Amiot Morey-St-Denis 1er “Charmes” 2023

Léon Amiot is first and foremost a farmer. A cheerful twentysomething with a quick smile and friendly demeanor, he’s traveled the world gaining extensive viticultural experience, and has brought real energy and renewed focus to his family’s tiny 5-hectare gem of an estate in Morey-St-Denis. He’s officially organic as of this year, but has already started the process of biodynamic certification. He has abandoned herbicides, planted cover crops, and this year begins an agroforestry project in the name of vineyard biodiversity.

This is the northernmost vineyard in Morey-St-Denis, and sits on the border with Charmes-Chambertin, a Gevrey-Chambertin Grand Cru. The charming silky quality for which “Charmes” is known is there in spades, with elegant notes of earth, cassis, and smoke. The classic, chiseled character of Morey-St-Denis is below the surface here too, and the combination is enticing. Burghound found it “succulent, round and seductively textured,” with a “velvety mid-palate.