Product information

Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully Rouge 2018

Pinot Noir from Rully, Côte Chalonnaise, Burgundy, France

$93

$89ea in any 3+
$85ea in any 6+
Closure: Cork

Description

“The 2018 Rully offers up lovely aromas of cassis, blackberries, rich soil tones and dark chocolate. Medium to full-bodied, round and fleshy, its generous core of fruit is underpinned by lively acids and velvety tannins. Last year, I wrote that the 2017 rendition was one of the most unabashedly delicious Rully reds that I can remember tasting from Vincent Dureuil, but this 2018 is just as charming—and with somewhat more depth, too.”

William Kelley, The Wine Advocate


The full potential of Mercurey and Rully reds is yet to be seen. Like all of Burgundy these two villages are evolving. We’re seeing money from a couple of the big boys helping raise the bar. The little guys, farmers with heart, putting in the hard yards to show the world what these villages are truly capable.  This guy, Vincent, picks every berry one by one just so he can keep the little stalky bit that attached the berry to the bunch intact. Why? To make that little 1% difference to texture, to bring out the perfume. Does it work compared to not doing it. I don’t know, I haven’t tried the alternative from him.

The 2018 was fermented with a pinch of whole bunch, and raised for 12 months in one-third new oak. Janthial uses a Jayer-esque pre-ferment cold soak to extract the prettiest aromas and softer tannin.

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Check out all of the wines by Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Dureuil’s village Rully is drawn from three organically managed plots—Le Meix Cadot, Rosey and Montagne de Remenot—which cover just under three hectares in total. The average age of these vines is now 50 years. Remarkably, given the price, a portion of the fruit for this 2018 was manually destemmed to retain the grapes and their pedicels intact, à la Bize-Leroy, Arnaud Mortet, Charles Lachaux and others.

To give you an idea of how much of a pain in the ass this is to do check out the Anatomy of a bunch of grapes below. Basically he is removing each berry individually and keeping the tiny stalk at the end of it. No machine can do it!

Click to enlarge 🔎

Grapes were then allowed to sit at a cold temperature for eight to 10 days before any juice was released, then a further 10 days after this before transferral to barrel (one-third new). It was bottled according to the lunar cycle, after 18 months aging.

This is Rully’s answer to Volnay! It’s a lovely, sexy wine, with bright red jube, kirsch and fresh rose aromas and flavours, and a pretty yet deep palate. Seductive fruit contrasts with the impressive, mineral and ferrous tannins that are so typical of this producer’s reds. In fact, the structure frames the wine magnificently and will ensure a very long life. The wine is already delicious with food, but if you have a cellar, you will be heavily rewarded with six- to ten-plus years aging.

  • Practicing organic
  • 40+ year old vines
  • East facing
  • Indigenous yeasts
  • Aged in barrel (20% new)

About Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial

“Dureuil continues to fashion some of the very best wines in the Côte Chalonnaise and once again I was seriously impressed by the quality he has achieved. Given how inexpensive the wines are in most markets I highly recommend them to you for both quality and value.”

Allen Meadows, Burghound

“Vincent Dureuil can make a strong claim to rank as the finest producer in the Côte Chalonnaise, but even though I am a long-time fan of his wines, I was unprepared for just how good his 2017 collection is. If the 2017 vintage in Burgundy has a defect, it’s that the wines can be rather facile and immediate; but that is emphatically not the case chez Dureuil-Janthial, as these whites and reds are serious and tightly wound, built for the cellar. Indeed, this is quite simply the finest set of young wines that I have ever tasted from Dureuil, and I couldn’t recommend them more emphatically.” 

William Kelley,The Wine Advocate

It is always a thrill to taste the new releases from this supremely talented grower. Not only are the wines here unparalleled within the Côte Chalonnaise, but they also regularly compare in quality with the best of the Côte d’Or. This status has long been recognised by this grower’s peers and certain French critics, and is now also finally being acknowledged outside France. When you consider this reality and then consider how the prices compare with those of the Côte d’Or, it becomes clear as to why the wines are in such high demand, and why export markets like ours receive such limited quantities.

Vincent Dureuil is no overnight success. In fact, he has been working his backside off for twenty-plus years in his family’s vines (mostly in Rully but also with some small parcels in the Côte d’Or, where both his Bourgogne-level wines come from). The usual quality drivers apply: excellent sites; established vines; perfectionist and strictly organic viticulture; natural fermentations; no fining or filtration; and fastidious cellar work. All of this was publicly recognised in 2019 when he received the coveted Vigneron of the Year title from La Revue du Vin de France.

Vincent DureuilVincent took over the domaine from his father Raymond in 1994 at the tender age of 24. With his densely calloused hands that would not look out of place on André the Giant, it’s immediately clear that Vincent is a man of the soil. He carries himself with an understated confidence that befits a man of his enormous talents.

Despite the accolades, Vincent Dureuil is still one of Burgundy’s least-known stars outside France. The location of his cellar (and most of his vines) is well off the beaten track in the village of Rully in the Côte Chalonnaise. Also, his name is hard to pronounce off the page (it’s Doo-ray), as is his village (Roo-Yee). But as Côte d’Or prices skyrocket and drive many to look beyond the famous villages for quality, more and more buyers and critics are finding their way here.

It’s hard to argue with William Kelley when he writes that the 2017s are, “the finest set of young wines that I have ever tasted from Dureuil.” The whites are simply brilliant and the reds are clearly in “best ever” territory.

 

In the Vineyard

“Vincent Dureuil’s family may be one of Rully’s oldest, but no one in the Côte Chalonnaise is more innovative or pioneering. A committed practitioner of organics in a region that’s still almost entirely conventionally farmed, Dureuil’s tireless vineyard work and deft winemaking produce Rully’s finest wines. Texturally gourmand but always reliably succulent, even incisive, the domaine’s whites set the standard for the appellation and would embarrass many loftier appellations from the Côte de Beaune.” 

William Kelley,The Wine Advocate

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.

In the Winery

His approach in the cellar is classic and minimalist. For the whites, the whole bunches are pressed slowly and racked straight into barriques, about 20% of which are new. Fermentation begins with indigenous yeasts, with little sulfur used at any point except before bottling. The wines are aged in barrel for 12 months after which they are racked to tanks for a further 4-6 months of aging, depending on cuvée. The reds are always 100% destemmed and given a cold maceration of 8-10 days in old wooden upright fermentation tanks. They ferment slowly before being racked into barrique (25% new) and aged for 12 months. After another 4-6 months in tank, they are bottled unfined and unfiltered. From the Bourgogne Blanc to the over 20 top parcels throughout Rully, this range of reds and whites never fails to astound and delight – one must truly look toward Chassagne, Puligny or Chambolle to find his true peers. In fact, it has been open secret for some time that Vincent is a go-to favorite for many of Burgundy’s top vignerons.

The key to Vincent’s success has always been balance. This not only pertains to his winemaking, but his personal life as well.

The 2018 Vintage at Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial

“Last year, I wrote that Vincent’s 2017s represented his finest portfolio to date (or at least in my tasting experience), and 2018 is a very worthy successor: the whites are touch more gourmand and textural in personality and will likely drink at their peak younger, while the reds are deeper pitched and more concentrated than their 2017 counterparts. In any case, the result is an embarrassment of riches. Plenty will find a place in my own cellar, and I couldn’t recommend them to readers more warmly than that.”

William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

Where in the World is Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial?

While Vincent has holdings in Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Gains and .39ha in Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Argillières. Rully (pron: rooh-yee) is in the Côte Chalonnaise is his home. 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.

You can see Rully just below the line demarking the border between the Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise

Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge 🔎

 

91 Points

“The 2018 Rully offers up lovely aromas of cassis, blackberries, rich soil tones and dark chocolate. Medium to full-bodied, round and fleshy, its generous core of fruit is underpinned by lively acids and velvety tannins. Last year, I wrote that the 2017 rendition was one of the most unabashedly delicious Rully reds that I can remember tasting from Vincent Dureuil, but this 2018 is just as charming—and with somewhat more depth, too.”

William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

Where in the world does the magic happen?

Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial, Rue de la Buisserole, Rully, France

Rully
Côte Chalonnaise
Burgundy
France