2014 Vosne-Romanée

Brothers Jean-Luc Burguet and Eric Burguet joined their father Alain in 1997, and the siblings have been in charge of winemaking at the family domaine since 2006. According to Jean-Luc, the brothers pick five to seven days later than their father did."We look for ripe tannins because we do a gentler extraction," he told me."We want to make expressive wines." The Burguets, who now own 9. 6 hectares of vines following the purchase of their uncle Gilles Burguet's 2. 5-hectare domain in 2014, carry out a pre-fermentation cold soak lasting three to five days, with the total cuvaison covering three to four weeks. They sort in the vines, then a second time on a triage table. After removing 100% of the stems, they sort the berries yet again, and a high percentage of whole berries go into the tanks (they use cement and stainless steel fermenters for their small cuvées). There's usually one punchdown and one pumpover per day during the active part of the alcoholic conversion.

Jean-Luc Burguet described 2014 as a dry year, and much easier than 2013. The wines are concentrated, he added, "and you can smell the minerality--more than in hot years like 2005, 2009 and 2015." He made it clear that he prefers more delicate, elegant vintages. Yields were in the healthy 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range in 2014, higher than their usual 35 to 37. The wines get a long élevage of up to 20 months, and the use of sulfur is minimal. In fact, Burguet noted that the finished wines will have barely 10 parts per million of free SO2 and 30 of total sulfur. These are extremely low totals by any standard. Incidentally, the Burguets also make a number of wines from purchased grapes, including a Chambertin Clos de Bèze.