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2020 Burgundy Whites: Ripe but brilliantly fresh

The style is ripe but brilliantly fresh. It is elegant, pure, and focused, with a sense of vitality and a touch of silk.

Although ripe, the wines from the Côte d’Or are rarely over-rich. Concentrated but precise. They are medium-bodied. The majority hover around 13% ABV, although the grands crus are normally nearer 14%. The texture is deliciously silky rather than richly viscous, but the slim texture certainly has light gloss. They can be quite sumptuous, but not heavy. They carry themselves with a certain grace. They are fresh; often very fresh, since there is good concentration of acidity as well as of fruit. Sometimes it is slicing acidity, the tart sweetness of tartaric acid rather than the cool creaminess of lactic. Some of the more mineral styles have a sensation of sweet and salt on the finish. Those with drier, sapid, savory notes suggest high levels of dry extract. In 2019, wine from farther up the slopes showed the highest levels of dry extract and salty minerality, which provided balance for the ripe fruit, while in 2020 the dry extract combines with fresh acidity to make the wine truly fizzle.

The fruit is generally citrus, as from lemon pith, grapefruit, or yuzu, through to candied citrus or white peach, with accompanying floral notes. But there are riper expressions. Here and there you will find golden peach, fragrant litchee, ginger, or caramelized orange. These are denser and richer, but rarely show the flashy opulence of a hot season. In the whites from warm terroirs (thin, rocky soils with sunny exposures), the aromatics can be more exotic and here the perfume entwines with a fresh and direct core. You will find progressively richer and more viscous wines from producers who harvested later, and the style farther south is softer. Mâconnais wines are fairly full-bodied, some a little soft, but the village wines are well-balanced and not too heavy.

It’s a stylish vintage for whites north of Beaune—not only those from Chablis or the Côte de Nuits, but also those from Savigny, Pernand-Vergelesses, and Corton, which typically are more savory. There are spicy apricot aromatics, but this group benefit from less weight, a slimmer texture, and more acidity, factors that highlight their sappy, stony character and edge, which was somewhat cloaked in the “sweetness” of 2019.

Once again Chardonnay shows its adaptability, shrugging off the hot season to produce classic wines. The style is more consistent than for red, which is partly explained by harvest size. Chardonnay yielded a near-average crop at 40–45hl/ha, while the Pinot Noir harvest was half its normal size, comprising small, thick-skinned, and concentrated berries. This created a broader style spectrum, depending on growing regimes and harvest dates, the consequences of which were then amplified by the approach in the winery.

Description:

91 points Burghound
Outer quote mark A deft application of wood frames even smokier aromas of acacia blossom, petrol and ripe pear. The middle weight flavors possess borderline painful intensity as well as more size and weight on the solidly persistent lemon-inflected finish. This could use better depth, and it's not as refined, but this is still very pretty. Moreover, this wine is consistently one of the domaine's best and the 2020 version should only add to that reputation. *Outstanding*  Inner quote mark (6/2022)
90 points Wine Spectator
Outer quote mark Bright and pure, offering lemon cake, apple, stone and oak spice flavors backed by a firm spine of acidity. Balanced and on the lean side, with excellent length. Drink now through 2028. (BS)  Inner quote mark (10/2022)