“No view, no landscape, however varied, picturesque or grandiose can make me forget my little valley in Bourgogne”. So wrote Alexandre Dumas of a valley in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune. The Hautes Côtes overlooks the Côte de Beaune from the west, lying between Maranges and Ladoix-Serrigny. The interior is a succession of hills and valleys. The vines cover the sunny slopes at the foot of a limestone cliff.
If you are just starting to get into Burgundy this may be no better way to start than with Didier Delagrange’s Hautes Cotes de Beaune. Made from grapes sourced 150 meters above the Pommard valley, this charming Pinot Noir offers aromas and flavors of violet, cherry, raspberry and crushed strawberry. It’s difficult to find a tastier red Burgundy at this price.
The domaine itself is in Volnay, Côte d’Or, and the family own fourteen and a half hectares of vines in the best situations in Côte de Beaune.
The family Domaine has been in existence for more than six generations. From 1978, it included the vines of Gisèle Verdereau and Henri Delagrange who then worked 6 hectares, mainly in Volnay and Pommard. Didier joined the business in 1990, after completing his viticulture studies, and worked with his parents until 2003. Having the foresight in 1999 to purchase land and plant on the underused slopes of the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune has paid off in spades for Delagrange family. Didier Delagrange’s Bourgogne Rouge is hand-harvested, spends 15 days in open tanks and is aged for 10 months in both oak barrels and steel tanks.
