It’s not every day that we spotlight Burgundy’s Côte Chalonnaise. However, there is one producer that we’re thrilled with: Vincent Dureuil in Rully. Vincent is a favorite producer among Burgundy’s circle of vignerons. With fervent backing from wine critic William Kelley, he’s getting his long-overdue spotlight in the mainstream. Allocations have dramatically shrunk, but today's offer includes several cases of Vincent's flagship Rully Blanc. In short, these humble Rully wines rise to the occasion of white Burgundy’s top echelon.

Rully sits on the northernmost border of the Côte Chalonnaise, just five miles south of Chassagne Montrachet, and therefore shares similar clay and limestone soils to the Côte de Beaune. The Rully Village comes from old vines across four lieu-dits and the Maizières from a single vineyard planted in 1997, after Vincent took over. Both wines are made in the same manner: Native fermentation in barrel with some stirring of the lees and 12 months of aging (20% new oak). The Rully is a clear picture of the cool, classic 2017 vintage, and Maizières’s east-facing exposure and clay-based soils always express bolder orchard fruit.

Vincent showed a keen talent for winemaking from an early age. He took over his family's domaine when he was 24 years old. For three decades, Vincent has upheld his appellation’s ability to produce as elegant and terroir-driven wines as anywhere else in Burgundy. He transitioned to organic farming in the mid-2000s and continues to skillfully care for the vines planted by his grandfather in 1949. Domaine Dureuil-Janthial epitomizes the purity and elegance we long for in white Burgundy!

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Photo Credit: North Berkeley Imports

Bernard, Anne, and Pierre Boisson are the best-kept secret in Burgundy's Côte de Beaune. Mainly enjoyed by a dedicated following in France, the wines exported to the US often end up on the wine lists at restaurants, such as The French Laundry and Eleven Madison Park. Weekly hang-out sessions with Bernard while studying at the University of Dijon in early 2012 put these wines on my radar.

The family's friendship with Domaine Coche-Dury most definitely impacts the style here, having that magical touch of reduction that many try to emulate, with few finding similar success. Here, it's executed brilliantly, offering a flinty and saturating mineral quality matched with deep texture, concentration, and length. Much like Coche-Dury, the Boisson Bourgogne Blancs transcend the humble designation, all coming from vines located within Meursault.

The Meursault cuvées are where this domaine reaches its pinnacle. However, a dark horse in the lineup may be the En Reugne Blanc. Auxey Duresses has been dubbed "Baby Meursault" before, but this top bottling outperforms much of what's found in Meursault. Also, Anne's Aligoté offers a transformative experience that elicits Leroy and Coche at a serious fraction of the price.

Now that Bernard has retired, this release marks the third vintage exclusively labeled under Anne and Pierre. They work in the same cellar "separately though cooperatively," Bernard told William Kelley on his most recent visit, "and vinify in their own way." In general, new oak is limited to 30% maximum, with Bourgogne-level wines at 5% to 10%. The wines then see long aging with no battonage, and their family-farmed land has been free of pesticides and herbicides for generations.

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"Joseph Colin—who left Domaine Marc Colin to start a domaine of his own in 2016—is going from strength to strength and is justly delighted with his 2019 portfolio." — William Kelley, Wine Advocate

While Pierre-Yves was the first to go out on his own from the Colin family, his younger brother, Joseph, proved with his 2017 inaugural release that he's also the real deal. So how does Joseph's style differ from that of his older brother? They generally have less of a reductive element, and the new oak is a bit more (still just 25% nearly across the board). The fruit profile has a touch more flesh and forward personality but shares the hallmark salinity and verve found in Pierre-Yves' wines. Stylistically, the brothers share much more in common than their father, Marc Colin, whose wines have a stronger imprint of new oak and softer, glossier texture. Starting in 1993, Joseph began working full-time at his family's domain at the age of 19. The brothers spent ten years working alongside their father until Pierre-Yves left to start his own domaine in 2003. Joseph has been at the helm of Domaine Marc Colin ever since and, in 2017, took six hectares of the family's holdings for himself.

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