Domaine de la Pirolette Saint Amour le Carjot 2022 750ml

The limited-production 2022 Saint-Amour Le Carjot has an intense ruby color and was raised 16 months in foudre. Above all, it offers a nose in which Gamay unites seamlessly with the oak, neither one covering the other, giving me a very fine wine of character and of temperament. The substance is magnificent, with much length and real brilliance, and the tannins are drawn out rather than pushed. A notable cuvée that shows all the nobility of the cru, this is one of the cleanest, most precise wines of this report. Lay it down: 10-15 years will suit it perfectly, and the wine asks for that patience. Drink 2026-2041.

Rated 94 - This is one of the single vineyard bottlings that the Barbets began producing for the first time in the 2022 vintage. As I mentioned in the write up from my visit to the domaine, the vineyard of le Carjot is planted on blue granite which Grégory describes as quite similar to Côte du Py in Morgon. The wine is half barrel-fermented in nine hundred liter casks and half in cement tank, with the elevage taking place in those large barrels. This wine was pretty tight when I sampled it at the domaine, but it had not been in bottle all that long at the time. Today, the wine is really rounding into form beautifully, offering up a superb and very pure bouquet of black cherries, red plums, a touch of raw cocoa, gamebird, granitic soil tones, a touch of violet and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and sappy at the core, with excellent mineral drive, ripe, moderate tannins and a long, complex and very promising finish. This wine showed a bit of oak influence on both the nose and palate fifteen months ago, but now, it is only on the backend of the palate that there is still a bit of wood to integrate, as the nose has already absorbed it completely. This is outstanding Saint Amour in the making, and though it is quite approachable today, it still really deserves a bit more bottle age to fully blossom, as it is going to be absolutely stellar when it has finally opened up completely. - John Gilman, View From the Cellar