Sarah Marsh MW


is little tension between the acidity and tannin, and nothing to resolve except some oak to digest. I don’t envisage much bottle-shock. A year in bottle for the village wines, so early 2026, and a couple of years for the top premiers crus (from late 2027), but even most of these will be perfectly happy opened with a year in bottle. From late 2027 into 2028 for the grands crus, though they will of course last longer. This may seem premature, but consider this an early vintage in all respects: an early harvest, an early malolactic for most—and, for some, an early bottling. The wines are accessible. Drink 2023s before 2022s. You don’t have to wait 20 years for these recent vintages. (I am still waiting for some 2005 reds to come around, which seems a little absurd, really.) And for those who prefer more mature red Burgundy, I would sound a cautionary note. The high pH and lower acidity bring aging capacity into doubt, especially when combined with modest substance, less-than-perfect health, and elevated volatile acidity. I have no doubts about 2022, which was a better-balanced vintage and, crucially, a super-clean, healthy vintage, but I would be concerned about deviation in some 2023s. So, maybe eight to ten years for the premiers crus, ten to 15 for the top wines, but I think this is a vintage in which to enjoy the fruity expression.


Terroir and typicité Terroir definition is more precise for whites than for reds—a good vintage for whites in this respect, though they can lose definition with high alcohol, particularly from more modest terroirs. Where the red wines are dilute, so,


too, of course, is the terroir expression. The grands crus and the best of the premiers crus shine through with distinctive character—although to capture a clear expression of a warm terroir, it was even more paramount than usual to pick in good time. Below this level, the image of the terroir is much less precise. Village lieux-dits and lesser premiers crus, unless they have a very strong identity, are hazy. This situation respects the traditional hierarchy. In recent vintages, some wines have outperformed their appellation status, and low-profile villages have leapt into the limelight, but this is not really the case in 2023.


Vineyard


“The warmest season in history for Burgundy globally. Dry and warm, wetter and warmer than 2022 or 2020, but with less light and sun light,” says Frédéric Weber at Bouchard. After a dry winter, the water table


was low, but with a mild and wettish spring, vine growth was rapid. A strict debudding was important, though no one realized at the time quite how significant this would be. In June, the flowering went well,


but as Weber recalls, “There was high storm activity in June and July, so the vines didn’t suffer from drought, but we had pressure from oidium.” It was clearly important to stay on top of the spraying. In June 2023, the vignerons were out in force. There was too much sulfur in the air for me to want to cycle. There was a severe but localized hail storm on July 11. Meursault premier cru and village parcels and Volnay suffered losses of 35–40% in some climats. Also in July, many producers began green-harvesting, principally Pinot Noir. Jérôme Flous points out that at Faiveley they discarded more bunches in 2023—equivalent to 30hl/ha—than they harvested in 2024, when yields were as low as 15hl/ha. Not everyone green-harvested, however. Thibault Liger-Belair and Frédéric Mugnier were among those who did not. Given the crop load, most villages applied to the Confédération des Appellations et des Vignerons de Bourgogne (CAVB) in Beaune for an authorized increase in yields (a Volume Complémentaire Individuel, VCI)—not just for village wines but for premiers crus and some grands cru as well. White villages followed suit, though many with older Chardonnay vines had only moderate crops. “I have a lot of old vineyards. Everyone said there was a lot of wine in 2023, but not for us,” says Bruno Colin. “We have made less wine in 2023 than in 2022—about 53hl/ha for our old vines.” This was also the case for some producers with older Pinot Noir vines, who found that they were more stable in the heatwave, lower-yielding, with less dramatic changes in sugar and acidity levels in August. There is an argument that yields


can be too low in a hot vintage, leading to overconcentration: Pinot Noir at 35hl/ha in this vintage is exceedingly


concentrated. At Dujac, Jeremy Seysses remarks, “We need to rethink the whole yield thing. With warmer and earlier harvests, it may be a good thing to have a larger crop. It’s easy to see high yields and to manage them. Yet in years when we have heat and a small crop—2020 is an ideal example—the wines can become a bit freakish.”


Harvest and selection When temperatures hit 104°F (40°C), it was important to pick quickly, since sugar in the grapes was escalating and acidity dropping. On the Côte de Beaune, some started harvesting on the last couple of days in August, while many began at the beginning of September. On the Côte de Nuits, I heard that at least one grower began in Vosne-Romanée on August 28. Among those I visited, Dugat-Py and Comte Liger-Belair were the first to start— on September 4. Most harvested September 9–17. Everyone seemed to adapt the harvesting schedule, starting early in the morning as soon as it was light, and many finished by 1pm. Good selection was paramount


for most, though a few, surprisingly, admitted to doing little. So high were the yields that everyone spoke of removing whole bunches rather than preserving the best section of each bunch as usual. For those who didn’t green-harvest, it was case of a “positive selection,” picking out the best bunches. There were sunburned and shriveled berries that needed to be eliminated on the sorting table. Some commented that if it had not been for the heatwave and the late sunburn, the fruit would have been perfect. But as Louis-Michel Liger-Belair observed, “The fruit on the sorting table changed over the course of the harvest. The skins were much softer at the end.” Many on the Côte de Nuits said the skins were quite thin, which makes sense when you taste the wines that have low levels of tannin. On the Côte de Beaune, more producers commented on thicker skins. The warm days in August and the heatwave in September caused problems in the vineyard—and yet they may well have been the saving grace in 2023. Without them, it would have been a challenge to ripen such a large crop, particularly for those who did not crop-thin.


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025 | 177


LAYING DOWN: 2023 BURGUNDY: INTRODUCTION


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