TN: 2010 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Rouge

I had dinner with some Tastevin friends last night. Laurent Drouhin was there. A very nice and knowledgable member of the Drouhin family. I decided to open this tonight and glad I did!

  • 2010 Joseph Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Mouches Rouge - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Beaune 1er Cru (9/20/2017)
    Delicious! The nose is a little shy. The palate is full , seamless and loaded with beautiful red fruit. The texture is silky. There is a wonderful finishing complexity. As the wine gains air, the nose finally shows red fruit. Pure and very young. Wonderful.

Posted from CellarTracker

If I’m not mistaken, this wine has a very small amount of Pinot Gris in it. It adds an interesting sweet dimension to the nose. If I am thinking of the right wine, the web site mentions the Pinot Gris element. I don’t remember what vintage I had, as it was years ago…

and that’s legal?

"The AOC regulations also allow up to 15 per cent total of Chardonnay, Pinot blanc and Pinot gris as accessory grapes in the red wines,[3] but this not very often practiced. "

I thought for it to be “legal” it had to be a naturally occurring mutation of the original vines, or maybe an “original vine” within the vineyard?

From what I understand from Burghound, not necessarily. While blending is not often practiced, it can be legal as long as the vines occupy the same classed vineyard and do not come from another source. unless they want to declassify the bottling to a lower level of wine.

What I remember is that the wine used to contain the Chardonay and a little pinot gris that grew in the vineyard–basically a field blend. then they found they really liked the chardonay and started to make a white Clos des Mouches. At this point I don’t know if any remaining pinot gris grapes go into the white or the red, or if there are none remaining.

Nice notes Don and a quality time when we can share with a family member of an esteemed winery.