Domaine Duroche
Burgundy
“Gevrey-Chambertin is a full and sturdy wine, rich and masculine, but with a touch of the fleshy and the exotic. Sensual and vigorous, it is more flamboyant than Vosne and more substantial than Chambolle.”
So quoth the grande auteur of Burgundy, Clive Coates. Please note that these words were sent to press well before the ascendancy of one Pierre Duroche, the fifth generation of the Domaine bearing his surname.
In times past, the Premiers and Grands Crus of Gevrey-Chambertin were indeed sturdy and rich, a fine introduction to Burgundy for those uninitiated, often with a more New-World palate. When the wines of Duroche started to emerge in New York City in the late 2010s, a casual eyebrow was raised toward the proverbial New Kid On The Block. Little were we to know, the whole game would be altered.
"I always was interested in making wine since I was very young," said Pierre to Neal Martin in 2015,. "So I spent a lot of time in the vineyard. But I had a normal schooling. I got a 'scientifique baccalauréat' in 2000 when I was 18, and afterwards I completed a BTS in oenology and viticulture in Beaune.”
From someone so…not soft-spoken but rather short-spoken - a man whose words generally carry a true meaning - you realize he thinks this is a path any of us could or should take: you know, determine your life midway through high school and take over the family business a short five years later. Sure, in a movie, maybe.
In 2025, Pierre Duroche is at the helm of a Domaine not known to the world as one of Gevrey, but one so emblematic of what Burgundy can be: wines of grace, of definition, of refined and yet regal stature. For someone who in his spare time enjoys a gravity-defying climb on a perilous rocky cliff, the energy in his wines is much less tenuous, yet just as awe-inspiring.
VITICULTURE & VINIFICATION
With a healthy core of wrought, old vines, the Domaine Duroche rarely, if ever, will perform any green harvesting. The emphasis in the vineyards is on soil health, which in turn impacts that of the vines. There are no treatments beyond sulfur & copper, and the sorting is very important, as well. Yields are ample but not excessive.
When the grapes reach the cellar, they are handled carefully to avoid crushing before they reach their fermentation vessel, most often a stainless steel tank. There is no sulfur during the fermentation process, but Pierre will utilize a bit of carbonic maceration, allowing the carbon dioxide generated to serve as the protective layer instead of sulfur dioxide. Only the slightest touch of sulfur is used at bottling.
New oak use is sparsely used, but the wines are all aged in either ceramic tank or barrels of some age, where they will lay without racking for 12 months. Beyond that, nothing is added or removed from the wines, resulting in the utmost purity and transparency of terroir and winemaking vision.
In 2017, Pierre and his wife Marianne expanded their reach with a micro-negociant label under which they were able to source grapes from her family as well as other vignerons with whom they had similar visions. This provided access to enviable Grands & Premiers Crus outside of and within their native Gevrey-Chambertin, all made in the very same meticulous methods as their own.
