Domaine Georges Noellat Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru "Les Beaux Monts"

When Maxime Cheurlin took his first harvest in 2010, the entire domaine's production had been sold in bulk to Jadot and Drouhin for the previous two decades — meaning every bottle of Noëllat on the market today is the work of a single young winemaker who rebuilt the estate's identity from scratch, starting with vines already over 70 years old. Les Beaux Monts sits on the upper slope of Vosne-Romanée's premier cru band, where the argilo-calcaire soils — clay retaining concentration, limestone providing drainage and aromatic lift — are worked by hand under lutte raisonnée, with no insecticides or chemical fertilisers. Yields average a severe ~25 hl/ha, compressing the output of vines now exceeding 80 years of age. In the cellar, grapes are 100% destemmed (with occasional whole-cluster inclusion up to ~30% in select vintages), cold-soaked for several days, then fermented with indigenous yeasts only under Cheurlin's signature 'infusion' philosophy — punch-downs rare and deliberately gentle to avoid extracting harsh tannin. Aging runs 14–20 months in French oak, with new oak calibrated to appellation level; the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered. The defining technical transgression: the cellar is actively cooled to delay and slow malolactic fermentation — a technique adopted from around 2017 that critics including Allen Meadows credit with adding measurable precision and complexity. The frost-affected 2021 vintage produced limited volumes but delivered focused, precise fruit that amplifies the site's characteristic lacy tension; drink from 2026 through the early 2030s.