Domaine Drouhin Vosne Romanée 1er Petits Monts

If there is only one thing you remember when you close this email and move on with your day, it should be the following:

Domaine Drouhin produces some of the finest wines in all of Burgundy. Many people mistakenly think of the domaine as only a large negociant that makes a lot of wine from 100’s of appellations. What most don’t understand is they own a handful of some of the finest plots in Burgundy.   

Today, I want to focus on one of the diamonds in their portfolio, and a personal favorite: Vosne Romanee 1er Les Petits Monts. If you keep reading below, and look at the maps, you’ll begin to understand why this is one of the most underrated Burgundies on the market, and therefore, an undervalued wine.

— STORY —

In 1984, Robert Drouhin, father to three boys and a girl, gifted his only daughter Véronique a parcel of Petits Monts on the southern portion of the appellation, measuring .17 hectare. The plot was purchased from a rather unknown domaine planted with vines from the 1930s.

Then in 1991, they added to this initial parcel with .22 ha purchased from Odile Noellat, although vine age is unclear. One can only imagine that Robert was impressed with what young Véronique had done with her first parcel, and indeed since then, she has become the reference point for Petits Monts. For better or worse, she sells her wine via Maison Joseph Drouhin, her family’s négociant, although as I’ve pointed out, if keeping up with the rather distinguished “Joneses” (their neighbors) were the end goal, this might not help the cause with pricing and recognition.

The Joneses in this case are on another level. You can see from the map below, Les Petits Monts sits directly above Richebourg, squeezed between Cros Parantoux to the north and Les Reignots to the south… extending all the way to the forest. At roughly 3.6 hectares in size, Petits Monts is a good size but with its fractured ownership it is a wine you don’t often see in the market.

*Map credit: Winehog

Today, 40-years after her father’s gifted parcel, Veronique is not only the ambassador and face of the domaine as its winemaker, but has a very personal attachment to Les Petits Monts as its proprietor. On a couple of occasions, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her speak about how special this vineyard is to her- no amount of care or attentiveness is too much, including the painstaking effort to farm biodynamically. 

*Reproduced from Plan Statistique des Vignobles Produisant les Grands Vins de Bourgogne, Beaune 1862 Batault-Morot editor.

Drouhin’s parcels have been farmed biodynamically since the mid 1990’s! There have been no chemical fertilizers or pesticides used for 40 years now and the vines are plowed by horse in a vineyard too steep to be accessible by a tractor. Indeed, Petits Monts, sits high up on the hill overlooking Vosne Romanee, a location making it slower to ripen, usually guaranteeing a nice acidic spine; a hallmark found in the very best Burgundy wine.

This is a map of the 1862 classification - as you can see the lower portion of Petits Monts was given the top distinction. (Source Allen Meadows “Pearl of the Cote”)

Petits Monts offers that unmistakable “Vosne Spice,” with red and black fruits, rose petals and hoisin. When tasting Petits Monts every time you put your nose in the glass it reveals a different subtle flavor lurking beneath. Most of the fruit is destemmed, which surely is one of the reasons for the silky, elegant texture this wine displays. Although some percentage of whole cluster is included, depending on the vintage. Typical cuavison of about 2-3 weeks and then 15-18 months aging in barrel. Normally 2 of the 8 barrels would be new which would translate to roughly 25%. Production is approximately 200cs.

The Drouhin bottling has long been the reference point wine for this vineyard and I’d argue today that it still is. Liger Belair began producing the wine in 2006 when his vines came back from lease. DRC, one of the largest owners, has long sold the grapes to negociant, however in 2018 decided to bottle and release their first vintage. Both wines are incredibly sought after by collectors and sell for tremendous sums. The DRC version 2020 is listed for $19K on Wine Searcher!!  

With today's crazy Burgundy pricing many of the wines are well out of reach for the average collector. Although Drouhins wine is by no means inexpensive, I would argue that it offers a relative bargain when compared to the DRC, or Liger Belair version. With the vineyard sandwiched in between, it's hard to argue the terroir. You don’t drink the label, you drink what is in the bottle!

I was reluctant to spend much time writing such a long email about a $500 wine. I wanted to share with you the story and to provide some perspective as to its location and what a special wine I find it to be. I have multiple vintages in my own cellar and have had the great pleasure to consume numerous bottes over the years. I hold Drouhin in very high regards and feel there are a handful of their wines that compete toe to toe with the very best Burgundy has to offer. I can’t tell you how many times I bring a Drouhin wine to a blind tasting and if it's not the WOTN, it's usually always on the podium. I’ve had more than one person tell me “I wish I would have bought more Drouhin!” I feel the exact same way myself. I’ve been trying to play catch up with the Drouhin wines over the past 5 or so years now. This is truly one of the great wines of Burgundy and why I felt like I wanted to make this offer to you today.