Dom. Dugat-Py
La Levriere Tres Vieilles Vignes
Pommard
2009

The producer

With 10ha of meticulously cared-for, organic vineyards predominantly in Gevrey-Chambertin, and holdings in four of the Grand Crus, Dugat-Py has developed a cult following worldwide. This is amazing on two counts – they only started bottling their own wines in 1989, and the wines aim at elegance rather than opulence.  They also have holdings in Pommard and Vosne-Romanee.

Meticulous work in the vineyards with an average age nearing 7 years is followed by low intervention winemaking. The surprise is the use of almost all new oak for the ranked crus, but this is handled so judiciously it results in balance and harmony.

Perhaps there is more to great winemaking in this approach because these are extremely polished wines that combine concentration with extreme finesse and elegance.

The wine

Dugat-Py owns the 3.99 hectares of 70- to 80-year-old vines in the Pommard La Levriere lieu-dit. The vineyard is farmed organically, and the wine made in a traditional minimal intervention way, with 16-18 months in oak casks, of which 80% new. This is a dark fruited wine, with earthy smoke and coffee complexity, firm yet silky tannins, and a rich velvety texture.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.