2023 is a very generous fruit forward vintage
06/01/25
Burgundy En-Primeur 2023 – An Introduction to the Vintage
Greg Sherwood MW
Travelling to Burgundy to taste the previous vintage’s creations can be a somewhat tricky affair especially when producers across the region, in the Cotes de Nuits, Cotes de Beaune and the Maconnais all experienced such incredibly difficult vintage conditions in 2024, merely a few weeks prior to one’s own visit. Naturally, many of the vignerons’ minds where clearly still dwelling on the recent harvest and the reduction in yields of -70% to -75%, so perhaps being forced to discuss and taste the more plentiful harvest of 2023 might somehow have served as a timeous distraction for them.
In complete contrast to 2024, the 2023 harvest will be remembered for a plentiful, abundant harvest with generous yields, ample ripeness, and notable concentration usually commensurate with the quality of the wines’ individual terroir and level of appellation classification. While 2022 saw easy conditions for vignerons across the board, the weather circumstances in 2023 perhaps posed a few more questions, but ultimately yielding energetic, crystalline Chardonnays with a notable minerality and freshness alongside the fruit ripeness, and Pinot Noirs with delightfully sweet strawberry and red cherry-laced berry fruits that display plenty of clarity, a bright translucent purity together with linear fresh acids. Overall, the across-the-board vintage quality for red and white wines was incredibly consistent across villages with excellent balance, moderate alcohols, and elegant fruit purity.
While the 2023 vintage was neither cool and wet like 2021 or hot and dry like 2022, the season was marked by an initial warm, dry winter with a meagre amount of sunshine. The rains returned in March while the months of April and May were bright and sunny but relatively cool. Excellent flowering in May and June with perfect conditions, sealed the requirements for a potentially very generous crop. If June was warm, unseasonally cooler conditions in July and August prolonged the ripening somewhat before several heat spikes arrived in late August and early September to bring the fruit to full ripeness. Some are calling 2023 another solar vintage, or années solaires, but this description perhaps simplifies conditions unnecessarily.
The general wine merchant consensus is that 2023 is a very generous fruit forward vintage with joyfully fresh whites that will even appeal to the classicists, and reds that range from lighter-bodied, fresh, and remarkably drinkable examples already through to more structured, riper, denser wines where producers clearly made a conscious effort to coax a little more structure and tension from their wines in light of the potential dangers of dilution from high yields. It is certainly true in Burgundy, that Chardonnay, overall, tends to perform better at higher yields than Pinot Noir, but this will also be a vintage to follow the smaller artisanal producers you know and trust, while perhaps proceeding with a little more circumspection and caution around some of the larger, more mainstream market brands especially considering how much prices have risen across Burgundy in recent years.
As always, top producers, including many from musigny.wine, have chosen to move away from the early release window of January En-primeur instead favouring slightly longer élévages before offering their wines for sale. So Burgundy lovers can look forward to a number of exceptional releases that will follow later in 2025.