2022 Rully Chapitre 1er Cru

An early morning visit to the drizzly Côte Chalonnaise was brightened by the talented Vincent Dureuil, by consensus, Rully’s foremost winemaker. He is that rare example of a refreshingly self-effacing vigneron, somebody that lets his wines do the talking. “It was an easy vintage as there was no mildew and oidium,” he tells me (accompanied by his daughter, who will be training at a winery in New Zealand next year). “We had a lot of rain in March that made it difficult to mow the soil, and we had to use a trimmer to cut the grass. After July 20, we had some rain, and we had to cut the cover crops again. The alcoholic degree of the whites rose very quickly so that within a week, it could go from 11.5% to 14.0%. We began the picking on September 11 and finished September 21,” Dureuil adds.

“I begin picking later than some other growers. My father always said in great vintages like 1947 and 1959, they picked at 13.5% or 14.0%. I want sugar [in the fruit] rather than acidity. You have more [natural] acidity in organic viticulture.” Compare this to, say, Alvina Pernot in Puligny or Pierre-Yves Colin in Chassagne-Montrachet, who adopted the opposite strategy. Dureuil continues, “It was hot during the harvest, so it was challenging keeping the fruit cool at reception, otherwise the fermentation can spin out of control. It was the hottest that I can remember. So, we press the bunches, transfer the juice into refrigerated units and then transfer directly into barrel. It was a slow fermentation, sometimes finishing after the malo the following June or July. Except for the Aligoté, all the white cuvées see 20% new oak, and 30% for the reds. The whites have a little more acidity and concentration in 2022, while the 2023s are more like 2015. But it is a young vintage, and you need another six months to really tell.”

This was a wonderful set of 2023s. On occasion, they were just a step behind their 2022 counterparts, but it is difficult to think of another producer that offers such value for the money. Ergo, these are go-to wines for this writer on many occasions. Like many, Dureuil’s talent lies more in the whites than reds, though his Pinots are certainly not to be sniffed at.

I have been drinking and waxing lyrical about Dureuil-Janthial since the first incarnation of Wine-Journal 20 years ago. Vincent Dureuil’s wines frequently stood out at the London Burgundy tastings. Such is their consistency and value for money that whenever dining in Beaune, I first check if any of his wines are listed. I know that I’m not the only one. That was no different on this trip, and I have slipped in some additional notes. Remarkably, and you might say unforgivably, I had never actually visited the winery, so this was the first time I sat down and tasted with Dureuil in Rully.

“It was easy working in the vines with no frost or hail,” he tells me, a winemaker who is easy to get along with and looks remarkably youthful given his age (I heard he’s a keen mountain climber and skier, so he keeps himself in shape). He seems to be in the most positive frame of mind, certainly better than last year when showing 2021s, as he lost 70% of his crop to frost. “We work the vineyard organically, in which case, I prefer a dry season to a wet one. There was no stress in the vines apart from a small parcel of vines planted in Mercurey that I planted in 2017. I began the harvest on September 1. I am a late harvester, and I picked over 12 days. It’s a traditional picking by hand, and we transfer the fruit manually using a small fork-lift truck. I do a long three-hour, quite hard press and then the fruit is transferred into stainless steel. I don’t add any SO2 for ten hours because I want the juice to oxidize. Afterward, I cool down the must to 12° Celsius; then, 24 hours after the pressing, it is put into barrel for the alcoholic fermentation using 20% new oak (except the Aligoté) from the Chassin cooperage. They’ll stay in the cellar for one year. Then, they are racked one week prior to the following harvest and stay in a stainless steel vat for six months. It is then fined and filtered according to the lunar calendar and bottled.”

“For the reds, we use a vibrating sorting table, then the bunches are put into oak vats and cooled to 7° Celsius, not to do a cold fermentation, but for logistic purposes, in order to start the vinification of the reds once the whites are safely in barrel. We do pigeage and remontage, tasting daily to decide what to do the following day, stopping the temperature at 30° Celsius and then de-vatting. The vin de presse is blended in stainless steel and added one month later. The reds are aged in 30% new oak for 12 to 18 months, depending on the quality, and bottled from the end of February or March according to the lunar calendar, usually one ‘moon’ before the whites. In 2022, most of the alcoholic degrees are between 13% and 14%. I think it’s a great vintage.”

To reiterate, Vincent Dureuil has been my favorite Côte Chalonnaise producer for several years. His range of Rully cuvées is quite brilliant, surfeit with tension and complexity, without astronomical price tags dangling around their necks. I think quality leans more toward his whites than reds, as good as the latter are. I look forward to coming back.