Maxime Cheurlin Noellat Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

When Maxime Cheurlin took his first vintage in 2010, the entire domaine had sold its production in bulk to Jadot and Drouhin for two decades — meaning every bottle of Noëllat on the market today is the work of a single young winemaker rebuilding a legacy from scratch. That biographical fact is inseparable from the technical ambition on display here. Bonnes-Mares straddles the Chambolle-Musigny/Morey-Saint-Denis boundary on classic Côte de Nuits argilo-calcaire soils — the limestone fraction delivering drainage and aromatic lift, the clay underlay providing the structural density that separates Bonnes-Mares from its more ethereal Chambolle neighbours. Cheurlin's winemaking is defined by restraint: 100% destemmed fruit, native yeast fermentation, punch-downs described as rare and deliberately gentle — an infusion philosophy rather than extraction. French oak aging runs 14–20 months, with Grand Cru cuvées receiving up to 100% new oak, yet the cellar is actively cooled to slow and delay malolactic fermentation — an unusual technical intervention Cheurlin adopted from around 2017 that critics including Allen Meadows credit with adding precision and complexity. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered. In 2019 — a warm, seductive vintage with yields reaching ~35 hl/ha — Bonnes-Mares channels that ripeness into a decadent, generous expression; drink from 2024 onward, with a long window ahead.