Our final full day in Burgundy celebrating #Brians50th had us visiting Domaine Drouhin-Laroze in the morning and Domaine Jean Grivot after a scheduled lunch at Rotisserie du Chambertin. We had our usual stellar breakfast at the house and then headed out on our 35-kilometer trip to Gevrey-Chambertin.
Domaine Drouhin-Laroze is housed in a compound which is home to its offices plus the winemaking structures and a multi-room residence onfor customers wishing to vacation on-premise. We negotiated a lengthy, sculpture-lined walkway that ran from the road to the customer-reception area and there we met Christine Drouhin, in our host for the day.
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Olivier-Cyr Noël, Femme au Parapluie, 2021 Bronze |
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Olivier-Cyr Noël, Femme au Collier, 2021 Bronze |
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| Christine Drouhin of Drouhin-Laroze |
Christine welcomed us in and began to relay the story of the Domaine. The estate was founded in 1850 by John-Baptiste Laroze. In 1919, Jean-Baptiste’s granddaughter married Alexandre Drouhin whose family owned vineyards in Chambolle. The enterprise that managed the vines that this couple brought to the marriage was called Drouhin-Laroze, a name which has survived to this day.
Beginning in 2001, the estate was managed by Philippe and Christine, the fifth generation to do so. More recently they have handed over control to the 6th generation. the brother and sister team of Nicholas and Caroline. Nicholas is responsible for operations while Caroline focuses on the administrative aspects of the business. The parents still help out in specific designated areas.
The new team has made changes to the winemaking process, moving the wine from a powerful and extracted style to one based on finesse and nuance. The changes include:
- More gentle handling of the grapes
- Adding whole bunches for structure and freshness when and where needed
- Reduce the percentage of new oak used during the aging process.
And the critics have taken note. Writing in Vinous in 2019, Neal Martin stated as follows: “Recent wines overseen by Caroline and Nicholas Drouhin are cut from a very different cloth … they have adopted a more prudent and respectful approach to winemaking, picking a little earlier, easing off the skin maceration , employing whole bunches and dialing down the new oak … The result is a range of far superior and more interesting wines than just five or six years ago.”
Jasper Morris (Inside Burgundy, 12/2018) stated “It was good to confirm the renaissance of Domaine Drouhin-Laroze … This domaine has been coming up noticeably in quality in the last few vintages, having been a good source prior to that.”
The estate’s surface area is 11.6 ha, 46% of which is located in six different Grand Cru vineyards, 14% are Premier Cru, and the remaining 40%, Village. The Grand and Premier Cru
holdings are illustrated graphically in the chart below.
in
The domaine also has vines in selected Village appellations: 13 climats in Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, and Morey-Saint-Denis. All plots are farmed traditionally.
In terms of winemaking, harvesting decisions are made based on tasting the grapes on vineyard walkthroughs. Once the decision is made, the grapes are hand-harvested with selections both in the vineyard and at sorting tables set up in the courtyard.
The grapes are cold-soaked for a few days and then fermented naturally. Extraction is gentle with a combination of pigeage (breaking the cap and submerging the pieces) and pumping wine over the cap to keep it in contact with the skins. As mentioned, there is, on average, 20 to 30 percent whole-cluster fermentation.
Elevage consists of 12 months aging in cool underground cellars followed by racking into casks. The oak-aging regime is as follows:
- Musigny — 100% new oak
- Remaining Grand Cru wines — 80% new oak, remainder one-pass. Light-to-medium toast
- Premier Cru — 40% new oak, remainder one-pass. Light-to-medium + toast
- Village — 20% new oak, remainder one-pass.
The wines reside in the casks for 3 to 6 months after which they are racked into tanks for a month. The wines are then blended and bottled, the latter without fining or filtration. The range of the domaine’s wines is listed below.
The wines are released to the market after 6 months
After describing the operation of the domaine, Christine led us into a room to taste a selection of the wines.
The first wine tasted was the 2023 Bourgogne from the Negoce side of the shop. The wine exhibited raspberries, cherries, strawberries, and smoke on the nose. Bright. Focused. Sour cherry and drying character on the palate. Hint of tar. Lengthy mineral finish.
We next tasted the Gevrey-Chambertin 2023 Dix Climats. Grapes for this wine were sourced from 10 different Village Climats. Richer nose than for the Bourgogne. Full, rich, thick red fruit. Dried sour cherry. Mineral coating on palate. Elegance and power. Will require a lot of time to bring out its full potential.
The 2023 Premier Cru Au Closeau had a deep rich nose with mint and dried bay leaves present. On the palate red fruit, drying, astringent. Lean. Needs 10 to 12 years.
The 2023 Gevrey-Chambertin Clos de Beze Grand Cru showed smoke, clay, strawberries, cherrie, spice, and potpourri on the nose. Full, round mouthfeel. Drying in the palate. Spicy.
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Glorious visit befitting the occasion that was its genesis. Excellent work by Christine expelling the history and operation of the domaine and excellent wines presented for the tasting.
Thanks to Drouhin-Laroze for hosting us in the manner they did.
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