Maison Roisin Curley Bourgogne Rouge 2022

Maison Roisin Curley Bourgogne Rouge 2022

An outsider in Burgundy, Roisin Curley MW also works as a pharmacist with her brother in the family business in County Mayo, Ireland, that was started by their grandfather.

Over the last 10 years, Curley has established her Burgundian micro-negoce, and some lesser-known appellations have become a specialty. Curley’s Master’s thesis was on the differences between conventional, organic, and biodynamic fruit, and in addition to vintages in Germany, Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley at the much lauded Chateau Latour and Chateau Grillet respectively. She has spent countless days in top European vineyards, understanding fine wine from the ground up. It’s an important advantage in Burgundy, where it is easy to pay too much for mediocre fruit, few people know what to look for better than Curley, and it shows in her wines. 

Curley prefers to work with growers who farm with high attention to detail, whether that be lutte raisonée, organic, or biodynamic.  Good quality fruit is the starting point, but the feel Curley has in the cellar is equally important.  Although her winemaking is very hands off, with natural yeast ferments, and gentle handling, there is a thread that runs through the wines.  In the whites, it’s the combination of restraint in terms of fruit, but textural breadth and concentration.  In the reds, a supple, unforced beauty, with lovely perfume and elegance.  These are wines that are full of pleasure, not overplayed in extraction, or oak, or whole bunch.  

From her first vintage in 2015, when she made a few barrels of St Romain and Beaune, she now works with about a dozen vineyards, making 30 – 50 barrels from her base in Chassagne Montrachet.

Her Bourgogne Rouge is from a single site in Mercurey - running with 20% Whole bunches, 10-14 days of skin maceration prior to maturation in predominately older wood. Exceptionally poised - this has swathes of beautiful floral aromatics, predominately in that lovely red fruit spectrum with just cut strawberry, cranberry and a little underlying sweet spot that starts to show some alluring sandalwood, black tea and wood spice with a nod to the great wines of the Cote d'Or. There's a purity to the fruit here that shows judicious handling and intuition in regards to picking date - the balance of transparency, fluidity and structure is extremely well managed providing a wine of mid weight density, clarity of fruit and excellent byplay of acid and tannin. It's a very, very good representation of what to expect from Red Burgundy and completely blows other, severely inflated, regional expressions out of the water - can't wait to see further releases from this youthful operation!