HUDELOT-NOELLAT’S ROMANEE-SAINT-VIVANT with CHARLES VAN CANNEYT

Domaine Udelo-Neula was founded in 1962 by the marriage of Alain Udelo and Odile Neula. Odile was the granddaughter of Charles Neula, one of the most important vineyard owners of Burgundy. In 1978, the family inherited prestigious Neula vineyards. By this inheritance, it formed Domaine Udelo-Neula, as we know today, with incredible ownership of some of the most prestigious vineyards in Bonne-Romanée, Chambon-Mussini, as well as Nuit-Saint-Georges. It gained its international recognition by amazing quality and not by marketing. Today, I'm going to talk about one of the most understated and most talented winemakers in Burgundy, the guy behind Domaine Udelo-Neula, Charles Vincané. Charles Vincané is the grandson of Alain Udelo and is really the third generation that runs the family estate now. Having such great vineyards, Charles had big shoes to fill, but he quickly managed to exceed expectations and became one of the most talented and most respected young winemakers of Burgundy. Domaine Udelo-Neula produces regional wines as well as village, Premier Cru, and Grand Cru. So the village appellation on the estate come from Bonne-Romanée as well as Chambon and Nuit-Saint-Georges. What is exceptional, though, is the proportions of Premier and Grand Cru vineyards at the Domaine. In the Bonne-Romanée appellation, he produces a Souchaux, Beaumont, as well as a Malconsoir. In the Vougeot appellation, he produces a Premier Cru, Les Petits, Vougeot. And in the Chambon appellation, he produces a village, Chambon, as well as a Premier Cru, Cham. And in the Nuit-Saint-Georges appellation, he produces a village, Nuit, Les Bacons, as well as a Premier Cru appellation, Les Mugets. And probably the most priced vineyard holdings of the estate, he has 0.42 hectares of Cleu-Vougeot. The Romanée Saint-Vivant, he has 0.5 hectares. And lastly, Richeport, he has 0.3 hectares. Currently, the Domaine produces mostly Pinot Noir with some small amounts of Chardonnay and Aligote. Often, you have vineyards of exceptional quality and potential, and this needs to be utilized by the winemaker, in this case, Charles. So we're here today at Domaine Ude-La-Noëlla. The building behind me are the winemaking facilities. The building on the outside is very beautiful with vines growing on the walls. But inside, it's relatively modern. The first thing you see when you enter a winery is the fermentation vat. For Charles' case, the alcoholic fermentation happens with completely de-stemming or very small proportion of whole bunch fermentation. And he chooses to pump over as well as punch down to extract color from the skin. Then we head down to his cellar, which is really beautiful. And you can immediately recognize that the climate in there is mostly natural with the addition of air conditioning as well as humidifying. We saw him spraying it, so it's very high in humidity. But the ambient temperature is very cold naturally because we're quite low underground. That gives the wine the right conditions to evolve in a beautiful way. So the first thing we see is the piece Bourguignon, the standard size of the barrels, the two to eight liters. Charles doesn't use large proportions of new oak. He mostly uses old and second-time or third-time-use oak. When it comes to the wines, the Bourgogne Rouge is usually aged in totally new-use barrels. And where he starts to use some new barrels is on the Premier Cru and Grand Cru. Charles van Canee showed us the 25 vintage, which is resting right here. And the idea of barrel tasting is just to get a perspective on the style of the vintage. And afterwards, when it's finished in the bottle, we can then tell how it's evolved. The first one we taste is the Bourgogne Rouge, the regional appellation, which comes from more than 20 plots. Here, it's really interesting that all the wines come from the Côte du Nuit, from the lower level of Chambord. The Bourgogne Rouge style of Domaine Hude-Lanoëlla is a more easygoing, but at the same time, a very serious wine. These wines are made to be drunk early, in the anticipation to drink the Village Premier Cru and Grand Cru at a later stage. So it's really the entry-level point of the Domaine. And when it's at such a high level already, when you have all the components in balance, you have nice intensity, you can expect a very good and very nice expression of a Bourgogne Pinot Noir. So next, we taste the Chambord Mycenae. And again, a very fine expression, a very balanced expression of a Chambord, more structured than a Bourgogne Pinot Noir, a little bit more serious in style, and very clearly that elegance and finesse you get from a Chambord. These tastings are very interactive. We're talking about the experience we had at other Domaines with the same vintage. So the 2025 vintage seems to be a very good balance between structure and lightness, a very classic vintage. A little bit darker in color because there's quite a lot of ripeness, but there's also a lot of acidity to pair with it. So very balanced wines already at a very early stage in the evolution of the aging. So now we're tasting a different village, Vosne-Romanée. We are hopping over from Chambord, elegant finesse to some Vosne spiciness. Here, the wines clearly speak the terroir Vosne-Romanée. Next up, we have the Nuit Saint-Georges Les Balcombes, which was one of my favorite of the 2023 vintage. You can immediately recognize the great potential of this wine, even being at village appellation. Next, we go into the really serious stuff of the Domaine. We're tasting the Premier Crues. Charles uses his pipette to dip into the barrel and gives us a taste of one of my favorite plots, Le Souchaud. Souchaud is clearly very silky. It has the spicy components of Vosne-Romanée with the structure of the Premier Cru. After that, we taste my favorite wine of the estate. And obviously, it has to be Grand Cru. We tasted Romanée Saint-Vivant. His Romanée Saint-Vivant vineyards are just next to DRC. And whenever somebody asks me what can rival the great reputation and international recognition of DRC, it is really Domaine Hydelon Neula. And it's just sheer talent that is coming through of the winemaking of Charles. He's a very passionate winemaker. He really cares about his domain and reputation internationally. And he wants them to be represented by people that go beyond the obvious. So we are going beyond the label and judging the wines for what they are and what they deliver. Charles teases his new project in the cellar, Domaine des Chiseaux, a winery that he acquired in 2021 with the ambition to produce Chèvres et Chambartins wines from the Grand Cru sites as well as from the Village Appellation with different terroirs. But I won't talk too much about Domaine des Chiseaux. Follow us for that upcoming video. So now we've tasted everything to get a clearer picture of the 2025 vintage. We are leaving the cellar to go back out. And every time I walk away, I come to the same conclusion. These wines from Domaine Hydelon Neula made by Charles van Canee are some of the best wines in Burgundy and can rival blue chip domains at any time. What makes the biggest difference from wineries such as Domaine Hydelon Neula compared to other wineries is the talent of the winemaking. And if there's one winery that I would drink for the rest of my life, it would be Domaine Hydelon Neula. Thank you, Charles, for hosting us as well as to your wife, Anne-Sophie. I'm sure that it isn't that easy to run an estate of such great vineyard holdings and meeting the expectations of everyone. This is Neutral Oak. I appreciate all the support you give to us and we'll try and bring the winery visits that we do and the tastings that we participate in closer to you. And thank you for tuning in. Make sure you give us a comment on what you believe is the next winery that we should visit. And I look forward to giving you more content soon.