Those of you who know and love Burgundy need no explanation about what's happened to the market over the last few years. As if the competition for the Côte d'Or's best wines wasn't already fierce enough, being locked up at home during the pandemic only strengthened the resolve of our hobby's fiercest collectors, while creating thousands of new Burgundy enthusiasts who made time to find a new passion. As you can understand, when the opportunity to find drinkable, reasonably-priced Burgundy with both age and press arrives, we don't spend much time thinking about it. We act!!
Domaine de Bellene was started by Burgundy bon vivant Nicolas Potel back in 2005, after having made wine previously as a negotiant merchant using the maison label. As Clive Coates wrote in his tome The Wines of Burgundy, Patel has always been a savvy winemaker, who "seemed to have a knack for securing parcels which had eluded his peers," and noting "the range of wines was impressive, both for its breadth and for its high quality." Today, we have a series of library offerings from both the domaine wines and the maison wines, all of which have fantastic press and have been cellared to perfection. We've tried every one of them, and we 100% vouch for their quality.
Check out the full selection here and click on each wine for scores and press.
-David Driscoll