Eric de Suremain

As much as it is a much over-used cliché, there is no doubt that Eric is a real character and very much a ‘hands-on’ man. Every year, after negotiating the tight squeeze through the gates of the splendid Château de Monthélie, we drive up to the front door confronted by a grinning, short-clad Eric de Suremain. He wears shorts come hell or high water, hail, wind or rain. You only have to observe his soil-encrusted hands to realise that he spends his entire life in the vineyard. Wine is definitely his passion. One suspects that Monthélie is rather unfairly known (if at all) as simply “that village next door to Meursault”. However, Eric’s wines are certainly putting such ignorance to shame. The bio-dynamic viticultural methods set in place since 1996, some of the Côte d’Or’s lowest yields (often on a par with Domaine Leroy), rigorous grape selection and a minimal intervention winemaking policy conspire to produce some of the purest, finest and most complex Burgundy available. The wines are aged in a mixture of large old wooden foudres and smaller used oak futs.

2017 Vintage

From one extreme to the other. After producing their smallest ever harvest in 2016, nature repaid the de Suremains with their biggest ever crop in 2017. One of the most frank and honest winemakers you will meet, Eric de Suremain, never prone to hyperbole, was nonetheless delighted to point out that “2017 was a vintage generous in quality as well as quantity. Like 2009, 2002 or 1999; it’s a year that warms my heart. Like a lot of the great years, the 2017s are flattering now but I think they will age very well.” Picking started here on 3rd September with grapes registering between 13 to 13.5 degrees of potential alcohol. This is certainly among the riper style of vintages so Eric included 15 to 20% whole bunch fermentation to give the wines a little sapidity. The wines are sensual and vivid, built for pure pleasure.

2018 Vintage

Eric’s artisan, biodynamic Rullys and Monthelies never lack for soul or depth. Although the 2018's register as some of the most opulent, powerful wines he has ever made, they don’t lack for the purity and definition of flavour that are usually such a feature of the wines. Even though harvesting began early on the 27th August, alcohols rose quickly. Some cuvées ended up averaging 14.5%. Whilst not all the wines in the range delivered what we wanted, we felt two absolutely struck the right balance between the richness of the vintage and clarity of flavour – these were the Rully Préaux and Monthelie Sur La Velle.