Drouhin-Laroze

An Atherton Wine Imports Direct Domaine

Domaine Drouhin-Laroze was founded in the mid-1800s by Jean-Baptiste Laroze. His descendant, Philippe Drouhin, now runs the Domaine. Philippe is distantly related to Robert Drouhin of the famous Joseph Drouhin negociant firm. The Drouhin-Laroze wines have been on the lists of many Michelin 3-star French restaurants for years, but they are only now being discovered in the USA.

The Domaine’s holdings include many of the very top vineyards in the Cote D’Or. Philippe has progressively lowered yields and produces very concentrated wines that express the true character of these prestigious vineyards. The wines typically age in a significant proportion of new oak and are bottled without either fining or filtration.

Praise for Drouhin-Laroze from Allen Meadows in Burghound

“I have noted continual improvement here since Philippe Drouhin has had full authority to do as he wishes. The style is traditional in the sense that it is neither old school nor modern with moderate extraction and clean aromatics and I've also noticed a meaningful moderation in the amount of oak influence. If you don't know the wines, they're worth a look as they sell for relatively reasonable prices, particularly at the grand cru level.” (Burghound, Jan 2008)

Philippe Drouhin on the 2006 Vintage:

“We had great weather all the way from May 15th to July 27th, when we had hail and subsequently a very ugly August. The berries were quite tiny but all the humidity in August caused them to swell. We passed through the vineyards several times to drop excess fruit and then of course did a careful sorting at the harvest as well to eliminate hail-damaged berries. Chapelle was hit relatively hard but our parcel of Clos de Bčze had light damage and Latricičres and Bonnes Mares had almost none at all, which is to say less than 5%. We began picking on September 21st and brought in correct yields of about 35 hl/ha with sugars in the 11.5 to 12.5% range. I chaptalized between zero and .5%. There was a lot of malic acid and the malos did not finish until July. In terms of the wines, I quite like them as they're balanced, pure, fresh and entirely classic. For me, I would liken them to a blend of 2000 and 2001 and clearly better than 2004.” (Burghound, Jan 2008)

Featured Vineyards

• Musigny
• Chambertin Clos de Beze (vines planted in 1949)
• Bonnes Mares
• Clos de Vougeot – 1.02 ha of old vines close to the wall at the top of the hill
• Latricieres Chambertin – 0.67 ha of very old vines
• Chapelle Chambertin
• Gevrey "Lavaux St. Jacques"
• Gevrey "Au Closeau" (60 year old vines)
• Gevrey "Clos Prieur" (from 1er Cru portion of the vineyard)
• Gevrey "Craipillot"
• Chambolle Musigny (80% Les Baudes 1er Cru and 20% from the villages portion of Les Veroilles)
• Gevrey Chambertin