Monthélie, Sur la Velle, 1er Cru,

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.