Wines

Buisson's Bourgogne Blanc comes from several sources: young vines in Saint-Romain from plantings on the valley’s northern side; high-altitude Bourgogne-designated Chardonnay from just outside the appellation; and purchased fruit from their friends at the esteemed Domaine Guillot-Broux in the Maconnais, who have practiced organic viticulture since 1954 and became certified in recent years. Aged for one year without racking in used 228-liter barrels, it combines a lacy white-flower aromatic overlay with dense, ripe, salty fruit; the bright acidity of the high-altitude Bourgogne nicely offsets the luscious generosity of the Maconnais-sourced fruit, and the young Saint-Romain provides a stony anchor.

This wine comes from a parcel of younger vines planted in 1996 in a lieu-dit that is highly regarded for its Chardonnay. The soil is a classic mix of clay and limestone. The grapes are harvested by hand and then pressed and racked into barrel for fermentation and élevage. The oak regimen is 10% new with the remainder of the barrels being one to six years old. The wine is bottled by gravity and is lightly fined and filtered.

This second white from the Saint Romain appellation is more full-bodied and rustic than its neighbor “La Perrière”. In this case, the vines are quite old having an average age of 50 years. The soil of “Sous la Velle” is different from “La Perriere” having a greater proportion of marne mixed with the clay and limestone. The wine is, as a result, less elegant than its companion but it is more powerful and broad-shouldered. This wine is barrel-fermented and barrel-aged for twelve months after the harvest with 10% of the barrels being new.

The warmest climat of the trio of whites, “Sous le Château” offers an incredibly satisfying white Burgundy experience, with a presence and finesse one might mistake for Puligny-Montrachet if served blind. This wine shares a quinine imprint with Buisson’s “Sous la Velle” Blanc, but with an intriguing note of white pepper and a bit more regal, less punchy sense of minerality. The tension between its ample fruit and tingling acidity is mouthwatering.

Solely sourced from Pinot Noir planted just above Saint-Romain’s Sous Roche (one of the lynchpin crus of Buisson’s lineup), Buisson's Bourgogne Rouge offers a similar expertly rendered balance of seriousness and breeziness as the Blanc. Saint-Romain’s tendency to produce kinetic red wines of palpable minerality is on full display here, with bright cherry fruit given lift by tremendously vibrant acidity, and while the wine is lithe and without flab it possesses admirable sap and bastes the palate with dense, mouthwatering fruit. Like the Bourgogne Blanc, it spent one full year in entirely used 228-liter barrels with minimal sulfur additions.

This vineyard planted to Pinot Noir faces the “Sous la Velle” vineyard on the opposite side of the valley, on similarly steep slopes. The soil of this lieu-dit is a mix of limestone and marne. The vines are planted to a density of 10,000 per hectare. The grapes, harvested manually, are destemmed to 90% and the wine is aged in barrel for a twelve month period. The Pinot vines in “Sous Roche” are of an average age of 50 years with low yields and excellent concentration. There is great purity to this organically grown fruit and the ultimate wine is somewhat rustic in nature with notes of wild red fruits in the nose and flavors.