Domaine De Bellene Supper

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

On the 2018 Vintage: Generally, the 2018s in barrel tend toward vivid and bright red and blue fruit aromatics. They seem to leap out of the glass with a sense of nascent joie-de-vivre. In terms of fruit profile, as with the aromatics, I find more red fruit than black, something that I personally prefer because red fruit is associated with that ambiguous descriptor pinoté. I use it myself, and when I do, it just seems the most obvious but perfect word for a wine that sings of pure, unadulterated Pinot Noir. If it doesn’t, then we have a problem. NEAL MARTIN

On the 2021 Vitage: I will say that 2021 is the kind of vintage that I absolutely love. Otherwise, expressed, it’s a burg geek’s vintage par excellence. The best wines are superbly fresh and transparent as the underlying terroir is wonderfully clear; indeed it’s at the core of each wine. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the terroir is so crystalline in 2021 that even those who doubt its existence might well be persuaded to reconsider their convictions. Outstanding transparency though is not all there is as the wines are strikingly refreshing and tension filled. In fact, one of my favorite Burgundian sayings when describing especially appealing or interesting wines is “le premier verre appelle le deuxième” or the first glass calls for the second; 2021 is the epitome of that sentiment. BURGHOUND

Over the past 20 years, Nicolas has been a tour de force within the very conservative Burgundy environment. His enormous energy and intellect have driven him to break ground on many fronts: founder of the original micro-negoce in the late 1990s, an early adopter of organics and biodynamic, and now a passionate advocate for vineyard management to help counter the effects of climate change. It's suffice to say that he has always run a little counter to the prevailing hegemony but his clarity of vision about what he wants his Domaine has never wavered.

Key principals of old-vine fruit and a relatively minimal intervention regime in the cellars delivers wines of honesty and great terroir definition. . The wines are what the vintage gives you; there are no tricks to reinvent the wine that didn't come from the vineyard.

More recently Potel has decided to back off on pigeage to extract less tannin as he recognises there's less need as he (and the region) has more ripe fruit than in days gone by. Instead, he's aiming for a more demure style adding textural light and shade with more whole bunch work. He's also employed a consultant to give him a more "removed" view of what they're doing in the cellars. Whatever he is doing he's doing it right and a string of excellent releases that seem to top the next is proof of that.

We hope you enjoy this very rare opprotunity to look at two very different but excellent vintages back to back and gain some insider perspective into this groundbreaking domain.