2017 Auxey-Duresses, Comte Armand, Burgundy

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Medium Bodied
  • Pinot Noir
William Kelley
86-88/100
Add to wishlist
Product: 20178013899
2017 Auxey-Duresses, Comte Armand, Burgundy

Description

A lovely bright, luminous colour, this has a very pretty nose and enough weight to balance Auxey’s slightly grainy tannins. With a bigger crop, Paul only had space for eight percent whole-bunch in the tank and the  oak component has been kept to 15 percent. Drink 2020-2024.

Paul Zinetti was realistic yet confident in the quality of his 2017s. Such an early harvest, which started in Volnay Frémiets on 3rd September and ended in Auxey on 11th September, provided new challenges which Paul addressed creatively and sympathetically. The wines were fruity and direct but he found that colour and structure were slow to come, so he kept the wine on skins for a week or more after fermentation. There is less whole-bunch this year as the stems weren’t always fully ripe, but his de-stemmer preserves a lot of whole berries anyway. He will bottle all the reds before Christmas without filtration but he will trial some fining to round out the tannins.

Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2017
Alcohol % 14
Grape List Pinot Noir
Body Medium Bodied
Property Domaine Comte Armand

Critics reviews

William Kelley 86-88/100
The 2017 Auxey-Duresses Village offers up aromas of earthy red fruits, espresso roast and recently used wood, followed by a medium-bodied, firm and tangy palate. The wine had just been racked when I tasted it, so I suspect it will have fleshed out by the time it's bottled, but Paul Zinetti told me it might be fined.William Kelley - 31/01/2019
William Kelley, RobertParker.com (Jan 2019)

About this wine

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or. Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.

Domaine Comte Armand

Owned by the family of the Comte Armand since 1825, Clos des Epeneaux is among Pommard’s most revered vineyards. Post-phylloxera, it wasn’t replanted until 1930. Further vineyards were acquired in ’94: Auxey-Duresses, Auxey-Duresses Premier Cru, Volnay and Volnay’s Frémiets. The modern era effectively began with Pascal Marchand, who was succeeded as winemaker by Benjamin Leroux. When Ben left in 2014 to focus on his own business, Paul Zinetti took the reins.

Need help?

Delivery and Quality Guarantee