Santenay's Château de la Charrière Overperforms Year After Year
There may not be a better producer we import from Burgundy when it comes to quality-to-price-ratio than Château de la Charrière. Great vintage, good vintage, bad vintage—it doesn’t matter. These guys just continue to churn out great value after great value from the humble Santenay appellation. Benoît Girardin took over the winemaking reins at his family property over 10 years ago and hasn’t looked back. He’s skillfully crafting excellent values that deftly combine a classic Burgundian rusticity with modern winemaking techniques. The wines always have beautifully defined fruit characteristics while simultaneously being unmistakably Burgundian.
There are seven great red wines we have from Château de la Charrière, and each one is an excellent representation of either the appellation or vineyard from which they are made. The 2022 Château de la Charrière Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune Rouge $19.99 is exactly what you want from an entry-level Bourgogne Rouge. There’s a wealth of pretty red fruits, spice, and a touch of earth in a perfectly balanced offering. This is easily one of the best red Burgundy values we have and a fan of Burgundy or an enterprising young enthusiast should pick a bottle or two of this great little wine.
A small step up in price brings a pretty hefty step up in complexity with the 2022 Château de la Charrière Beaune "Les Epenottes" $24.99. This hails from Beaune, one of the more underrated appellations. From the hillsides surrounding the town of Beaune flows an endless fountain of great drinking red wines—and this one is a fantastic example. It shows red and dark berry fruit, spice, subtle notes of dried herbs, and earth with fine tannins and just a whiff of oak. This is an impressive offering that allows one to drink fine Burgundy on a budget.
As we move into the heart of Charrière offerings, we go to Santenay, which, along with Côte Chalonnaise and Savigny-lès-Beaune, is among the emerging regions in Burgundy for producing values. The 2022 Château de la Charrière Santenay "Les Charmes Dessus" Rouge $24.99 is just a village offering but it is loaded with succulent red fruit nicely buffered by spice and racy acidity with firm tannins. Incredibly approachable and easy-drinking this red wine is an excellent introduction to Santenay. As we venture into the 1er Crus, we really start seeing the values. The 2022 Château de la Charrière Santenay 1er Cru "Clos Rousseau" $29.99 is from one of the southern-most vineyard sites bordering Maranges Clos Roussots is a vineyard site with iron-rich red-clay soil in a cooler location; even in hot vintages like 2022 it makes excellent wines. This wine is loaded: dark red to black fruits, spice, depth, and complexity all abound in this sexy, seductive offering. There may not be a better red Burgundy on the shelf for less than $30—except maybe the 2022 Château de la Charrière Santenay 1er Cru "Les Gravières" $29.99. The fruit for this wine comes from arguably the most notable of all the 1er Cru Santenay vineyards. The soil here is white marlstone, known to produce reds of complexity with an elegant feel. This wine has deep, perfectly balanced red fruit that shimmers with energy and verve. The wine uncoils and really just unfurls to reveal layer after layer of red fruit with a long, lush finish. These three Santenays are excellent examples of the great values to be found in the region.
As we venture back up north a bit from Santenay there are two offerings left that should not be overlooked. The 2022 Château de la Charrière Beaune 1er Cru "Clos des Vignes Franches" $37.99 is from an underrated vineyard that lies on the Pommard side of Beaune and is just north of Clos des Mouches. Louis Jadot makes a famous wine from this vineyard site called Clos de Ursules, which sells for three times what the 2022 Château de la Charrière Beaune 1er Cru "Clos des Vignes Franches" sells for. Dark berry fruit, ample spice, hints of crushed rock and dried herbs all resonate on this complex and full-bodied offering. The 1er Cru status shines through here with depth and substance not often found in a village-level offering.
We finish in Pommard with the 2022 Château de la Charrière Pommard "Les Vignots" $39.99. This comes from a village-level vineyard that is situated above the 1er Cru vineyard La Chaniere. Its southern-facing site has access to a cool breeze, and the resulting wine is a fresh and vibrant red smooths the hard edges often found in Pommard’s wines. This resonates with pure red fruits and coats the palate in beautifully delineated red fruit. An approachable and delicious Pommard that is incredibly affordable!