Domaine Simon Gaudet Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune Au Paradis 2023

This red Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune comes from the Au Paradis climat, a 65-are plot located in the village of Cheilly-lès-Maranges, at the southern tip of the Côte de Beaune, not far from Santenay. Its clay-limestone soil offers ideal conditions for revealing the elegance and freshness of Pinot Noir. Domaine Simon Gaudet, based in Saint-Sernin-du-Plain, farms the vines there sustainably, with high, wide-spaced vines that limit treatments.

True to an artisanal approach, winemaking is traditional. A cold pre-fermentation of about three days precedes gentle punching down and daily pumping over, for a delicate extraction of aromas and tannins. Alcoholic fermentation follows, then ageing continues in tank for about 12 months, to preserve the purity and freshness of the wine.

This wine reveals notes of redcurrant, raspberry, tart cherry, blackcurrant, wild strawberry, violet, white pepper and liquorice. The vibrant garnet-red colour seduces at first glance. On the palate, this fresh, dynamic wine offers flavours of crunchy fruit and a perfectly harmonious finish, delicious and approachable.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.