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Domaine Duroché

The elevation of Duroché from little-known Gevrey-Chambertin producer to one of the appellation’s most revered is the kind of fairy tale that makes Burgundy such an endearing region. It has been fascinating to see how the domaine has changed in just the last two or three years. I remember tasting the 2012s and immediately thinking that Duroché is destined for great things. The wines conveyed a sense of purity and place that I had not seen before. The domaine was thrust into the limelight and suddenly importers were beseeching Pierre Duroché for allocations. Thankfully, the adulation has not gone to Duroché’s head, and he remains the most affable and down-to-earth winemaker you could meet, when he is not scaling some cliff face, his favorite pastime. But you can see the effect newfound fame has had on the winery, with new facilities and a bijou tasting room with a snazzy Perspex map illustrating their myriad of small parcels. Sadly, Duroché has been unable to acquire any more vines of his elusive Griotte-Chambertin, so he continues to produce a quantity so minuscule that it risks evaporating on a warm day.

“In one way, it was easy,” Duroché remarked when I asked about the growing season. “It was dry throughout spring and summer with rain at the right time. There was no oïdium or mildew. The only challenge was hail on July 18 in Brochon that affected around 15% to 20% of the Champeaux and Echange vineyards. Fortunately there was no sugar in the berries and in just three days, bunches had dried and damaged berries just fell off. At the end of the day, the harvest was good anyway. We had to do some green harvesting to reduce the quantity. We started the picking on September 3 and then continued over the following eight days. There was around 13° natural alcohol and so there is no chaptalisation. In fact, we have done hardly any since 2013. All the Village Crus are de-stemmed. The wines spent one year in barrel without racking and they were blended in vat at the end of the 2018 harvest. Every wine has the same proportion of new wood, between 10% and 20% for the entire range, from six cooperages. We had to buy some barrels since there is more wine. I think 2017 could be better than 2015 and 2016 because it is the first time that I found the main stem was brown and not green when I cut bunches. The sugar is lower but we have very good levels of acidity.”

Duroché’s style of wine is very much in the mold of, say, Charles Lachaux in Vosne-Romanée or Romain Taupenot in Morey-Saint-Denis. These are not wines stuffed to the rafters with sweet fruit; instead, they prioritize fine tannins, mineralité, transparency and focus. They are intense in their own way, perhaps as intellectually satisfying as satiating the senses, and they clearly express their terroirs this year. Tasting through the range was like a guided tour of the Gevrey’s climats. One crucial point to make is that Pierre Duroché bottled in November 2018, earlier than many of his peers, in order to capture their freshness. I wonder whether a second winter would have imparted more weight, as some fellow winemakers suggest. This year I adore the Gevrey-Chambertin Les Cazetiers, and frankly, there was little qualitative difference between the Lavaut-Saint-Jacques and the Vieilles Vignes cuvée, the latter from vines planted in 1923. The Griotte-Chambertin probably remains the rarest Burgundy, since only 90 litres exist (followers of my Instagram feed might have seen Pierre Duroché posing next to the 2018 Griotte-Chambertin when I dropped in during the harvest.) Good luck ordering a couple of cases of that one. Also, there are a couple of négoce label wines, a Vosne-Romanée and Echézeaux that are worth looking out for.

The Duroché fairy tale continues.

From 2017 Burgundy: A Modern Classic (Jan 2019) by Neal Martin

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2017 Bourgogne Rouge

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Domaine Duroché

2017 Bourgogne Rouge

2017 Bourgogne Blanc

2017 Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze Grand Cru

2017 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Champeaux 1er Cru

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2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Champ

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Le Clos

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Estournelles Saint-Jacques 1er Cru

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaut Saint-Jacques 1er Cru

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaut Saint-Jacques Vieilles Vignes 1er Cru

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Cazetiers 1er Cru

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Les Jeunes Rois

2017 Gevrey-Chambertin Village

2017 Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru

2017 Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru

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