3 Wine Price Points – One Great Winemaker
While searching out the next “diamond in the rough” of good, affordable wine, it’s best to take in two considerations: the land the grapes are grown on and the style of the winemaker. One of the top winemakers in the world is 71 year old Aubert de Villaine.
Monsieur de Villaine’s wine-making philosophy emphasizes, above all else, that great wine is made in the vineyards and that the winemaker’s role is to do the minimum necessary to produce the finest fruit consistent with total respect for the individual terroir of each appellation.
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti estate in Burgundy, France is considered to be among the world’s greatest wine producers. The wines are also among the world’s most expensive.
In 2001, a lot of seven bottles of Montrachet 1978 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $167,500, or $23,929 per bottle – an extraordinary price for a white wine, even in the rarified world of wine collecting. At the time it was the most expensive wine ever sold in America. What happened was that two avid collectors were bidding against each other and got carried away, each refusing to yield as the price rose through the stratosphere.
Today, the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is Co-Owned and Co-Directed by Aubert de Villaine. Aubert’s father and grandfather were both Directors of the Domaine. Because he was raised at the Domaine and had intimate familiarity with the day-to-day operations of the winery, he was a natural to become the Co-director in 1974. Learn more: Read
A & P de Villaine
When he isn’t making wine for the great Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Aubert de Villaine and his wife own and run a domain in nearby Bouzeron called A & P de Villaine. This domaine is extensively planted with Aligoté – a white grape used to make dry white wines – similar in style and fruit characteristics to Pinot gris. Aligoté is considered the second most important grape in Burgundy – after Chardonnay.
See: Website
Domaine A et P De Villaine Bouzeron 2007
From the golden Aligoté doré grape, which gives lowers yield and more aromatic wines than its cousin, the Aligoté vert. A lively, fruity wine, but it also has a finesse and roundness. These qualities lend it great versatility. To best appreciate the freshness and fruit, it would be drunk young, within two or three years. To allow the wine to fully develop fullness and “fatness”, age it for up to ten years. It should be served chilled, at about 54°F, as an apéritif, with seafood, or with a number of cheeses (goat cheese, Cantal, Beaufort, Parmesan, Roquefort). $20
Hyde de Villaine “HdV”
If you thought running two wineries would be enough to keep the de Villaines busy, Aubert and Pamela are also involved in Hyde de Villaine (HdV), a highly regarded winery in California’s Carneros District.
See: Website
2006 Hyde de Villaine “HdV” Carneros Chardonnay
“Showing all of the richness and layered complexity that we have come to expect from HDV, this head-turning offering is at once fairly powerful but comes with an uncommon sense of finesse. It smells of well-ripened apples, sweet toast and wisps of roasted grains, and its deep, full-scaled flavors unfold with elements of minerals and spice lifting it above simple fruitiness. Full-bodied and slightly fleshy in feel with optimal acids affording it very fine balance, it is a serious Chardonnay that will take to aging, but it is wholly fascinating now.” – 93 points Connoisseurs Guide to California Wine. $56
Tags: burgundy, carnaros, chardonnay, french wine, value
