Today’s soulful, 13-year-old cellar discovery is a “we know a guy” wine, meaning this is not an occurrence anyone can expect to find again any time soon. As the story goes, one of our close Burgundy connections was snooping around the Côte de Nuits earlier this year when he uncovered this mature gem. It was during a visit in the cellars of Domaine Guy & Yvan Dufouleur when he literally stumbled upon a crate that held a small trove of today’s 2007 Premier Cru. When he asked what their plan was, they responded simply: We don’t have one! Obviously, our source pounced on the exceedingly rare opportunity to secure properly aged, perfect-provenance red Burgundy at a fantastic price. And, in turn, so did we.
After a bit of research, both of us later learned just how special of a find this was: The raw material is 70-year-old, hand-trained, sustainably-farmed Pinot Noir vines; the source is “Les Poulettes,” a tiny 1er Cru vineyard high up the limestone hillside of Nuits-Saint-Georges; and the domaine is Dufouleur, a historic father-son winemaking lineage spanning six centuries. So here it is, a scant 100-something bottle drop of pristine Premier Cru Pinot Noir at a price nobody else can compete with. Its rare finds like this that make you remember why Burgundy reigns supreme!
Nuits-Saint-Georges is the southernmost commune of the Côte de Nuits, bordered to the north by Vosne-Romanée. One of the oldest villages in Burgundy, N-S-G boasts a history that begins with the Romans, winds through tales of Cistercian monks, and well through the reign of Louis XIV, who purportedly drank this wine daily for his “digestive health.” Once known simply as “Nuits” before the famous vineyard of “Les Saint Georges” was attached to the village in 1892, this has clearly been a prime Pinot Noir terroir for centuries. From its historically fragmented vineyards, wines of royalty and varying style emerge, from rustic and tannic to the soft, velvet-like nectar of Vosne. Today’s mature 1er Cru is a stunning melding of both.
Established on the slopes of Nuits-Saint-Georges in 1596, Domaine Guy & Yvan Dufouleur is currently managed by Yvan and his uncle, Xavier. They made a bold move in 2006 when they decided to sell the négociant side of their business, exclusively committing themselves to estate grown and bottled wines. An impressive 400-year plus history has enabled Dufouleur to stockpile terroir, a rich 28 hectares from the tip of the Côtes de Nuits to the foot of the Côte de Beaune. Today’s holding in Premier Cru “Les Poulettes” is their smallest of all, coming in at .49 hectares higher up on the golden slope at just under 1,000 feet. The Dufouleur’s farm manually and sustainably because the exposure, elevation, and rocky terroir of this parcel makes work by tractor impossible.
Blessed with vines now passing the 70-year-old mark, their low-yielding crop in 2007 produced incredibly balanced and powerful fruit. After a meticulous sorting in both the vineyard and cellar, the Pinot Noir clusters were de-stemmed and fed into stainless steel vats via gravity flow. They were then cold-soaked briefly before fermentation and a daily punch-down of the cap. After three weeks, the resulting wine was transferred via gravity into French barrels, 33% new, for 12 months. Following, the wine spent another three months in stainless steel before bottling under natural cork.
Dufouleur’s 2007 1er Cru “Les Poulettes” displays a faded ruby red core with light garnet and brick orange reflections on the rim. Within minutes, seductive perfumes and rustic secondary aromatics roll out of the glass: black raspberry, dried wild strawberry, dried cherry, goji berry, hibiscus tea, licorice, leather, rose petals, herbs, forest floor, mushroom stock, and baking spice. The slightly cooler vintage translates to a more high-toned expression in the glass, one that has achieved a truly divine balance well after a dozen years of undisturbed maturation. The palate is graceful, medium-bodied, and bursting with the kind of savory goodness that causes connoisseurs to lose their minds. Aged 1er Cru Burgundy has little-to-no equal in the sensory department with its beautiful melding of sweet fruit, silky mouthfeel, stunning freshness, and subtle earthy nuances...this is gorgeous! If you are enjoying a bottle now (highly recommended), decant it 15 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems around 60 degrees. There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel: the ideal pairing is beef bourguignon, and it’ll blow your mind, be it your first or 100th time. Enjoy!
