Puy de L'Ours Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Lavieres 2023

A domaine barely three vintages old, farming a sliver of premier cru inherited from Juliette Puyperoux's family — the second-ever release of their only 1er cru.

Grape varietal & region: 100% Pinot Noir from Domaine Le Puy de l'Ours, a young estate in Savigny-lès-Beaune on Burgundy's Côte de Beaune, founded in 2021 by Jean Orsoni and Juliette Puyperoux — the name is a contraction of their two surnames. The couple farms 5 hectares of family vineyards across Savigny-lès-Beaune and the wider Côte de Beaune, inherited in part from Juliette's family, with a slice sitting in Premier Cru — Les Lavières, close to the well-regarded Serpentières climat. 2023 is only the second vintage of this wine, the domaine's sole premier cru bottling so far. Everything is farmed organically, AB-certified as of 2023.

Taste profile: fresh and upbeat, with supple raspberry fruit at the centre, framed by fine, delicate tannins rather than anything heavy-handed. Whole-bunch fermentation lends an exotic, spicy edge to the dark berry aromas — a signature of the domaine's winemaking that shows even at this early stage in their premier cru's life. This drinks like a young domaine finding its feet in real time: energetic, precise, built more for pleasure than for the cellar. Good with roast duck or something mushroom-forward.

Winemaking process: 100% whole-bunch fermentation for this cuvée, with light daily pump-overs and just two foot punch-downs at the end of fermentation — a gentle hand, in keeping with the domaine's minimal-intervention ethos across the board. Aged 10-12 months in barrel, unfined, with only occasional light filtration and minimal sulphur added, only if needed.

Winemaker: Jean Orsoni and Juliette Puyperoux are about as new to running their own domaine as it gets — they only settled fully in Savigny-lès-Beaune in 2020 and released their first vintage in 2021, putting out roughly 5,000 bottles a year across the range. Juliette's route in was through the family vineyards she inherited and a stint at Rothschild France Distribution, rounded out by a distance-learning agricultural certificate and internships across France and South Africa; Jean came by way of Paris Dauphine and a specialised master's at ENA, working in public investment before making the switch to wine. Les Lavières, their only premier cru, is barely out of the gate — this 2023 is just its second release.