Sarah Marsh MW reports from the 2024 Hospices de Nuits-St-Georges Auction and asks if a slight drop in receipts may herald a much-needed softening of prices in the region as a whole.
The 1959 Nuits-St-Georges Premier Cru Les Didiers floated over my palate, delicate and pure; fragile yet vibrant. Laurent Delaunay, my host for the weekend, pulled it from the cellar beneath the 19th-century Château de Chaumont in l’Etang-Vergy to “illustrate our family’s long-lasting relationship with the Hospices.” The ’59 Didiers was purchased from the Hospices de Nuits-St-Georges by his father.
In those days, the Hospices de Nuits-St-Georges sold its wine in bulk to the local négociants, among which Delaunay was a major buyer, often purchasing the entire production, although not in the excellent 1959 vintage. From 1961, the Hospices’s wine was auctioned in barrel to the trade, but the auction remained largely in the shadows; a B2B event selling of barrels.
Meanwhile, the Delaunay family experienced a dramatic fall and revival of fortunes. After selling their domaine and négociant business in the 1990s, Laurent and his wife Catherine, who are both enologists, created Badet Clément in the Languedoc and in 2003 established DVP (Domaines et Vins de Propriété), designed to be Delaunay’s return ticket to Burgundy (see also WFW 83, 2024, pp.108–11).
Back in its heyday, the house of Edouard Delaunay was among the leading distributors of Burgundy, channeling the wine of famous domaines, including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, around the world. Strategically, using DVP as a reincarnation of
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
