Wine Advocate 90

The 2022 Hautes-Cotes de Beaune Vibrations has turned out beautifully, unfurling in the glass with notes of wild berries, cherries, rose petals and spices. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and suave, it’s pure and precise, with a bright spine of acidity and a long, saline finish. As readers may remember, Bouley has reimagined the name and label for this cuvee to reflect the character of this site nestled at the border of the plateau above Volnay, surrounded by trees and dry stone walls. Walk through the vineyards of the Cote de Beaune, and Thomas Bouley s vines are easy to spot. Their unusually high, evenly spaced canopies are hedged little and late, casting dappled shade over supple, aerated soils that are often covered with a delicate carpet of grass and weeds. At harvest, his yields are moderate, and clusters are invariably open and healthy. Vineyards don t look like this by accident, and it s both Bouley s results and the indefatigable work ethic that lies behind them that have won him the near-universal admiration of other growers along the Cote d Or. Yet in many respects, Bouley remains as I ve written before in these pages a vigneron s vigneron: someone more talked about by his neighbors than by collectors overseas, who are more readily seduced by social media savoir faire than hard work in the vineyards. Nor does he suffer fools gladly, something that can be an impediment to wooing the wine press. Thomas credits his father, Jean-Marc, with constituting the domaine and beginning domaine bottling. I m a worker but not a builder; I love being in the vines, but I couldn t have pieced this domaine together, or financed and constructed this winery, he explains. So, without my father, none of what I do would be possible. Thomas began working the vines and making the wines in the early 2000s, a decade before his father s official retirement in 2012. The progression has been step by step. In 2002, for example, Bouley raised the height of his trellising for the first time; in 2003, he experimented with whole clusters; in 2006, he began using a gentler must pump to avoid crushing his grapes at cuvaison; after 2008, he maintained his new barrels more carefully to avoid any issues with volatile acidity or other unwelcome developments. More recently, he has refined his cooperage choices, working with barrels produced by his friend Bruno Lorenzon. While he was already starting from a formidable basis, the fruits of accumulated experience are writ large in the resulting wines, which seem to gain in precision and accomplishment with each passing year. [William Kelley, The Wine Advocate, 01/01/2025]

Anticipated maturity: 2025-2042