New Releases: Walter Scott’s magnificent 2023s

These are superb! Walter Scott’s 2023s will seduce even the most ardent Burgundy purist and test the resolve of anyone boycotting US goods. The Chardonnays possess that gun flint and struck match character we love with a more relaxed and generous core of fruit, making them the most compelling range from Ken Pahlow to date. As for the Pinot Noirs, well these are just drop dead gorgeous: floral perfume mingles with high-toned, wild Pinot aromas, earth and rosehip. These are glorious wines with a voluptuous Vosne like texture – you’ll keep wanting to come back for more.

The 2023s were shaped by a cold, delayed spring followed by an unusually rapid growing season, culminating in a remarkably compressed 17-day harvest. Ken describes the wines as more open-knit and charming than the taut, architectural 2021s and 2022s, with supple tannins, broader fruit and greater immediacy, yet still underpinned by the estate’s hallmark salinity, freshness and mineral precision. Naturally balanced yields, benign summer conditions and careful picking decisions aimed at preserving energy have produced a seductive, finely poised vintage of generosity, drinkability and clear site expression.