Century-old winemaking continues at Domaine Duroche in France

IN GEVREY-CHAMBERtin, France, one of the world’s most revered wine villages, you could easily drive by the obelisk erected near the intersection of Rue De Combe Du Bas and Place Du Monument and miss the small courtyard tucked behind a green metal gate and one-storyhigh stone wall.

And yet, for more than a century, just beyond the courtyard, the same family has been carefully crafting outstanding wines at Domaine Duroche.

That’s typical for this commune as Gevrey-Chambertin is officially known in northern Burgundy. Here, there are no over-the-top entrances, no lavish tasting rooms. Instead, the wineries here have a quiet confidence slowly forged over centuries.

This is the first of several columns about Gevrey-Chambertin based on my visit earlier this year to this fabled winemaking village in Burgundy.

You know someplace produces great wine when the people who live there change the name of the town to celebrate its wine. Gevrey-Chambertin used to be called Gevrey. Then, in 1847, residents added Chambertin to the town’s name in honor of one of the village’s best vineyards.

Long before Gevrey-Chambertin changed its name in 1847, people were making wine here for thousands of years. And if you’re drinking wine from Gevrey-Chambertin, you’re almost surely drinking red wine made with pinot noir grapes.

Located in the northern part of Burgundy’s Cote de Nuits subregion (part of the larger Cote D’Or region), Gevrey-Chambertin has been producing wine since at least the 1st century AD, according to Jasper Morris’ outstanding book, “Inside Burgundy.”

A French bishop in the 500s, Gregory of Tours, wrote about the exceptional quality of the wine from the village.

This was also around the time monks started making wine in Gevrey-Chambertin. The monks also started building walls in the vineyards to indicate who owned certain sections.

That’s because under Burgundy law, if someone built a wall around uncultivated land, they acquired ownership of it.

Many of those walled vineyards (called “Clos” in French) remain in many Gevrey-Chambertin. And those walls are important since they often trap the heat in the vineyard and influence how the wine tastes.

In 1930, winemakers and officials who regulate wine in Burgundy began classifying certain vineyards in Gevrey-Chambertin and other villages. There are three classifications based on the quality of the wine from particular vineyards. They include:

• Village wines, meaning simply the wine comes from the village of Gevrey-Chambertin and can be a blend of several different vineyards in the village (890 acres of village wines in Gevrey-Chambertin);

• Premier Cru, meaning better wines from a specific vineyard. Gevrey-Chambertin has 26 premier cur vineyards. (212 acres); and

• Grand Cru, the highest quality wines from a specific vineyard, and Gevrey-Chambertin has nine grand cru vineyards, the most of any village in Burgundy. (214 acres).

Louis Duroche founded Domaine Duroche in 1906. Five generations later, his great-great grandson, Pierre Duroche, is in charge of the winery. Pierre grew up there and still looks like the wiry, 21-year-old former rock climber who took over the winery in 2003.

Two decades later, Duroche and his wife, Marianne, continue to create exceptional, understated wines that have attracted legions of fans from around the world. The day I tasted wines there, for example, one of the world’s top sommeliers made a pilgrimage to the winery to taste its wines.

Domaine Duroche makes 12 different pinot noirs, including four grand crus, four premier crus, three additional wines from specific vineyards and one Gevrey-Chambertin village wine. The winery also makes a regional red pinot noir and regional white chardonnay, meaning the grapes can come from anywhere in Burgundy.

“My wife and I are passionate about wine and winemaking,” Pierre Duroche said. “We focus on what we like and I think we want to do something we like and to our taste. We don’t want to copy somebody. We just want to do what we like.”

“We like something very elegant, not heavy,” Duroche added. “It’s funny because sometimes, we can have a light colored wine, very tasty. But at the same time, it’s very dense and concentrated without something heavy. This is very difficult to do but with the pinot noir variety, we can do it – make it light but also very dense and concentrated.”

He also spoke enthusiastically about the 2022 vintage. “It’s a nice vintage,” Duroche said. “Since 2013, we have mostly had very good vintages. 2022 was a warm vintage, but when you taste the wine, it’s very warm and dry. It’s very expressive and complex wine.”

Here are some of my tasting notes on the wines I sampled:

• 2022 Domaine Duroche Bourgogne Pinot Noir (In Barrel): Bright, lively wine with clean, fresh, lively fruit flavors, including cherry and raspberry. Outstanding already and promises to be a wonderful, delightful wine.

• 2022 Domaine Duroche

Village Gevrey-Chambertin (In Barrel): Well-structured, powerful, bright wine with a long, fascinating finish that comes in waves of flavors, including lively hints of fresh blackberries and almonds.

• 2022 Domaine Duroche

Les Jeunes Rois (In Barrel): Vibrant, fruit-forward, well-rounded wine made with grapes from vines planted in 1953 in the Les Jeunes Rois vineyard in the northern part of Gevrey-Chambertin. Fleshy yet delicate fruit flavors, including soft hints of raspberry and cherry.

• 2022 Domaine Duroche Lavaut St. Jacques Premier Cru (In Barrel): Racy, spicy wine made with grapes from vines planted in 1930 in one of the bestknown premier cruvineyards in Gevrey-Chambertin. Domaine Duroche has the largest parcel (three out of 23.5 acres) of 19 wineries that have vines in the Lavaut St. Jacques vineyard. An intense wine with a flinty finish and subtle raspberry flavors, this powerful wine will age beautifully for decades.

THURSDAY