Monthelie in Burgundy The Souce of Red Burgundy with “exemplary qualité-prix rapport “
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Monthelie vineyards in the fall.
Bob cooked a braised pork shoulder last night and we drank a glass of Monthelie les Duresses Premier Cru 2006 from Paul Garaudet.
It was spot-on spectacular!
Velvety smooth with delicate tannins and red and black fruit flavors.
”The 2006 Red Burgundies are exceptionally aromatic and elegant with the best transparency to the underlying terroir since the 2001s, all wrapped in admirably persistent finishes with fine detail and a more pronounced sense of minerality than most vintages possess. -Allen Meadows, Burghound
I think a lot of people believe that buying Burgundy is treacherous terrain. Siren temptresses, beguiling and mysterious, who sometimes are not what we want them to be and who do not measure up to the credit card receipt.
Stop right there! Its because theyve never had Paul Garaudets Monthelie in their glass. It is a beautiful expression of Pinot Noir in all its splendor. There is a sublime weightlessness and deep profundity at the same time.
For me Burgundy ignites the senses in a way that no other French wine area can . If you havent visited, you must. Golden slopes, one-café villages, the worlds most tantalizing and diverse wines. Friendly growers in rubber boots and moth-eaten sweaters their wives knitted in a previous decade will greet you at the door and lead you down to their liquid gold coffers.
But, yes, they can be expensive so you have to remember the smart Burgundy drinkers’ rule: Look for wines from a lesser-known appellation will be substantially cheaper than one known the world over and its can be just as good if the grower is talented. That is where I come in: wading through the bad to get to the good.
This brings me to Monthelie which is a little hillside Arcadia. It straddles the borders of Volnay and Meursault on hillside vineyards that get excellent exposure. There are only 200 Montheliens as they are called, and there isnt a village center — just growers houses winding up a hillside to the requisite church at the top of the village all surrounded by vines.
For a long time, the wines of Monthelie were part of their (famous and expensive) neighbor Volnay. In fact, before Monthelie got its own appellation back in 1937, the wines were labeled as Volnay or Pommard.
Paul ages his reds in oak, a third of which is new, for up to 18 months. He neither fines nor filters his reds. The wines age with grace almost a sweetness and a beautiful equilibrium sets in.
La Revue du Vin de France has characterized Paul as a man of rigorous scruples who works very hard to get the most out of a vintage. They characterize his wines as supple and distinguished with pure fruit and well-integrated tannins with an exemplary qualité-prix rapport particularly when compared with other growers in that neck of the woods.
Paul makes a village Monthelie and also a Premier Cru: les Duresses. The Duresses has a bit more structure and is a bit pricier. I used to buy only the village, which is deeply colored with aromas of blackberries and cherries and oak, but I got sucked in by the richness of the 1er cru les Duresses and now buy them both. Cynthia Hurley