Domaine Alain Burguet

We first started importing Alain Burguet’s fabulous Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes in the late 1980s and the wines have always remained great favourites. Even at that time, Alain was making a firm but private stand against the use of systemic treatments and today all the vineyards are worked by organic methods. He was also keen to keep the use of sulphur to a minimum, a philosophy the domaine still adopts today. Whilst many of the ideas remain the same, since the 2011 vintage, the domaine has been run by Alains’ sons, Jean-Luc and Eric. Our memories of the early vintages we imported from Alain, are of wines with impressive concentration, possessing life and personality, but very structured with firm presence of youthful tannin, which demanded time in bottle. Over the years, the tannins have been tamed and the wines have gained a real purity of fruit and harmony. Visiting the domaine again this year, it is clear that the recent vintages certainly possess a new found finesse and sophistication. This has undoubtedly been brought about by the conscious decision to pick later and achieve optimum ripeness and also as a result of investments in the cellar, including new vibrating sorting tables. This ensures that only the healthiest, perfectly ripe fruit is used and the vibration also enables any soil or unclean matter to be discarded.