When tasting wines (and we taste a lot of wines!) I often apply the restaurant wine list standard: Would this wine be at home on award winning lists at top dining establishments? Any French focused collection worth its weight would need at least one or two prime examples of classic Bourgogne Rouge–and this beauty from Roland Thévenin hits every mark with aplomb. Silky red fruits mingle with dried flowers and savory earth in perfect harmony. These types of excellent, yet humbly priced for everyday consumption, bottles are becoming increasingly rare in the rarefied terroir of the Côte d’Or, so we celebrate every time we find one! This is definitely a wine to buy by the case.
The namesake of this maison (merchant house), Roland Thévenin (1905-1990), was a famously colorful character in Burgundy—a poet, writer, winemaker, and bon vivant who served as the Mayor of Saint-Romain for 35 years. He was among Burgundy’s earliest and most successful négociant producers and a founding member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a fraternal order of Burgundy lovers. Today this legacy continues with the help of the Boisset collection and a small but dedicated team that oversees the Maison Roland Thévenin. Wines bearing the Thévenin imprimatur come almost exclusively from organically farmed vineyards.
Bourgogne Rouge is a regional wine that may be sourced from anywhere, and from any number of vineyards, within the Burgundy growing zone. But most wines labeled thusly come from a more prescribed area than their labels would suggest: In this case, the fruit hails from several prime parcels in the Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune–the heart of red Burgundy production and home to the most famous Pinots on the planet. The grapes for this regional bottling are treated the same as those from “village” or Premier/Grand Cru sites: They are sorted, de-stemmed and fermented in thermo-regulated vats, then transferred into a combination of used oak barrels (15%) and tanks (85%) to complete malo-lactic fermentation. Then the lots are blended together and aged in tanks for another 8-10 months before bottling, resulting in a wine of surprising depth and pedigree considering the humble appellation.
In most of Burgundy the 2022 vintage was warm and dry, which is sort of the new standard there. However it was not as brutal as 2020 or 2018, and the wines are a bit more balanced–juicy and forward but with good energy and structure. This is 100% the case for the Thévenin Bourgogne Rouge. Serve at cellar temperature in Burgundy stems and the classic notes of red and black cherries, raspberry liqueur, dried roses, coffee nibs, mint leaves, and earthy, mushroomy forest floor are all there in droves! The fresh, medium body features a silky, suave palate that is both easily drinkable yet also layered with complexity. It’s a classic wine, serve it with a classic dish like coq au vin, and enjoy a perfect winter meal.
