Description
Chapuis & Chapuis, Chorey-lès-Beaune
One of the hottest new producers on the daunting Burgundy block is Chapuis & Chapuis, a tiny grower that has yielded a cache of smoking Pinot Noirs in recent years. I vividly remember their ‘15 Côte de Nuits-Villages from two Aprils ago, and it still exists at the top of my best of” 2015 Burgundy list. The wine floored me at the time—almost quite literally—but a successor has arrived and is fully threatening to overshadow that perfect bottle. Today’s 2018 Savigny-lès-Beaune is a phenomenal work of art that went up against and trounced a $120 Burgundy Goliath (that must remain unnamed) when we first tasted the sample. Immediately after, we told our liaison that we would take as much as we could stockpile. Alas, that amounted to a “whopping” 20 cases of their total 160-case production, of which has just arrived from Chapuis’ small cellar.
That’s the irony of the great wines of the world: there just isn’t enough to go around. The two Chapuis brothers naturally craft the smallest of productions, no matter the cuvée, and their Savigny-lès-Beaune manages to produce more flavor, terroir identity, and depth than a handful of flashier/pricier Côte de Nuits labels. This Pinot Noir is refreshingly pure and minimally influenced by man—its magnitude of perfume, intimate interchange of elegance and concentration, and savory, minutes-long finish is all there in tremendously chiseled detail. Our stock won’t survive long.
I find that the best discoveries are made by asking winemakers, merchants, and sommeliers what’s in their glasses, and that’s exactly how we discovered the Chapuis brothers back in 2017. Much of that exciting buzz came from the friend I was traveling with, who introduced me to the jovial Romain Chapuis during an epic dinner in Beaune. Tasting today’s incredible wine is like a snapshot of the winemaker himself: Inviting and robust, it never offers a dull moment.
The Chapuis brothers, Romain and Jean-Guillaume, were raised in the vineyards of Aloxe-Corton, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Romain fell in love with the wine and began touring the world to improve his craft. He had the luxury of learning under natural wine superstar Philippe Pacalet, who himself was educated by one of Beaujolais’ most revered producers, Marcel Lapierre, and Jules Chauvet, the founding father of the French natural wine movement. Upon Romain’s return to Burgundy, he reunited with his brother and they decided to launch their own label. Starting a winery in Burgundy, however, is neither cheap nor easy: land is some of the most expensive in the world and regulations are strict.
Accordingly, after founding Chapuis Frères in Pommard in 2009 (where their cellar once housed the kitchen of a 13th-century castle), the brothers had just enough capital remaining for .8 hectares of vines. Needing to supplement their own production with enough fruit to create a viable enterprise, they scoured the region for top sources, as evidenced by the raw material in today’s wine.
Savigny-lès-Beaune is one of the few villages/appellations in the Côte de Beaune that is overwhelmingly dedicated to Pinot Noir production versus Chardonnay and today’s cuvée perfectly explains why. Coming from a microscopic selection of mature, sustainably farmed vines in the appellation, Chapuis, hand-harvested their crop and quickly shuttled it to their new cellar a few minutes northeast in the Ladoix-Serrigny. The grapes underwent a cool, native-yeast fermentation and matured in mostly neutral French barrels without any sulfur additions. Their small parcel was bottled without fining or filtration in the spring of 2020.
In the glass, Chapuis’ 2018 Savigny-lès-Beaune, pours a deep ruby-purple with vivid magenta hues throughout. Given 60 minutes in a decanter and served in your largest Burgundy stem, the wine will provide you with astounding aromatic pleasure: black cherry liqueur, fresh forest floor, crushed stone, blood orange rind, black raspberry, purple flowers, juicy red plum, a hint of smoke, pomegranate oil, oolong tea, and subtle baking spices. At first, it displays impressive weight and chiseled muscle on the palate, but it soon gives way to an invigorating core of plump forest fruit with crushed minerals following lockstep, serving as the “cleanup crew.” Allow it to melt in your mouth before consuming, and you’ll be gifted profoundly deep and broad layers of pure Burgundian magic. It’s a brilliant, classically trained Pinot Noir that will cause all “old school” wine drinkers to go weak at the knees. Although it’s firing now, I suspect a prosperous cellar life for this Savigny: in 3-5 years, it’ll be in a sweet spot, and in 7-10 you’ll be in the proud owner of a wonderfully sublime, savory masterpiece. Cheers!
