2022 Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Patrice & Maxime Rion, Burgundy

The 2022 Bourgogne Pinot Noir, which had already been bottled, includes two new parcels this year, one of which had been replanted recently. One-third of the blend comes from purchased fruit. It has a crisp black cherry and raspberry-scented bouquet. The palate is very energetic, with a powdery texture and modest depth, with a graphite-tinged, strict finish. Give this another six months in bottle.

Maxime Rion greeted me on a very sodden Monday afternoon at the winery in Prémeaux Pressey. “We are happy to have new appellations in the Domaine inherited from the family,” he tells me. “It’s a vintage that has a certain richness and good balance. There is freshness and finesse. We started the picking on September 2 under healthy sanitary conditions, and the bunches were neither big nor small, as flowering had gone well. There was a storm at the end of June, a good moment to have one, without causing any damage and yet enabling the vines to continue ripening throughout the rest of summer. The vines have good energy after the frost affected 2021. 

Yields are 35hL/ha to 38hL/ha, and that is normal. Most of the cuvées have some whole bunches, but there is no recipe, and some cuvées were 100% de-stemmed. We are still using no SO2 during the fermentation, and the malo was all finished by January. We are just racking most of the cuvées now into stainless steel vats and they will be bottled in January or February next year. It’s a good season for white and red…maybe the latter has a slight advantage?”

Drink 2024 - 2028

Bottled in August. Mid purple. Some energy to the dark raspberry fruit, quite plump in the middle, good acidity, fair length. Dark cherries too. Building nicely on the palate. 

Drink 2025 - 2027