Bourgogne,2017RedWine

Sans

This is a complex red made from Pinot Noir, with powerful, forward black cherry aromatics, exotic spice, and hints of earth. Florent’s use of 400-liter barrels for aging adds dimensional texture without overpowering the nose or palate. On the palate, this rare wine evokes the silkiness of Volnay and the power of Pommard.

About this wine producer: Like Raphaël Bérêche, Florent Garaudet is a self-confident, socially intelligent visionary, who, at the age of twenty-three was impatient to strike out on his own. So instead of coming to work alongside his father, Paul Garaudet, on the estate that has been in the family for five generations, Florent talked both of his grandmothers into giving him their vines, and beginning with the 2008 vintage, has rocketed to the head of the class in Monthelie.

At his own domaine, Florent does everything, from answering the phone to bottling the wine. “It’s not a gigantic task to take care of a three-hectare estate,” he told me. “So I can be very careful when I work.” To his advantage, the vineyards are mostly old, and densely planted at nearly 12,000 vines per hectare. All of his wines, white and red, spend time in oak barrels. But only one third on average are new, and most are 400-liter puncheons, rather than traditional 228-liter Burgundian pièces. The result is wines with elegant structure, serious concentration, and above all, compelling freshness.