2022 Maranges, Aux Gryphées, David Moreau, Burgundy

A pretty mid-purple colour with a light oaking to the nose, but above all a really charming fruit, poised, delivering a great fruit-to-acid balance and a light salinity alongside the fresh raspberry fruit. 15% whole bunch vinification here. Drink 2025 - 2030Jasper Morris MW, insideburgundy_com (November 2023)

The 2022 Maranges Aux Gryphées contains two parcels, one from the Premier Cru of Clos Rousseau. The attractive bouquet is quite “mellow” in style, a mixture of red and black fruit with hints of sea spray. The palate is medium-bodied with quite a firm structure, the 15% whole bunches lending a subtle pepperiness. This is quite “serious” on the finish and will benefit from a couple of years in bottle.“The vines were stressed by the drought as we expected to pick around August 23 according to the flowering date,” winemaker David Moreau explains in his barrel cellar, where I am about to taste his 2022s. “But by July and August, the vines were staying green. Nevertheless, I feel it still stopped the maturation. There was no damage to the fruit, but the ripeness was affected. We finally decided to start picking on August 30 for the whites and September 2 for the reds as the forecast was for cooler weather, plus there were light showers that helped to swell the shrivelled berries. This gave us more freshness. We did a 17 to 23-day cuvaison with no acidification, yields between 40hL/ha and 45hL/ha for the Premier Crus. We have low-vigour vines with de-budding early in the season to avoid green harvesting. We used less new oak in 2022, between 15% and 25%, depending on the cuvée. Bottling will be done at the end of January, so it’s 12 months in barrel and 4 to 5 months in tank. I think the wines are powerful, quite strong, but not too tannic. They have good substance, so they need a bit of ageing.” What can I say? It was an exemplary set of wines that I really enjoyed from start to finish. Check out Moreaus, two brilliant Santenays from Beauregard and Clos des Mouches, and then wonder why the heck you splashed out all that money on that expensive Gevrey or Vosne-Romanée. He has a deft touch in the craftsmanship of winemaking, which is evident in nearly all his wines.Drink 2026 - 2036Neil Martin, Vinous.com.com (January 2024)