The 2020 Bourgogne is lovely, offering up aromas of rich berry fruit mingled with loamy soil and spices. Medium-bodied, bright and concentrated, it's fine-boned and elegant, with lively acids and powdery structuring tannins.

The 2020 vintage is a terrific success at Domaine Claude Dugat, where an early harvest and low yields delivered wines characterized by moderate alcohol, vibrant flavors and striking intensity. More tightly wound and a touch less sensual than the singularly seductive 2019s, the 2020s are of very high quality and have the balance and energy to age with real grace. My visit to this domaine is invariably a highlight of my fall tastings, and this year was no exception. These wines couldn't come more warmly recommended. As I've written before, a generational transition—Claude having handed the reins over to son Bertrand and daughters Laetitia and Jeanne—has been discreetly realized at Domaine Claude Dugat: The family's meticulous viticulture and enviable patrimony of old, sélection massale vines remain unchanged, but there have been subtle stylistic evolutions. Picking is earlier, the wines are no longer chaptalized, and the use of new oak is a touch more restrained—but above all, simply better integrated, with François Frères supplying barrels that seem to harmonize much more discreetly with the wines raised in them than was sometimes the case in yesteryear.