Domaine Georges Noëllat

Where to begin with Maxime, who has quickly become something of a legend in the short space of time since he moved from the family home in Champagne to the heart of Vosne-Romanée, he went there to take over from his grandmother in 2010 when he was just 19. Since then, his wines have become some of the most sought after in the Côte de Nuits, becoming incredibly inflationary on the secondary market in the process. The domaine has some fantastic vineyards, with some plots over 100 years old. His grandmother used to sell off a good deal of the fruit she produced, but Maxime immediately kept everything. In the last couple of years, he has expanded the number of wines in the range dramatically, through some purchases, some contracts to buy fruit and some long term agreements to buy vineyards, from which he gets the fruit in the meantime. Stylistically the wines are gorgeously hedonistic, yet in each vintage, he seems to create more focus and bite to complement the raw intensity of the fruit – serious stuff.