92pts Wine Advocate
Aromas of plums, wild berries, warm spices and cherries preface the 2020 Chorey-lès-Beaune Les Bons Ores, a medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy wine that's textural and giving, with a deep core of fruit and ripe, powdery tannins.

The exciting evolutions continue at this high-quality Vosne-Romanée domaine. In 2020, Jean-Pierre Guyon stopped trimming in the vineyards, changing his trellising wires and using elastic to facilitate "tressage," whereby the vines shoots are rolled and braided instead of being cut, and to cast more shade on his fruiting zones. In the winery, he embraced "vendage entière decoupé," which is to say, clusters cut up by hand, removing the rachis but retaining the pedicels (a process pioneered by Lalou Bize-Leroy and somewhat mischaracterized when it's rendered as "manual destemming") to a much greater extent than in 2019: with some 20% in every cuvée, and many cuvées were entirely processed this way.

I looked at the 2020s for curiosity just after they'd been barreled down, when their quality was already apparent, and a year later they are showing even better. As in 2019, the wines are strikingly perfumed, sumptuous and seamless, with lively fruit tones, beautifully refined tannins and brilliant integration of oak (100% on which is new and derived from Tonnellerie Rousseau, which has developed a proprietary toast for the domaine). The best 2020s, if anything, possess even more energy and intensity, and even sweeter tannins than the 2019s. As the notes attest, these come warmly recommended.

As I've written before, Guyon is wont to recount how in the late 1980s and early 1990s he—along with many of his contemporaries—made heavily extracted, oaky wines, attempting to prove that Pinot Noir need not lack for color or structure. Today, by contrast, his ambition is to revert to what he considers the old-fashioned way of doing things: that's to say, vinification with mostly whole clusters; no sulfur additions, if possible, until the spring following the harvest; a cuvaison of some 20 days; and gentle basket pressing. The consummation of this new approach, along with organic certification, dates to 2012.

Published: Jan 20, 2022