DRC's Only Premier Cru

In a cellar that bottles nothing but grands crus — Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg — one wine wears a premier cru label. The Cuvée Duvault-Blochet is named for the domaine’s founding ancestor, Jacques-Marie Duvault-Blochet, the man who bought the Romanée-Conti vineyard itself in 1869 and began the family history that continues today.

The wine’s construction is unlike anything else at the domaine. After the main harvest through the grand cru parcels, the pickers make a second pass — deuxième passage — collecting the bunches left earlier to ripen further, along with fruit from the youngest vines. These late gleanings are fermented together and released one rung down the ladder: grand cru by birth, premier cru by label. Born privileged, travelling under a modest card.

It is also a wine that simply doesn’t exist most years. Made briefly in the 1930s and then abandoned, the label was revived in 1999 — when an exceptional second harvest moved Aubert de Villaine to honour the founder — and has since appeared only when the year allows: 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011. The 2011, seventh of the revival, ran to 4,511 bottles (this one numbered 3,405) and was sold almost entirely within France. Meeting it at all felt like the evening’s first stroke of luck.

In the Glass

2011 was a cool-summered, early-picked, forward vintage, and DRC leaned into its nature — waiting an extra week beyond the numbers, sorting away nearly a third of the crop. The result, at fourteen years, sat exactly where the year promised: medium ruby with the first amber thoughts at the rim, and a perfume-led profile of bright cherry and berry, subtle spice, and the humus-and-licorice undertones of arriving maturity.

Light-to-medium in body, round and open in frame, tannins supple — a wine that speaks in texture and aroma rather than weight, the vintage’s gentle acidity carrying it comfortably. The finish was quiet, elegant, and longer than its weight suggested.

The setting was a sushi counter, and the pairing worked better than reverence would predict — Vosne perfume over hinoki and rice vinegar is a happier conversation than it has any right to be. Primary fruit and tertiary shading are sharing the glass right now; there is little argument for waiting longer. Drink it where you find it — if you find it.