouth feature spicy red fruits. There’s a silky texture, medium-light weight on the palate, and great freshness. From dense gravel soils, one part of the vines dates to the 1950s, the other part to 1984/85. All the wine was raised in two year-old 500-liter barrels. (91-93)
2017 Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Arvelets
This wine shows long dark and red fruits, minerality, firmness, and length. It’s fairly strict, as one would expect of Pommard, almost austere. This wine was raised half in new oak, but one does not sense it on the palate. (90-92)