The words vieilles vignes (“old vines”) on a label always grab my attention. Mature vines are a treasure worth trumpeting on your label (if you have them), and the Dubois family sources today’s modestly priced Bourgogne Rouge from vineyards that are nearly 50 years of age. That’s impressive raw material for a bottle in this appellation/price tier, but perhaps it’s to be expected when you’re talking about an estate with nine generations of Burgundy winemaking experience.
Domaine Dubois isn’t a big, high-powered négociant (merchant) label but rather a family-run domaine with a hectare of vines here, a hectare of vines there…the classic Burgundian model, but usually one which, by necessity, comes with a higher cost of inputs. We often say that the best way to judge a producer is by its ‘entry-level’ bottling, and based on this sub-$30 stunner, you bet I’ll be hunting for Premier and Grand Cru bottlings from Dubois in the future. As our Burgundy-savvy subscribers are well-aware, you simply don’t see complex, traditional, artisanal red Burgundy—or serious Pinot Noir from anywhere, really—at this price. My advice is to jump all over this (in case quantities, if you have room) before it disappears!
Currently, it’s the sister-brother team of Béatrice (enologist) and Raphaël Dubois (marketing) who run the estate, but their family traces its winemaking roots in the region to the 1600s. Over nine generations, they’ve methodically built up their vineyard holdings to 21 hectares of vines, spread across 20 (!) appellations (that’s a lot of small, far-flung parcels to keep an eye on). They are based in the village of Premeaux-Prissey, with a good concentration of vineyard holdings in neighboring Nuits-Saint-Georges, but their reach extends both north and south, to appellations including Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée, Beaune, and Volnay.
The Dubois siblings describe their farming as sustainable, with extra effort taken in recent years to eliminate the use of chemical pesticides. Grapes for today’s wine were sourced from old vines, hand-harvested, de-stemmed, and fermented in stainless steel for 10-12 days. Aging was in mostly used French oak barrels for about 6 months before bottling, so the oak influence here is extremely subtle: This is a resolutely traditional, woodsy red Burgundy with a terrific balance of fruit and earth.
In the glass, the 2017 Dubois Vieilles Vignes is a bright ruby-garnet moving to crimson-pink at the rim, with aromas that take you on a walk through the woods at the start of autumn: black cherry, dried cranberry, baking spices, leather, underbrush, and some dried-rose florals carry over to a plush, medium-bodied palate. The wine finishes on a savory, mineral note with a firm grip of tannin and mouth-watering freshness. It’s really a textbook red Burgundy experience through and through: balanced, weighty, savory, aromatic, and evocative. Decant it about 30 minutes before service in Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees and two things will become immediately clear: (1) this is an ideal dinner party wine and would be an absolute knockout with dishes like beef stew or coq au vin; and (2) you could age it and be rewarded with a richer, rounder, headier wine five years from now. Either way, my place for this would be on the table after a day of skiing, everyone still red-cheeked and seeking a combination of fortification and refreshment. This wine is it! Enjoy!
