Savigny-lès-Beaune Premier Cru 'Cuvée Arthur Girard', Hospices de Beaune, 2021

The Hospices de Beaune is one of Burgundy's great annual dramas — a charity auction held each November in which barrels of wine from donated vineyards are sold to négociants and private buyers, who then raise and bottle the wines themselves.

Jane Eyre is the éleveur here, meaning the character of this Savigny-lès-Beaune Premier Cru 'Cuvée Arthur Girard' owes something to both the Hospices' venerable parcels and the care Jane Eyre has brought to its upbringing. The cuvée itself is named after Arthur Girard, a nineteenth-century benefactor, and draws from some of the better premier cru lieux-dits on the Pernand side of the village.

Savigny sits in a side valley running west from Beaune, and its premiers crus are distinctly Côte de Nuits in spirit — more mineral and structured than the village's softer reputation might suggest. This 2021 is a wine of real poise: the vintage produced wines of great precision and freshness rather than weight, and this has that hallmark transparency. Give it another year or two, and it will be very fine drinking until around 2038.