Domaine Didier Dagueneau Vin de France Buisson Renard 2023

Only 54 bottles shipped. This wine is priced above Pur Sang these days, indicating how highly the Domaine rates the vineyard and the wine. Buisson Renard is a cool mid-slope terroir on the southwest side of the Saint-Andelain hill and the soils are a mixture of clay and flint (or silex). The site was historically named Buisson Menard, as was the wine initially, but a wine writer mistakenly reviewed the wine as Buisson Renard. Renard means fox in French, and Buisson means bush, so the error gave the wine a name that sounded like ‘fox bush’. Didier Dagueneau fell about laughing and renamed the wine from the next vintage! Again, this fermented in barrel and matured in Dagueneau’s bespoke cigar-shaped barrels (450 and 600 litres). It’s layered and fleshy yet with wonderful, smoky cut and thrust and a long, racy, perfumed close suggesting dried herbs, smoke and citrus.