Potel is now an old hand in the Côte and it shows as the quality is excellent. Stylistically, if you've enjoyed the Potel wines in the past, there is no reason that you would not enjoy either variation of the Bellene wines as they are classic in the best sense of the term.  BURGHOUND

Nicolas Potel joked that​​​​​ "the 2022 growing season was so much easier than what we faced in 2021 that it almost seems anticlimactic, but I'll take it! We picked from the 1st of September and brought in ripe and super-clean fruit with good yields of around 35 hl/ha across all of our appellations, including the regional wines though they were higher for the négociant wines. We used between 20 and 100% whole clusters for the vinifications though the average was more in the 20 to 25% range. We also once again reduced the percentage of new wood and most wines saw no more than 10% though a few where we have limited quantities were more like 30%. As to the wines, it's interesting because the acidities are only average yet they drink like there's plenty of acidity as there is excellent vibrancy and freshness:" BURGHOUND

Morning Alex,

Nicolas Potel is a bit of enigma. he is both Burgundy royalty (the son of the legendary Gerard Potel) and at the same time he's been an iconoclast in his own career, always pushing the prevailing (and often entrenched) beliefs and methodologies of the day, so often being validated in ensuing years. In his winemaking and wine philosophy too, he is both revolutionary and conservative. Philosophically, he believes in making Burgundy that people can still afford to buy (he dropped his pricing back 10% in 2022 as the quantity returned to normal after a meagre 2021). Sacre bleu! That's not the norm by any means in a region that has come into such stratospheric wealth over the past 60 years. There's more than a few Gordon Geckos parading about the Cote.

Then there's his wine growing philosophy; one of the first to embrace biodynamics in the 1980s and now one of the first to see the value in training his vines higher in a warming climate, just a couple of examples. He believes passionately in only using old vine fruit and has been heavily involved in vine DNA research with the university in Dijon. Contrasting that is his work in the cellars, he doesn't take risks; fermentations and elevage are pretty standard practice with the only real change in more recent years being the use of less small and new wood than he ever did in the past - the aim being more freshness and transparency. 

Cheers

Michael McNamara 

Producer Website

Domaine de Bellene Vineyard Tour