Domaine Drouhin-Laroze· Gevrey-Chambertin
About the domain.
Few addresses in Gevrey-Chambertin carry the patrimony that Drouhin-Laroze does. The family has held this cellar since 1850, six generations deep, and Caroline Drouhin runs it now. The history is real, but what keeps me returning is the map.
Five Grand Crus, Chapelle-Chambertin, Latricières-Chambertin, Bonnes-Mares, Clos de Vougeot, and a slender slice of Musigny, across holdings that touch the finest ground on the Côte de Nuits. The Latricières grows on vines planted in 1947, the Musigny in 1949. These are not acquisitions but inheritance, and almost no domaine of this scale can match the concentration of great terroir behind a single label.
The Chapelle-Chambertin and the Latricières are, to my palate, the defining wines in the range, and the Bonnes-Mares is dense without ever turning heavy. Oak runs thirty to fifty percent new, whole-cluster stays modest, and the wines go unfined.
What has changed is the touch. The recent vintages mark a clear turning point, the extraction more precise, the fruit more transparent, the tannins finer-grained, pinot noir at its most legible. This is a house moving from grand to thrilling, and I allocate the Grand Crus accordingly. Ask early.
Elegant, transparent.
A vintage that crystallised the recent direction at the domaine, precise extraction, lifted fruit, fine-grained tannins. Pinot noir at its most transparent.
Cool, classical.
A small-yielding, cool vintage producing red Burgundies of clarity and tension. Modest oak, modest whole-cluster, no fining.
Warm, structured.
A warm vintage handled with restraint. The Grand Crus carry weight without losing their distinct vineyard signatures.