Pushing Boundaries at Simon Bize
We at Chambers Street have always been soft targets when it comes to the wines of Domaine Simon Bize in Savigny-Les-Beaune. Over the course of several generations, they have produced some of the truly definitive wines of Savigny-les-Beaune - soulful, full of pure fruit and minerality. I count amongst my formative wine memories a number of Bize bottles (the thought of a '99 Savigny "Serpentieres," from the cellar of Bize's import agent Becky Wasserman still makes me shiver).
Given all of this, you can imagine our surprise and excitement when we found out about a crop of new bottlings arriving this year. (To be fair, it's the second vintage for Akatcha). These four wines are the work of Chisa Bize, whose husband Patrick ran the estate until his untimely death in 2013. Chisa hails from the Tokyo banking world and remade her life as the wife and partner of a Burgundy grower. It was she who pushed Patrick toward organic and biodynamic viticulture, and today she and Patrick's sister Marielle manage the estate together. The wines on offer today are all farmed organically with the addition of homeopathic methods designed to replace vineyard sulfur and reduce copper in fighting mildew and oidium. The "Aka" Savigny-les-Beaune red and the Bourgogne Pinot Beurot "Akatcha" are bottled with no added sulfur; the two whites "Shirokuro" and "Shiro" have a small amount added at bottling.
I was fortunate enough to spend a few minutes with Chisa at La Paulée de New York this past March. The impression I took away was of one who is totally committed to her craft, at once conscious of her place in the history of this great estate and of the opportunity for innovation that the future holds. Sans soufre winemaking is a rare thing among established producers of this stature but she shows no hesitation. At La Paulée she presented a large-format bottling of Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru from the stellar 2016 vintage with no added sulfur and it was magnificent - precise, beautifully chalky and bursting with energy. Whether you are traditionally a fan of Simon Bize wines or want to get a glimpse of Burgundy through a different lens, these are for you.
-Sam Ehrlich
