Top Vosne-Romanée & Nuits-St-Georges 2023 wines en primeur

Top producers in 2023: Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair Domaine Méo-Camuzet Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Scroll down for Charles Curtis MW's top-scoring Vosne-Romanée & Nuits-St-Georges 2023 wines [subscriber-content]The success of the 2023 vintage in Vosne-Romanée was led by the predictable front-runners – grands crus Romanée-Conti, La Tâche and La Romanée. Beyond the obvious, however, it seemed that growers throughout the village were successful in overcoming the challenges that Pinot Noir faced: high yields, low pH and sunburn at the end of the season. In contrast to other recent vintages such as 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022, results were far from homogeneous. With the cool weather and rain mid-season, high crop load and drawn-out veraison, it was not an easy vintage, but in the end, it was possible to deliver lovely results. Precision was important: at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, harvest started and ended with grand cru Grands Echezeaux. There was some sorting necessary for sunburn, shrivelled grapes and a bit of mildew. ‘In the end, 2023 reminds me of 2003 in that the vintage was initially disregarded, but now the wines are incredible,’ says Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Bertrand de Villaine. ‘What I love is the gourmand [easy-drinking/moreish] nature of the vintage,’ he says. At Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair, Louis-Michel Liger-Belair was forthright about the struggles, reporting picking his Clos du Château later than he might have, and having to leave 30%-40% of the grapes from his new vineyard La Croix Rameau on the sorting table because of mildew. Trepidation and relief Despite the challenges, he garnered top scores for wines throughout the village, from grands crus Echezeaux and Grands Echezeaux to premiers crus Malconsorts and Petits-Monts. Jean-Nicolas Méo at Méo-Camuzet had the same sense of trepidation and relief. He was afraid that his Corton Grand Cru Clos Rognet would end up ‘a bit monstrous’ because of an alcohol level above 14%. However, he sorted meticulously for sunburn and cleaned the wine up to end with a lovely, if powerful, result. ‘You never know how a vintage is going to behave [during maturation],’ says Méo, ‘there could be an increase of volatile acidity or problems with brettanomyces during maturation without having done anything wrong. 2018 was difficult with regard to both of these problems. But in 2023, everything that could turn out well did turn out well.’ In Nuits-St-Georges , as elsewhere, yields were high in 2023. Domaine Henri Gouges worked to control yield with pruning and de-budding rather than dropping fruit; consequently, their yield was between 42-44hl/ha against an objective normally of 30-35hl/ha. Grégory Gouges observed a bit of damage from a very localised hailstorm that damaged fruit in their Fontaine Jacquinot vineyard. They began to pick their Chênes Carteaux vineyard on 11 September because of acid rot and started on the balance of the plots from 16 September – one of the latest dates in the Côte de Nuits. [/subscriber-content] COMING SOON Score table listing Charles Curtis MW's top Burgundy 2023 wines all scoring 94 points or above

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