Domaine de Suremain is a 7th generation Burgundy estate in the Côte Chalonnaise, an area of Burgundy sandwiched between the endings of the Côte de Beaune and the beginnings of the Mâconnais. Planted to mostly Pinot Noir, their reds prove that there is still value, to be had and loved, in Burgundy. I learned this lesson in 2006, as an aspiring sommelier at Miami’s cutting-edge bistro, michy’s, where we poured Suremain's 1999 1er Cru "Les Sazenay" by the glass. At the time, Suremain was represented by the wine world’s most polarizing importer, Robert Chadderdon. Instead of the owner or sommelier selecting wines for the restaurant, he selected for you. In short, he was difficult, unyielding, and extremely selective about where he sold his wines, but if you were lucky enough to “make the cut,” you became part of an extraordinary underground movement, built on excellence.

Fast-forward to 2012, and as Chadderdon slowly dissolved his company, the wines of Suremain (and many others) disappeared from the national market. As a sommelier in San Francisco, I still couldn’t find my little Mercurey, supremely elegant with its fragrant cherries and enchanted forest floor. So, ten years later, when an unassuming Frenchman with a paper-thin portfolio of French wines walked into our store, I skipped many breaths, when I saw the plain font, written with “Suremain.” With a sleek new label and better packaging, I couldn’t believe it — here was my Suremain, after all these years.  
 
The 1er Cru "Le Clos L'Évêque" is the king vineyard of Mercurey. Epic in size, it stretches 21 hectares, solely facing east with its clay-limestone hillsides. It’s touted as being the most “Côte de Beaune” in flavor with its big raspberry fruits and violet earth. Aged in a small percentage of new French oak, Suremain’s 2020 bottling shows-off a luscious vintage with the nostalgia of old-school Burgundy: the soft spice, morning forest, sweet iron, and cold stone tang. I’m not sure where Mr. Chadderdon is today, but his myth and legacy lives on, every time I look at a bottle of the great, Domaine de Suremain.  

Happy Drinking,
Allegra A