2021 Maison Lou Dumont, Bourgogne Rouge, Red Burgundy, France.
One of the most interesting new discoveries in recent years, especially in regards to Burgundy, has been Koji Nakada and Jae Hwa Park’s Maison Lou Dumont, based in Gevrey-Chambertin and I really loved their basic savvy, lovely and lingering Bourgogne Rouge, which a friend turned me on to recently. Even in a less than heralded vintage like 2021, this Lou Dumont Bourgogne shows off a deep garnet/ruby hue in the glass and a full range of flavors on the medium bodied palate with a pure and silky layering of black cherry, dusty raspberry, tart plum, cranapple and earthy strawberry fruits, as well as cola bean, wilted roses, cinnamon, beet root, mineral and tea spices. This wine gives a lot for price and humble labelling with solid, but velvety structuring, nice depth and pretty length, all of which you more expect from a wine twice the price. Winemaker Koji Nakada uses all organic grapes and takes a minimal approach to his wines, limiting pump overs and punch downs, being very gentle with his macerations and musts. He, as his importer notes, vinifies all of his wines with natural yeasts and adds low doses of sulfites during vinification, with this Bourgogne Rouge seeing 3-5 days of cold maceration and approximately 15 days of cuvaison before being pressed to most used barrels. The wine spends close to 17 months in the wood, with about 20% new French oak and then one month in stainless steel tanks before bottling.
I learned that, with a true passion for Burgundy and the dream of making wine, ex-Japanese Sommelier Koji Nakada left Tokyo, Japan in 1996 and moved to Beaune to study oenology at the prestigious CFPPA. To really succeed in France he thought it best that he better learn French, so he enrolled in language class in Dijon, which changed his life, since his teacher was Jae Hwa Park, originally Korean, who he ended up marrying. During Koji’s studies in Beaune, and during his subsequent internships at Chateau Kirwan in Bordeaux, and at small houses in Champagne and Alsace, the two had dated and, as noted, then married and then established their Maison Lou Dumont, an artisanal micro-negociant label in 2000. lmported by Shiverick Imports, the Lou Dumont wines already have a cult following and are snapped up quickly when the small batches arrive in the States, lucky for me, my friend Alex Lallos, who is a partner in No Limits Fine Wines, was an early admirer of Koji’s wines and got a selection of his efforts and I got a chance to enjoy this one. This wine is sourced from organic sites in Haute Côtes de Nuits, Raisins Bio de Mercurey and Declasse St. Romain, on classic clay and chalky limestone soils that add to the complexity and balance here. I understand that the name Lou Dumont is a combination of their goddaughter’s name, Lou, and the French for mountain, paying homage to the areas in Japan and Korea where Koji and Jae Hwa grew up. The Kanji symbol on the label—sky, earth and man, refer to the basic elements which make wine possible and the concept of terroir.
($45 ESt.) 93 Points, grapelive