2022 Domaine de Bellene Nuits-St.-Georges Vieilles Vignes 750 ml

Nicolas Potel should have had it easy.

His father Gérard Potel was a legend in Burgundy, thanks to his work at Volnay’s Domaine de la Pousse d’Or—and in a perfect world, Nicolas would be running that domaine today. But when Gérard died in 1997, the family suffered serious setbacks. They were forced to sell their shares in Pousse d’Or, and even had to move out of the family home on the property. 

Yet Nicolas, through sheer tenacity and talent, scrapped his way back. He painstakingly launched and later sold his own négociant business. Then, in 2005, he founded Domaine de Bellene, naming it for a Celtic sun god for whom Beaune was named. Since then, he’s lived up to his father’s sterling winemaking legacy. 

Potel makes wines labeled “Roche de Bellene” with purchased fruit, but reserves the Domaine de Bellene label for wines that come from all-estate vines. Savvy sommeliers have taken notice of the estate, putting Bellene on the list at Michelin-starred hotspots like Saison, The Village Pub, and Thomas Keller’s Bouchon. 

Potel’s 2022 Nuits-St.-Georges Vieilles Vignes hails from the lieux dits of La Charmotte, Au Chouillet, Aux Saints Juliens, and Les Argillats. These old vines produce small bunches of intensely concentrated fruit, especially in a year like 2022. Vinous reported that a “majority [of winemakers] believe that the 2022 vintage is one of the best in recent years. After tasting over 2,000 wines myself, I would not disagree. It’s not hyperbole.”

Packed with red rose and red berry flavors, this old-vine Nuits blew us away thanks to its purity and concentration. It will make for phenomenal drinking over the next six years, and then some.