AUXEY DURESSES

2012 1er Cru Domaine Comte Armand

Grapes Pinot Noir
Colour Red
Origin France, Burgundy
District Côte d'Or
Sub-district Côte de Beaune
Village Auxey Duresses
Classification 1er Cru
ABV 13%

Rich and spicy and dense with blackberry, quite a firm and earthy style. L&S (Jan 2014)


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(a blend of two 1ers, the older vines Les Bréterins and Bas de Duresses – the vines run from 35 to 75 years of age). This is also quite firmly reduced. There is good verve and underlying tension to the delicious, intense and lightly mineral-inflected medium-bodied flavors that possess a bit more overall depth and length on the solidly long, dusty and moderately austere finish. Good stuff for what this is and worth a look. 2020+ Rating: 89-91 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Apr 2014)

Comte Armand's 2012 Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru is a bit darker than the villages. Black cherry, plums, cloves and new leather meld together in a deep, structured wine. The low yields of the vintage have given the 1er Cru an unusual level of pure depth. The tannins are also quite imposing, which suggests the wine needs at least a few years in bottle to fully come together. Hints of graphite and menthol inform the powerful finish. 2018-2027 Rating: 89-91 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2014)

Rating: 93 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Jan 2014)

Domaine Comte Armand

A domaine totalling nine hectares, of which the most important part is a magnificent five hectare monopole of the Pommard Premier Cru Clos des Epeneaux, which was put together by Nicolas Marey in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (along with the DRC Romanée Saint Vivant 'Marey-Monge'). These vineyards were all sold, except for the Clos (it now been enclosed by a wall), which came to Jean-François Armand as a dowry when he married Nicolas' daughter in 1826. The Volnay vineyards were added in 1994, followed by parcels in Auxey Duresses.

The current Comte Armand is a lawyer living in Paris, but very supportive of the régisseurs who have looked after this domaine for the thirty years or so that L&S have been buying here. The 1980 vintage, made by one of the many Rossignols of Volnay who was in charge at the time, was for us a great introduction to the possibilities of the great Clos des Epeneaux vineyard. Then came the era of Pascal Marchand, a young Quebecois who came to do a harvest with Domaine Bruno Clair and just never left. He began a period of radical restructuring and the introduction of organic and then biodynamic farming, while making very dark, dense and long-lived wines. Benjamin Leroux, hugely respected amongst growers who approach things from an organic or biodynamic point of view, then took over, and refined this approach and changed the way the parcels of vines are divided up for harvesting, paying less attention to just the age of the vines, and more to the underlying soil types. Claude Bourguignon was employed to provide a full geological survey of the Clos as the basis for this. Under Benjamin the wines of the Clos gained in finesse and precision, while still having the depth and richness expected of a great Pommard.

Both Pascal and Benjamin were keen to expand beyond the confines of the Clos, and the Domaine also has vines in Volnay, and, a particular enthusiasm of both Pascal and Benjamin, in Auxey Duresses, where they are convinced of the great potential of some of this village's undervalued and neglected terroirs. Paul Zinetti, who had worked with Ben for four years, took over in 2014.

The vineyard is cultivated organically (ECOCERT certified) and biodynamically. The grapes are entirely de-stemmed, but left intact, for a five to eight-day cold maceration before the fermentation, which lasts five to ten days, and then the wine remains in the fermenters for between three and fifteen days, depending on the vintage. In most years, the total time with skin contact will be around four weeks, which is longer than most. The wines will then be aged in barrel for between eighteen and twenty-four months, with new wood limited to 30% for the wine from the old vines of the Clos, down to none at all for the village wines.

Paul said from the outset that he wanted to make to make a less tannic wine in the Clos, and one which is more about aromatic length. In this he is continuing the route that Ben was following, but perhaps taking it even further.

This wine isn't currently part of a mixed case, but you can always browse our full selection of mixed cases here.
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