Savigny-Lès-Beaune

Off the beaten track, Savigny-Lès-Beaune is home to some of the best deals you’ll find in French wine. Best known for table-wines that nicely complement an evening dinner, its wines tend to be light and elegant, and reach their peak in 3-5 years.

The area grows mostly red wines, which boast ample body, fruity taste, and discreet tannins.

While most of Burgundy’s best appellations face East or South-East, several Savigny-Lès-Beaunes Premier Crus (including Les Rouvrettes, Les Narbantons and Les Peuillets) grow on North-facing slopes. Sandier soil combined with Northern exposure yield wines with more tannic structure and an earthier, more rustic character.

Whites have a floral bouquet, redolent of butter and brioche, with a fleshy and persistent taste and a touch of spice. Their distinctive characteristics owe to terroir as well as to the assemblage — rare in Burgundy — of Chardonnay with Pinot Blanc grapes.

The local motto is “Théologiques, Nourissants, et Morbifuges” (theological, nourishing, and death-defying). In this spirit, the Wall-Street Journal wrote up Savigny-Lès-Beaune as the best spot to get “death-defying value” on any wine you buy.

We tend to agree.