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Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial, Bourgogne Blanc

Other, France 2018 (750mL)
$39.00
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Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial, Bourgogne Blanc

Vincent Dureuil has made quite a name for himself in the Côte Chalonnaise village of Rully, producing opulent whites and supple, stylish reds that are critical favorites year in and year out. For a lot of sommeliers, Dureuil is the guy who put Rully on the radar, a transcendent young talent whose wines are tailor-made for well-curated restaurant lists—because the QPR (quality-price ratio) is incredibly high.


Technically, today’s Bourgogne Blanc qualifies as his ‘entry-level’ wine, but this doesn’t taste like an entry-level wine to me: This is an impressively layered Burgundy Chardonnay of real breed, a wine I would surely peg as something from a fancier, pricier appellation if I were to taste it blind. As it turns out, the vineyard source for today’s ’18 is in a fancier village—Puligny-Montrachet—but falls just outside the AOC boundary and is therefore not able to carry the name. In a way, that’s a blessing, because he could certainly charge more if it did say Puligny-Montrachet on the label; instead, we get one of the all-time great white Burgundy values to share with you today. Pour this for anyone who’s serious about Burgundy and they will be blown away. That’s a guarantee. Vincent Dureuil is the real deal and this is as savvy a Burgundy purchase as one could hope to make!


The little cluster of appellations at the northern end of the Côte Chalonnaise, including Rully and Bouzeron, has long been a goldmine for value-seekers—and Vincent Dureuil is credited with taking Rully to a new level. It’s important to remember that, as the crow flies, Rully is about 10 kilometers due south of Puligny-Montrachet, with similar vineyard aspects and geology, so it’s not necessarily so revelatory that this place produces sublime white wines. Dureuil has shown it the proper love, and it has paid off; he is said to log long days in his vineyards, doing much of the work himself, and since the mid-2000s the farm has been practicing organic (now certified). Old vines are a signature, including in his Puligny-Montrachet parcel, where the average age is 40 years—making for some seriously concentrated, multi-dimensional Chardonnay.



Dureuil’s whites are ‘whole-cluster’ pressed and fermented using only the ambient yeasts present on the grapes when they arrive in the winery. In keeping with his fastidiousness in the vineyards, he seeks to minimize the use of sulfur both during fermentation and at bottling—the health of his grapes enables him to do so. The hand-harvested fruit for today’s wine, from a lieu-dit (named site) in Puligny called “La Combe,” is barrel-fermented and aged in barrels (25% new) for 16 months before bottling.



In a nutshell, what we have here is spot-on, serious white Burgundy. This wine, while showing a nice mineral underpinning, takes Chardonnay in a more seductive, opulent direction. Its ripeness and palate weight is noteworthy and perfect for the approaching Winter. In the glass it is a deep, satisfying gold, well-saturated but bright, with just the slightest green tint at the rim. The nose is explosive and rich, with notes of ripe yellow apple, pear, grilled pineapple, fresh cream, and well-integrated oak notes. The palate is textural and expansive, a mouth-coating Chardonnay that nevertheless finishes clean. There’s some aging potential here for sure, but I don’t plan on waiting to enjoy my next bottle: Give it 15-30 minutes in a decanter, serve it in all-purpose/Burgundy stems at 45-50 degrees, and—while I know I say this a lot—roast a chicken. Life can be deliciously simple sometimes. Enjoy!
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Country
France
Region
Other
Sub-Region
FranceBourgogne Blanc
Soil
Limestone & Clay
Farming
Certified Organic
Blend
Chardonnay
Alcohol
13.5
OAK
25% New French
TEMP.
45-50
Glassware
Burgundy Stem
Drinking
Now-2024
Decanting
15-30 Minutes
Pairing
Roast Chicken

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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