Santenay

RegionCôte de Beaune
VillageSantenay
AppellationSantenay
Grape varietyPinot Noir

The Vine

Average vine age 30 years
SoilRich marl and limestone.
Average yield40 hl/ha
HarvestHand picked

Wine tips

Cellaring Potential3-5 years
Serving temperature 14-15°

Description

Santenay is the most southerly village in the Côte de Beaune and produces both red and white wines. The red wines from Santenay are reputed to be tannic and well-structured. Santenay is said to have the soul of Volnay and the body of Pommard.

Vinification & Ageing

Fermentation
Traditional in open vat
Ageing
10 to 12 months ageing, partly in oak barrels and partly in small vats

Wine tasting

Tasting Note
The 2003 Santenay is very dark in colour. On the nose this young and fruity wine displays powerful ripe fruit and leather aromas which are echoed more intensely on the palate with hints of cherries. The tannins present in this wine are fairly soft and velvety adding to the ample and rounded character of this particular wine. Ready to drink now or over the next 4 years.
Food Pairing
Rabbit terrine - beef in wine sauce - foie gras with apples - Brie cheese.

Press review

Santenay Blanc 2003 - The Wine Advocate - April 2005 - 88/100

Press review

Santenay Rouge 2020 - Wine Review Online - March 2023 - 93/100
Good depth - the warm vintage speaking again - augments its charm. Supple, fresh, and long, it's a delight now. Santenay reds can be a bit rustic. This one is not. Indeed, it is remarkably refined for a village Santenay. These days you rarely find this character and quality in Burgundy at this price.
Santenay Rouge 2020 - Wine Review Online - March 2023 - 93/100
This Santenay is just one example of the great success Latour had with their village wines in 2020. Characteristic of the vintage, it has good depth that augments its charm. Supple, fresh, and long, it is a delight now — and refined for a village Santenay. These days you rarely find this character and quality in Burgundy at this price. - Michael Apstein
Santenay rouge 2020 - Wine Enthusiast - 93/100
Velvety and interwoven with peach, ripe red apple and baking spice flavors, revealing flashes of honey and citronella as this plays out on the
lingering finish. Best from 2024 through 2029. (USA, December 2023)
Santenay Rouge 2020 - James Suckling - September 2022 - 91/100
At first quite earthy and a little bit wild, this youthful Santenay needs some aeration for the sour-cherry fruit to emerge. At once ripe and supple, with a healthy base of rather fine tannins. Quite some earthy complexity at the long finish. Drink or hold.
Santenay Rouge 2018 - Wine Enthusiast -December 2020 - 90/100
Toasty oak on the nose of this wine has an almost floral aspect and projects creaminess. The palate comes in with mellow smoothness, carrying ripe red cherry with overtones of Morello. Freshness pervades the fruit on a sinuous palate., while creaminess dominates the finish.
Santenay Rouge 2018 - Wine Spectator - May 2021 - 91/100

Steeped plum and cherry fruit is graced with sandalwood, incense and toasty oak notes. This is smooth and balanced, with a lingering aftertaste of spices. Drink now through 2028. — BS
Santenay Rouge 2014 - Western Mail - "An Elegant Burgundy"
The Santenay 2014 has warming wood notes across the soft cherry and raspberry fruit bouquet and develops floral notes as it breathes in the glass. On the palate, the zippy entry from the crisp acidity subsides a touch to reveal more complex characters and more fleshy fruit toward the finish. This is an elegant Burgundy with equally elegant tannins from the structured pinot noir. (Neil Cammies, UK)
Santenay Rouge 2014 - Sunday Times - "Packed with red fruit"
Packed with red fruit, supple and easy to enjoy. (Will Lyons, UK).
Santenay Rouge 2014 - Wine Spectator - November 2016 - 90/100
Rich cherry, smoke and earth flavors are offset by firm, dense tannins in this beefy red. Balanced and satisfying, with a lingering finish of earth and fruit. Drink now through 2021. By Bruce Sanderson (USA)
Santenay Rouge 2008 - The Guernsey Press & Star (UK) - September 2013 - "Vibrant, lively red"This vibrant, lively red is made from pinot noir grapes in the southern Burgundy area of France. It has a scented ripe, red fruit nose with delicious flavours of raspberry and red cherry on the palate with a fresh mineral acidity and silky soft tannins. Great with pork, duck and lighter game birds such as guinea owl, quail or pigeon (The wine List, Paul Bisson at Bucktrout's Quality Drinks).
Santenay Rouge 2008 - Wine Spectator Online - April 2011 - 89/100Rich, pure and structured, this red evokes cherry, berry and spice flavors. The tannins are a bit rustic, but there's plenty of fruit, with a mineral finish. Best from 2012 through 2018. 1,200 cases made. Red. —B.S.
Santenay Rouge 2007 - Chairman's selection (USA) - May 2011 - "Clean and silky palate"This 2007 Pinot Noir has hints of dusty earth, herbs and cherryish fruits. The palate is clean and silky with plum cherry, strawberry and mineral bands, which keep it tight to the vest and an absolute winner at the dinner table. Try with roasted chicken with rosemary.
Santenay 2006 - Wine Enthusiast- October 2009 - 87/100Pale in color, this wine goes for shades of flavor. The initial tannins merge into softer raspberry flavors that in turn become fresh red currants and final acidity. Ready to drink now.
Santenay Rouge 2006 - Wine Spectator - Bruce Sanderson - May 2009 - 84 pointsRich, offering cherry, licorice and spice notes. It's moderately concentrated, with ample tannins for support. Firm finish. Best from 2010 through 2013.
Santenay Rouge 2006 - The Wine Guy - "Terrific Pinot Noir"This terrific Pinot Noir from the southern Côte d'Or proves that you can buy really good Burgundy wines without paying a king's ransom. Light, fruity and yet with some backbone this is a wine to age for a year or two while you let its bigger brothers age even longer.
Santenay Rouge 2003 - Times - November 2007 - "Tasty, fatty, chocolatey"Way down south in the Côte de Beaune, Santenay is renowned for its chunky reds, and Louis Latour is one of the oldest and most well known of the Beaune négociants, more famous for its white wines than its lengthily oak-aged reds, which have a distinctive full-bodied style of their own. See for yourself with this tasty, fat, beefy, chocolatey, plummy red - a whiz with game casseroles and the like.
Santenay Blanc 2003 - The Wine Advocate - April 2005 - 88/100Spicy pears and toasty minerals make up tha aromatic profile of this white wine. This is a light to medium-bodied wine with good richness, breadth, and depth. Its sappy mineral flavours linger in the finish. Drink it over the next 2 - 3 years.
Santenay Rouge 2003 - La Revue du Vin de France - February 2006 - "Luscious and well developed"Quite dense robe. Bouquet of black flesh fruits, luscious and well developed, but without heaviness. Dense palate, with corpulence. Balance is present with substance and natural freshness. A very natural 2003. Wait two to five years.