Reviews

Here’s a great everyday-style wine for when you just want a good chardonnay with some peach and apricot fruit character and a hint of sweetness, but nothing to contemplate or hijack your dinner conversation with oenogeeky discourse. It’s straightforward, simple and delicious. - Dave McIntyre

A ripe, fresh and expressive nose freely offers up its combination of black cherry, earth, anise and floral top notes. Here too the vibrant and attractively textured flavors are not especially concentrated though they do display slightly more minerality on the dusty, youthfully austere and balanced finale. This is a refined Pommard but a Pommard nonetheless so at least some patience will be necessary.

An overtly sauvage-inflected nose is comprised by notes of forest floor and smoky red and dark pinot fruit scents. The delicious and vibrant if only moderately dense middleweight flavors conclude in a markedly rustic, robust and youthfully austere finale that is persistent if slightly warm. This is very Gevrey in character and a wine that's going to require at least some patience.

A wonderfully spicy broad-ranging nose features pure notes of wild red currant, leather, earth and a hint of wood influence. The delicious, vibrant and muscular medium weight plus flavors possess a beguiling mid-palate texture while exuding a subtle bead of minerality on the balanced, lingering and youthfully austere finale. This is excellent though a wine destined for long-term keeping.

Moderate reduction again holds sway over the fruit at present. By contrast, there is excellent verve, volume and concentration to the large-scaled flavors that also flash evident power on the compact, serious and youthfully austere finish that is also a bit Cistercian.

There is ample earth character to the markedly floral-scented nose of various red berries, soft wood and a hint of smoked game. The beautifully textured, if not particularly concentrated middleweight flavors possess excellent vibrancy as well as focused power that seems to build on the beautifully long finish that really tightens up as it sits on the palate. This is a deceptive wine in that it seems a bit light but delivers superb flavor authority.

This is also markedly floral in character with its cool, airy and equally pure nose of the essence of red berries, forest floor, earth and similar hint of smoked game. The delicious, vibrant and somewhat denser medium-bodied flavors possess a super-sleek yet solidly powerful mouthfeel, all wrapped in a detailed, balanced and beautifully persistent finish. I very much like the fruit-acid-tannin balanced and this is so good that it could well be the finest Charmes of the 2022 vintage.

An admirably subtle touch of wood serves as a backdrop for the exuberantly floral-infused and perfumed nose that offers up notes of exotic spice, poached plum and jasmine tea. The equally tautly muscular yet refined and lilting flavors are blessed with excellent punch and power while exhibiting a pungent minerality on the hugely long built-to-age finish. This refined effort is both stylish and very classy.

Moderately firm reduction pushes the underlying fruit to the background. More interesting are the rich, punchy and appealingly textured medium-bodied flavors that possess a more sophisticated texture that carries over the dusty and moderately austere finale that also comes up somewhat short. I again suspect that this will better harmonize once it is in bottle.

Here too there is just enough wood to notice lurking in the background of the earthy and fresh aromas of red currant and forest floor. The racy, delicious and beautifully delineated medium weight flavors exude a subtle minerality on the youthfully austere, balanced and lingering finish. This too could use better depth but the potential is present for that to occur. Worth considering.