Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat

Alain Hudelot had only just said goodbye to his teenage life when he decided to set up on his own and take over various local vineyards from his own family. Shortly afterwards, he married Odile Noëllat and in 1962 he officially created Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat, with further vineyards coming from his young wife. He continued to grow the domaine with some choice parcels and quickly established it as one of the best sources of great wines in the Côte de Nuits. Having started so young, he was able to continue at the helm until as recently as 2008, when he finally handed over to his grandson, Charles Van Canneyt, who clearly relished the responsibility and challenge of running and evolving such a great estate.

In his fifteen years in charge (doesn’t time fly!) he has taken things to a new level with the annual release of his exemplary range eagerly awaited by the Burgundian cognoscenti. The style of wines is very classical: everything is destemmed, extraction and oak are kept to a minimum, and purity and elegance run through every wine in the range.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Charles and his wife, Anne-Sophie, made a major investment a couple of years ago, when they acquired a sleeping giant of a domaine (Domaine des Chezeaux in Gevrey Chambertin) with a phenomenal set of vineyards. They have spent the last 24 months unpicking the various contracts that were in place with other domaines, who were farming many of the holdings, and will release their first wines from the new project next spring, although under which domaine name is still to be decided. It’s an enormously exciting venture and kudos to the couple for managing to complete a deal that would have, undoubtedly, attracted a lot of interest from other influential parties.

The release of the 2023s will represent the next chapter in what has been a meteoric rise to the top. Back in late November, we enjoyed a pretty spectacular tasting with Charles of his 2022s and it was both a relief and a joy to count the barrels in the cavernous cellar which were rather more numerous than a year earlier, with the miserly ’21 vintage. Having picked his small half-hectare plot of Meursault towards the end of August, Charles began harvesting in earnest on the 3rd of September. The condition of the fruit he brought in was great and everything thereafter went as smoothly as could be. The quality of the range is exceptional. The energetic purity and refinement across the board is a delight and it’s hard to find fault with anything.

We spoke about where the vintage sat in Charles’ eyes and, whilst he has a very soft spot for his excellent ‘19s, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the very positive evolution of the wines during élevage, to the extent that they are now running the ‘19s very close indeed!