Santenay Premier Cru 'La Maladière' Vieilles Vignes Rouge, Domaine Benoit Girardin 2022

"More limestone soils give elegance and finesse to this wine which has a lightly smoky nose, full of raspberries, cocoa, and dark earth. The palate offers spicy red plums and cherries, bound by linear, herbal tea tannins, and a refreshing phenolic bitterness on the finish. Sinuous and sapid this should develop well over the next five+ years." Tom Harrow, Head Wine Guru Benoît Girardin is one of the most exciting new names to hit our list and he's already turning heads in France. The Girardin family boasts 13 generations of winemaking, and after years under his father Yves’ acclaimed domaine, Benoît launched his own label in 2020 with 8 hectares of prime vineyards across top Burgundy sites, including Chassagne-Montrachet, Meursault and Pommard. On paper, the winemaking is classic and restrained — but in the glass, the wines are electric. They’re refined, silky and far more sophisticated than you’d expect at this stage of the domaine’s journey. This is the moment to get these wines in the cellar while pricing and availability are still friendly — they won’t stay under the radar for long.