2020 Domaine Jean-Marc Vincent, Auxey-Duresses Blanc “Les Hautés” White Burgundy, France.
It would be almost expected to mistake this Auxey-Duresses for a top Premier Cru or even a Grand Cru White Burgundy, and such is the class, depth and pleasure on the palate here, you’d be hard pressed to share it with the table! The Jean-Marc Vincent Auxey-Duresses Les Hautés Blanc from the concentrated and ripe vintage 2020 has the richness you’d want, but still thrills with fresh acidity, mineral tones and precise detailing with fine aromatics and a crisp steely layering of lemon, apple, firm Bosc pear and a touch of fleshy peach fruit, as well as lime flower, wet flint, gingery clove spice, delicate hazelnut and subtle wood notes. Just beginning to shed its natural reduction and gain textural grace, this is a beautiful Chardonnay with a lingering dry chalky detail and is brilliantly balanced and looks like a sleeper in the lineup here. Sometimes crowded out by huge stars in importer Kermit Lynch’s exceptional Burgundy portfolio, Vincent flies under the radar, but they do get taken very seriously by quite group of collectors and enthusiasts, making the wines not easily found. A big thank you to my friend and wine professional Alex Lallos, who shared this one with me as part of a casual panel and meal that included some elite wines, where this one stood out.
The Domaine Jean-Marc Vincent and vignerons/winemakers Anne-Marie and Jean-Marc Vincent have raised the game with their series of Auxey-Duresses wines that have taken this part of the Côte d’Or to new and exciting heights. For the Village level cuvée Les Hautés Blanc, the Vincent’s sourced the grapes from 100% organic parcels, including 20-55 year old vines in a tiny lieu-dit set on the classic Marl, clay and limestone soils in the Auxey-Duresses region of the Côtes de Beaune, sandwiched between Monthelie and Meursault. The humble and once overlooked AOC Auxey-Duresses, now a hot spot like Saint-Aubin, was only created in 1970. Interestingly, before the introduction of the appellation system in the 1930s, wines from Auxey-Duresses were sometimes sold under the names of its more famous neighbors Volnay and Meursault. The whites, which make up one third of the area’s production, are really the stars here these days, even though Vincent’s reds are lovely and I recommend them as well. Vincent, based in Santenay, does a classic barrel fermentation and aging here with this wine seeing close to 15 months in mostly used oak, allowing the terroir to shine through, while still giving a touch of leesy complexity and toasty luxuriousness, as seen here with this excellent light gold hued wine. I see that prices are starting to soar for the later vintages, so grabbing this 2020 seems a good investment.
($154 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive