2018 Vosne-Romanée Aux Brûlées 1er Cru

Michel Mallard must consider himself the luckiest winemaker in Burgundy because he gets to see me twice each year, once at his family domaine in Ladoix and the second here at Domaine d’Eugénie. “We started the harvest on 9 September although the whites were picked earlier. I used slightly more whole bunches on the 2019. For the first time we plunged by hand, though not much as the tannic structure came quickly and when we pumped over we just used gravity. We did not use pumps at all. The Clos d’Eugénie will be bottled in January whilst the others will be racked in February and bottled a couple of months later. I think we have more finesse in the 2019s than in 2018s. We have more red fruit in 2019 and just a little greenness that brings the wines freshness. There are two appellations that gained something in 2019 - Aux Brûlées and Echézeaux.”

Mallard has really begun to put his own stamp on these wines that are far more finessed and terroir-driven than those produced when the domaine debuted with their 2006s. Case in point, the Grands-Echézeaux was one of the finest that I encountered, a splendid and regal wine with haunting complexity. In fact, all the Grand Crus deliver, which is a good job since that represents more or less half the portfolio.

As usual, winemaker Michel Mallard guided me through the latest releases from Domaine d’Eugénie, though this time he was joined by Frédéric Engerer, who heads up the properties under François Pinault’s Artemis Group. "We went twice in the vineyard," Mallard told me. "We did some green harvest in July and then three weeks before picking as there were some vines with 13 and 14 bunches. There were berries that were pink and green, so we eradicated these too. We started the picking on 2 September and finished on 9 September. The maximum alcohol is on Clos Vougeot 13.7%. We continue to use no SO2 during the alcoholic fermentation." These wines are now beginning to really show that intangible known as "soul" and these 2018s are some of the best that I have encountered from d’Eugénie since it rose from Domaine Engel back in the mid-noughties. Part of the reason is Mallard’s judicious use of whole bunch. There was some discussion between Mallard and Engerer about exactly how much is optimal (of course, it is an alien concept back at Latour) although I opined that I think Mallard got it just right. These 2018s show more character and intellect that those I was tasted a few years ago and are worth seeking out.