Domaine Larue's 2019 Saint-Aubin is one of the finest White Burgundy offers you'll see this year. From one of the hottest estates in the Cote de Beaune, this offers striking aromas and flavors usually only found in the wines of Puligny-Montrachet.
I love White Burgundy around the holidays and based on our sales in this category, you all do too. These are wines that light it up at the table with all sorts of dishes, but they also offer thought-provoking and contemplative drinking without food. After tasting this one last week, I bought all 5 cases (60 bottles) that were available for the WNC market.
I have a lot to say about this wine, all positive, so hang in there, and enjoy the read!
2019 Domaine Larue Saint-Aubin
Drinks like Puligny-Montrachet at half the price!
ORDER NOW in our online store.
When Guy Larue founded his family's estate in 1946, he probably never guessed that his wines would one day be the "talk of the town." 75 years later, Domaine Larue's wines are not easy to come by, far from it. Larue's Chardonnays from Saint-Aubin and Puligny-Montrachet are beloved in France and Western Europe, and that doesn't leave much for US wine lovers.
To drink this wine is to experience Chardonnay in its highest and most pristine form. These are wines that possess incredible purity, energy, and minerality, no doubt due to the predominant limestone soils of Saint-Aubin. My buddy Nick Demos, who manages the Kermit Lynch portfolio for Tryon Distributing, said that when he visited Larue in 2019 with other buyers from around the country, these were the wines everybody kept going on about.
I can't stop talking or thinking about this wine either. Being that I bought all that Nick had to offer, he left the bottle with me. As good as it was when I sampled it at the store, it got even better by the time I got home. As I sipped, I researched and discovered that a lot of the grapes that go into this wine come from Premier Cru sites, with some of the vines being 50 years old. Aged for 10 months in French oak (20% new), the finished wine is glorious.
I'll try to put this one into words, but words don't do it justice. The aromas are of ripe apple, pear, citrus oils, intense white florals, pastry cream, and flinty minerality. Full-bodied yet fresh on the palate, this one is poised, focused, and quite powerful. The aromas and flavors kept unfolding with each passing minute, suggesting that this is a wine that has several years of life ahead of it.
It sounds odd to tell you to decant a white wine, but I highly recommend it with this one. Based on my personal experience, I believe an hour in the decanter will help bring out all that this lovely white wine has to offer. The Larue's recommend serving it with escargot....sounds good to me, but a humble roast chicken and roasted and caramelized root veggies on the side sounds more realistic to me.
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Josh Spurling
Owner, Operator, Wine Monger
Table Wine Asheville