When Gilles Lafouge joined his family domaine in 1986, he persuaded his father to start bottling single-site expressions from their old-vine plots - an effort to give Auxey-Duresses’ underappreciated vineyards the recognition they deserve alongside Burgundy’s more celebrated appellations.
Since then, Gilles - and now his son Maxime - have worked quietly and tirelessly to build the domaine’s reputation as one of Burgundy’s best kept secrets.
The domaine has 10ha of exemplary vineyards in Auxey-Duresses, including 1er Crus ‘Climat du Val’, ‘La Chapelle’, and ‘Les Duresses’, as well as sites in Meursault and Pommard. The fruit is picked by hand and fermented with indigenous yeasts, mostly in old barrels, but with a touch of new oak.
The whites are richly flavoured with smoky minerality, while the reds are fragrant, and layered with summer berry fruit.
