From: Burgundy, France
Varietal: Pinot Noir

Taste: This gorgeous Les Bourgeots is showing beautifully in the glass now (2024), and we’re so thrilled to offer it. As of now, ethereal, stony red fruits show hints of violet, a touch of spice, and Morello cherry. The elegance of this wine is noteworthy, and anyone who favors nuance over power will absolutely adore everything you’ll find in the glass. Drinking well now, we recommend watching this wine unfold over time or a short decant of 20-45 minutes should do the trick.

Pairing: The usual suspects will win with this gorgeous red and those like it. Coq au Vin, poulet roti served with roasted fingerling pots and caramelized shallots with sautéed mushrooms, charcuterie and fromage boards, anything centered around mushrooms as a main feature, pasta with sausage, sage, squash, and brown butter, porcini or duck risotto (check out the recipe below), and dishes centered around butternut squash like butternut squash and cheese galette, a savory butternut squash pie, a roasted grape and butternut squash bruschetta, or butternut squash polenta with sausage and onion.

Risotto With Duck Confit
By Jonathan Reynolds

About. Many thanks to the folks at The Source Imports for all these details about Rodolphe Demougeot! For as amazing as these wines are, there’s scant information or market presence of Rodolphe’s wines around, and we were thrilled to read and now share the following with you.

The path to Rodolphe Demougeot’s current level of quality took a while after taking over the family domaine in 1992. Since then, he’s amassed eight hectares of vines in the Côte de Beaune and year by year upped the ante on his attention to detail in the cellar and vineyard, raising his own personal bar and capturing the attention of his illustrious neighbors with more enviable vineyard stables in Meursault and Pommard.

Rodolphe explains that he “learned how to do perfect chemical farming from his family and had to deprogram his vineyards and himself, which took a lot of time”—a courageous and an evolved sense of self and humility to admit. Another telling quote of his candid and honest character is that he needed to learn to be a good farmer first, and then learn to improve his performance in the cellar. If only everyone approached life with this kind of blatant and unflinching honesty about their own process!

Since the mid 2000s, synthetic treatments of herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers were systematically abandoned one step at a time. Then his interest in the inexplicable but observable energies of the cosmos and its influence on grapes and wine came to be central to his decision making. The moon is his compass for the timing of processes during growing, farming, picking, racking, and bottling.

Today, Rodolphe’s vineyards are impressively farmed and have as much life as any organic or biodynamic vineyard we’ve set foot in. He’s renowned for the quality of his farming by top growers in his area, and with all the talent in his hometown of Meursault, that says something. He plows most of his vineyards by tractor, but in some of his top sites, like the Pommard, 1er Cru Les Charmots, he works with a horse. His cluster selection is made early in the season to concentrate the energy of the vines to fewer clusters through the fruiting season in the pursuit of quality over quantity. Everything is done by hand and under severe scrutiny within his humble Côte d’Or holdings.

Demougeot’s white wines are an obvious win, and you don’t have to be a wine specialist to figure that out. However, his reds are equal in quality and perhaps easy to overlook in the shadow of his extraordinary whites. It’s often difficult to separate many wine tasters with the concept that red wines should bring something obviously substantial rather than subtle and refined as Rodolphe’s reds; but for wine drinkers it can be an entirely different calibration. Compelling wines are not a one-act concerto; they build as they go and end with a standing ovation that begs for another glass, or two. That’s Rodolphe’s style.

Rodolphe’s Chardonnay wines are whole cluster pressed and undergo a natural fermentation without bâtonnage (lees stirring), unless the vintage spare due to challenging weather that they need a little help. Sulfites are added for the first and only time at bottling, which seems to accentuate nuances that have required reading between the lines—the gift given only to the astute and patient wine drinker. From the Bourgogne Blanc all the way to his top white, Meursault Le Limozin, all are aged equally in 90% old oak barrels with a modest 10% of them new. The Bourgogne Blanc is a knockout and entirely sourced from vines below substantial Meursault village appellation vines and has the unmistakable mark of the appellation. His Meursaults, uninhibited by the excessive hands-on approach of insecure winemaking, are pure and bridge the gap between the baroque and the fashionable. In cold years they are a shoo-in, and in warm years can be unexpectedly stunning and fraught with tension typically found in a much cooler year. Here, the hand in the wine is only felt in the quality of the fruit and the soft touch in the glass. Bravo Rodolphe.

Like the whites, the reds are somewhere in the middle of the classic and trendy roads but are crafted to express more elegance than power. The fermentations are made without stems and last two to three weeks depending on the year. They are lightly extracted using the infusion approach, which is to say very little is done to disturb the grapes during the process of morphing from exquisite raw produce to a wine built through intention the moment the vines were pruned to the day the grapes were picked at their most optimal moment. Once pressed and put into barrel the wines aren’t moved until bottling. Like the whites, the first sulfite addition is made just prior to bottling to allow an unhindered development of each wine’s truer voice before the intrusion of the sulfites. The wines are spared excess new oak usage, unless the vineyard has a habit of rendering wines with increased tannin levels than others, like his Beaune lieux-dits, Les Beaux Fougets and Les Epenotes, not too far from the great Pommard premier cru, Les Petits Epenots, just to the south. On his top Pommard wines, Les Vignots and premier cru, Les Charmots, 70% older oak barrels are employed, while on the village appellation wines they typically land between 90-85% old oak barrels.

When in Burgundy with a very well-known Austrian winegrower, we visited many of the top producers in our portfolio. Not surprisingly, Demougeot’s wines were his favorite. He explained that he was drawn to them for their purity and unpretentiousness, and that his terroirs are on display without any unnecessary stylistic obstacles. He also ranked Rodolphe’s reds over his whites. Rodolphe’s wines are honest and his effort in the vineyards and the respect he has for his fruit is felt in the subtlety and gentleness of his wines. They are treated like a good sushi chef does the perfect piece fish: as little as possible to let it speak for itself.

So much is written about Burgundy that it seems silly to try to add more clay to that never finished sculpture. Even more absurd is to rewrite what’s been written in so many books on the subject that thoroughly cover each of its communes and their subsections as well as most of its premier cru vineyards and certainly its grand crus, ad nauseam. A summary will suffice here for where Rodolphe’s vineyards are and in the product descriptions you will likely find some details you may not find in the books.

Rodolphe’s family vineyards are principally between Meursault and Pommard, with only a single 1er Cru site in Pommard (Les Charmots) and many favorable village parcels between the two. In Meursault, all three of his parcels are on the south end of the appellation in fabulous spots above (one site) and below (two sites) the great premier crus, Perrières, Genevrières, and Charmes. He has a small collection in Beaune in both red and white, as well as a village and premier cru in Savigny-lès-Beaune. His exceptional Bourgogne Blanc is sourced below many of Meursault’s vineyards on the south of the appellation, and compelling Bourgogne Rouge from a single parcel of old vines in Chassagne-Montrachet. Additionally, they have a Auxey-Duresses and Monthélie, both fine and savory wines for those moments you need a break from the fruit with a stroll through the wet forest and all of its lovely fresh smells.

This Wine
In the village-classified area of Savigny-lès-Beaune that rests between the appellation's two hills sits an alluvial plain with a lot of sand and gravel. This is home to the Savigny-les-Beaune "Les Bourgeots”. For some reason, not quite fully understood, Les Bourgeots has something special going on in it for a village lieu-dit, but it is likely to do with the fact that it is downslope from La Dominode, Les Peuillets and Les Marconnets. In fact, Simon Bize, historically the top producer in the appellation, bottled a Les Bourgeot village lieu-dit for a long time and only recently took the name off the label to simply call it by its appellation name. However, this vineyard still makes up almost all of Bize's Savigny-les-Beaune appellation red, which is why it's so good! Demougeot’s parcel is just next to Bize's and is deservedly labeled with the vineyard name to highlight its origin and demonstrate the quality of this particular spot. With vines planted in 1949, this wine delivers great texture and a mild but supple personality.

INFORMATION DISCLAIMER
Terroir: In the village area that rests between the two hills sits an alluvial plain with a lot sand and gravel. This is home to the village lieu-dit, Bourgeots. For some reason, not quite fully understood, Bourgeots has something special going on in it for a village wine, but it is likely to do with the fact that it is downslope from La Dominode, Peuillets and Marconnets. In fact, Simon Bize, the top producer in the appellation, bottled it as a lieu-dit for a long time and only recently took it off the label but still makes up almost all of their Savigny-les-Beaune village red. Demougeot’s parcel is just next to theirs and is deservedly labeled recognizing its origin in this particular spot. With vines planted in 1949, this wine delivers great texture and a mild but rich personality.

Vinification: 100% of the grapes are destemmed and placed in cement and stainless steel vats. The grape must is chilled down to eight degrees and then allowed to start a spontaneous fermentation that usually lasts about two to three weeks depending on the vintage conditions. They are lightly extracted using the infusion approach, which is to say very little is done to disturb the grapes during the fermentation and maceration. Once pressed, it’s settled in a tank overnight and gravity fed into into barrel the wines where they stay without racking until preparations for bottling. As he does with the white wines, the first sulfite addition is made at bottling and they are spared excess use of new oak during the aging.

Aging: Aged for 14-16 months in 75% old French oak and 25% new. This wine may receive a light filtration but is never fined.