2017 Domaine Dureuil-Janthial, Rully, Bourgogne Blanc, France.
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve had a few wines by Vincent Dureuil, at Domaine Dureuil-Janthial recently, including his fabulous 2020 Côte Chalonnaise Aligoté, which my friend and wine enthusiast Lee Lightfoot shared with me and another wine insider Alex Lallos brought me this lovely and rewarding 2017 Rully to try, lucky me as this producer is making some fabulous whites these days. I know this small winery mainly for this Rully Blanc bottling, which is always an outstanding Burgundy value and this vintage is maturing well and delicious in the glass with a pale gold hue and fetching aromatics that include white flowers, wet stone and clove spice, leading to a lifted medium bodied palate of classic Burgundy goodies, with lemon preserves, quince, apple, pear and faint orange fruits, along with a strong mineral intensity, a rich leesy hazelnut note and a hint of brown butter or butterscotch decadence. The age has cut into the reduction and allowed a purity to shine through and the texture is elegant and rounded with losing its charming energy and mouth watering saline quality. White Burgundy enthusiasts would be smart and savvy to grab some of the current releases of Domaine Dureuil-Janthial, in particular the exotic and denser 2020s, though the lithe and steely 2021s are looking very attractive as well, depending or your mood and or preference of style.
I have also enjoyed Domaine Dureuil-Janthial’s regular Bourgogne Blanc in other vintages, and their Rully 1er Cru “Chapitre” as mentioned before, also, very much caught my attention, along with the Aligoté, which as I said above is very much worth chasing down. The winemaking at Domaine Dureuil-Janthial is pretty much a process of staying out of the way and allowing the vintage, the grapes and the vineyards do the work and the speaking in the bottle, rather than forcing anything in the cellar. Vincent Dureuil gives the grapes a soft and slow whole-cluster pressing and then racks the juice straight into exclusively used barriques where the Chardonnay ferments with only indigenous yeasts. And in most cases, the wine sees about 12 months on the lees in neutral barrel and then another 6 months in stainless steel tank before bottling, to promote transparency and keep loads of verve. Vincent who took over the Dureuil-Janthial domaine from his father Raymond in 1994, has passionately made it his mission in wine to up the game in this part of the Côte Chalonnaise, which sits just about five miles south of Chassagne-Montrachet, and especially Rully, which is a fine limestone and clays terroir. Though lesser known than some other places, like St. Aubin, Santenay or Saint Romain, Rully makes for some tasty Chardonnays that deliver some of the best bargains in White Burgundy, such as this one. There’s a lot to admire here, with Dureuil’s collection of Rully Blancs and Rouge, as well as a selection of Puligny-Montrachet bottlings and even a Mercurey Rouge to look out for.
($48 to 59 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive