The 2016 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots, matured in 100% new oak with 100% whole bunch, has a lovely bouquet with floral, rose petal scents waltzing with redcurrant and raspberry fruit. I love the delineation here. The palate is medium-bodied with supple, ripe red berry fruit, veins of blueberry and cassis that dovetail into quite a structured, almost Malconsorts-like finish. Great potential.

The 2012 Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Suchots has a much more boisterous, showy bouquet compared to the Petits Monts with succulent red berry fruit, spice and tertiary aromas. That is what we like to see from Les Suchots! The palate is spicy and vibrant with good backbone and a “solid” finish that needs to soften a little by time of bottling. This will be utterly delicious. Burgundy needs personalities and they do not come much bigger than Nicolas Potel. He’s been on the scene ever since I remember him attending some of the London primeur tastings back in the late 1990s. His path to success has never been straightforward: working his way around Australia and California, starting a small negoce a year before the untimely passing of his father and the sale of the Pousse d’Or estate; the sudden explosion of cuvees under his Maison Nicolas Potel label that ultimately led to liquidity problems and the sale to Cottin Freres; the debacle of then being fired from the brand that bore his own name in 2009 and finally, the creation of Domaine de Bellene from his base in Beaune. The maison was amid renovation when I called in on a freezing Thursday evening for a comprehensive tasting of both domaine and negociant wines. Fortunately, there are no longer the 100+ crus of Maison Nicolas Potel back in the 1990s, but through his numerous friends and contacts, Nicolas has still managed to accumulate a considerable portfolio that includes a number of grand crus. And he knows that with such a diverse array of wines, it is vital to keep an eye on standards. To this end, he has adopted organic viticulture in his vineyards, prudently using whole cluster ferments and monitoring the use of new oak so that it is commensurate with the fruit concentration, in particular through his judicious use of larger 600-litre barrels. I guess in some ways you can draw parallels with the Remoissenet operation nearby: focusing on quality at various price points across a broad range of appellations and crus. Nicolas himself is and always has been quite a character. I can imagine when he was younger and working in Australia he had no problem keeping up with the obligatory beer consumption. He is always candid about the goings on in Burgundy, and I sensed that he acknowledges the importance of building Domaine de Bellene and Maison Roche de Bellene into long-term, stable and viable brands after the trials of the past. In this respect he is doing a great job, because these were mainly excellent wines. Not every single wine was without fault, but as a range of wines and given the reasonable prices asked, one can have few complaints. Echoing the sentiments at Remoissennet, there is a burgeoning need for such wines. Not everyone can afford Roumier or DRC. Importer: Loosen Bros., www.loosenbrosusa.com and available through most UK merchants (see http://www.domainedebellene.com/distributeurs-bellene-uk.html for full list.)

The Roche de Bellene 2008 Vosne-Romanee Les Suchots originates in two parcels, one of which has since been incorporated into the Domaine de Bellene. Peat and Latakia tobacco smokiness along with ripe plum and cherry in the nose lead to chocolate- burley tobacco, and vanilla-tinged palate underlain by game and leather undertones. If the gaminess does not become dominant and the firm tannins remain under control, this has excellent decade-long prospects, even if today it is less striking, complete, or elegant than the Gevrey Cazetiers. Operating with a crew of more than a dozen from the same imposing facility as his domaine (for more about which, consult under -Domaine de Bellene-) Nicolas Potel is assembling contracts (favoring organic and moreover biodynamic growers) to support an array of negociant wines in red and (around one-third) white nearly as vast and as studded with illustrious crus as was that associated with Maison Nicolas Potel (which became a subsidiary of Laboure-Roi in 2003, and from which Potel has been estranged since last year). I find the ambitious scope of this project - encompassing the sophisticated remodeling of an ancient Cistercian press house - even more impressive than I do its two initial collections of wines, but then, the exceptional, often very tiny lots of young wine or fruit that informed the best lots from Maison Nicolas Potel and the degree of control that could be exercised over them are not things one would expect anyone to replicate in two years, not to mention years of meteorological challenge as well.. (All Roche de Bellene contracts so far have been for must or young wine, not fruit.) Since most of the 2008 collection had only just been bottled when I tasted it in March, allowances should be made for the possibility that many wines were suffering from this - I could almost have added a "+?" after each entry - which time did not permit me to re-taste. (And for all of the wines I tasted, and report on below, these do not represent the entire 2008 Roche de Bellene collection, as Potel did not assemble samples for me of a number of wines that were still in barrel at the time of my visit, nor, regrettably, could I have found time to taste them all since I had not anticipated such a vast collection.) No U.S. importer has yet been named for these wines.