2019 Duroché Vosne-Romanée 

No one deserves their on-the-ascent fame more than Pierre Duroché, though in person I always sense that he embraces his star turn reluctantly. His blushing acknowledgment of the reputation of his wines is so obviously genuine, and you get the feeling he would rather be working away in his Clos de Bèze than hearing you prattle on about how superb his wines have become. 

 Pierre's wines are pure and graceful and detailed, with a certain relaxed and cheerful feel.  The wines are more extroverted than most but never showy.  That they drink well young is a testament to tireless farming and skillful extraction, which rarely allow for other than a resplendent youthful appeal.  There is often a baie par baie-like sweetness of fruit and tannin.  

 Pierre is among the vignerons who views 2019 as a more concentrated version of 2017, a view I find accurate.  Most commentators, rightly recognizing the power of the vintage, seem to anchor their view primarily on this aspect. But my own experience leads me toward a different conclusion: fundamentally, 2019 is a vintage of freshness, to which it adds unexpected power and intensity. The proper sequencing of these features seems critical. '15s tend to present as fundamentally solar, rich wines behind which one seeks adequate freshness.  '19, particularly in its better examples, is the opposite. 

 The 2019 Vosne-Romanée is a domaine wine in all but name, as Pierre and Marianne ‘purchase’ the fruit from Marianne’s father.  The importance is not in the semantical difference, but owes to the fact that the Duroché difference is superb husbandry, a reality that necessitates viticultural control.  At Duroché fruit is both an end and a beginning, and 'style' here is nothing more than a vivid and natural transformation of perfect fruit.  The wines are neither wrought nor expressive of idiosyncratic winemaking. 

 The nose opens quickly to reveal luscious red fruit, some strawberry in with the darker cherry, and a sweet-seeming spice register than pulls in allspice and clove-y notes. There is wonderful definition and clarity in the mouth, where clear lines of dark red berries, violets, and allspice cohere with unusual harmony.  This is a sleek and stylish villages, one that would embarrass many a premier cru.