91-93 Points Wine Advocate:
The 2020 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Les Lavières wafts from the glass with notions of rich berry fruit, cherries and plums mingled with smoke and spices. Medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy, with fine concentration, powdery tannins and a long, perfumed finish, it's a sleeper of the vintage well worth seeking out. Technical director Frédéric Weber and his team have realized another fine vintage chez Bouchard Père & Fils, beginning harvest on 19 August and sorting to remove dehydrated berries. The vineyards fared well despite a significant hydric deficit, testimony to viticulture that's among the best of the big houses; indeed, organic conversion is underway, and canopies are now hedged to 1.30 meters, around 30 centimeters higher than the classic low rognage that still predominates along the Côte—forward-thinking innovations that will no doubt find imitators in short order among other big players. In any case, the resulting wines have turned out beautifully, with alcohols in the region of 13% to 13.5% and lower pHs than in 2019. Vibrant, intensely colored and beautifully balanced, there are plenty of cuvées here that I'd be delighted to own. White wines chez Bouchard, readers should note, are bottled under DIAM closures.
Burghound 89 points Ripe and fresh aromas consist mostly of poached plum and black raspberry that are laced with hints of spice, earth and violet. There is both very good volume and density to the attractively textured medium-bodied flavors that exude evident minerality on the palate coating, youthfully austere and bitter pit fruit-inflected finish.
SKU: 042991
