More about Benoit Ente

Benoit Ente is in the right line of work. He is a top producer, one of those rare winemakers who makes great wines even in borderline vintages. In 2021 - an outstanding vintage for white Burgundy - he made absolutely brilliant wines.

A careful farmer, Benoit believes that controlling yields in the vineyard is the way to achieve the perfect acid-sugar balance necessary to make great white Burgundies. Once he has grown and harvested perfect grapes – early, to guarantee crisp acidity – he can easily perform the kind of non-interventionist winemaking that he likes. The results are stunning: wines of purity and balance.

Benoit inherited a tiny 2.4 hectare domaine in Puligny Montrachet which includes some great premier crus. Arnaud Ente, the Meursault specialist who studied under Coche, is Benoit's brother. Like Arnaud, Benoit's wines age very well. He uses less new oak than his brother and employs virtually no battonage. The wines spend 12 months in oak and then 6 more in stainless steel--this is as true for his Aligote as it is his Folatieres! The wines are crystalline and have wonderful intensity, but they emphasize elegance and terroir-expression.

Benoit's wines are considerably more affordable than his brother's. Still, they have definitely gone up in price in recent vintages as his fame, justifiably, has skyrocketed. Fortunately, in addition to his trophy wines, he makes many beautiful cuvées from more humble terroirs at prices that are more accessible.