DUREUIL-JANTHIAL

Rully

What the Critics are saying:

Andrew Jefford, The New France: “[Duriel-Janthial is] a wake-up call for the often rather dull winemaking of the Côte Chalonnaise…”

Jean-François Coche: "If I see his name on a wine list, I don't give it a second thought and simply order his wine."

Our notes:

Rully (pron: rooh-yee) is the most exciting village in the Côte Chalonnaise and when you look at the location of 1er cru vineyards you can see why this region has so much potential. It’s effectively a continuous, south, south/east facing slope of clay and limestone. In other words it shares the attributes of the Côte d’Or’s best vineyards and, as it is only 15 minutes from the Côte de Beaune, it shares a very similar climate as well. It looks very much like, and is geographically close to the Côte d’Or. It just all makes sense. So why isn't it more famous? As usual, history has the answers.  This is a small region that has historically sold much of its fruit to large Négociants in Beaune who often blended the wine away into super blends or (less commonly) made Rully of inferior quality. This is still largely the case today, however there are now literally a handful of producers making interesting wines.

We have been visiting this area for a number of years and we have managed to grab the two producers that we believe to be the finest. Some of you may have tried the excellent wines from this area that we have brought in under the Jaeger Defaix label. If not you definitely should: they are superb. Yet probably the finest wines we have tasted from this appellation have been made by Domaine Dureuil-Janthial (pronounced Doo-ray John-tea-ahl). We have visited this producer four times and this is the first time we have shipped the wines.

The wines of Vincent Dureuil-Janthial have set new benchmarks for the Rully appellation – not surprising given the quality of the sites that Vincent controls and his tireless work in the vineyard (he spends up to 14 hours a day among his vines during much of the growing season, doing most of the vineyard work himself).

Dureuil-Janthial has terrific holdings in Rully, all on clay-limestone soils. The domaine controls 1.71ha of Chardonnay in Le Meix Cadot, the largest of the 1er Crus (5.96ha) on the mini plateau east of the village; 2ha of the Mazières vineyard farther east, the source of 40 barrels of fresh, mineral-infused Rully white; and 1.34ha of the En Guesnes vineyard for Rully red. The Domaine also has .19ha in Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Gains and .39ha in Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Argillières.

Dureuil Janthial stopped using herbicides in 2001 and his estate is now fully organic. Much of their approach is guided by biodynamic methods. Vineyard work is regulated by the lunar calendar and the preference, vintage depending, is to pick late. The aim, Vincent explains, “..is to let the grapes attain full maturity so as to yield wines that are taut, attractive, with a pleasing minerality and the proper touch of acidity.” Hand-picking, rigorous work at the sorting table (we wonder how many of these exist in the Côte Challonaise?) and a kid-glove approach in the winery completes the quality package.

These are fresh, elegant, textural wines that could easily come (quality wise) from a more vaunted appellation in the Côte d’Or. They have their own personality of course as is proper for a different terroir. Even in a lighter year like 2008, they represent outstanding value for single vineyard wines and will benefit from short term ageing.