Recrue des Sens: An Evening with Yann Durieux

Eleven wines in one evening sounds excessive. But for a lineup of Recrue des Sens by Yann Durieux, it is the bare minimum to even begin to understand what he's doing. 

Durieux's wines do not open on your timeline. You simply have to wait for them. And if the room is impatient, you will leave having missed the point entirely.

The evening was co-hosted by AWR's Founding Critic Jackie Ang MW and Editor-in-Chief Jaclene Liew dipWSET. There were eight guests present, across four flights. The entire line up was tasted in tasting pours over an hour, before the attendees savoured the rest of the bottles during dinner — where the real evolution of these wines actually began.

Durieux is a fourth-generation Burgundian who vinified his first vintage at the mere age of thirteen. He spent a decade at Prieuré Roch under the mentorship of Henri-Frédéric Roch and was put in charge of their Clos de Bèze. In 2010 he founded Recrue des Sens, emphasising a zéro-zéro policy: no added sulphites, no filtration, no clarification. 

Event attendee Leng Hoe Lon has been following the domaine since the COVID years. "He is a romantic rebel of Burgundy," he said, "someone who refuses to be constrained by appellation rules while maintaining a deep respect for the vineyard and the grapes." Durieux chooses to bottle his wines as Vin de France, not as a provocation, but simply his stance.

During the event, participants also noted that it is difficult to tell the vintage based on the front label. But loyalists of Durieux will know that his vintages are written in a long line of numbers at the back of the labels. 

Flight I opened with The Whites: Love and Pif 2017, Love and Pif 2018, and Manon 2017. The Manon announced itself immediately, with oxidative mandarin orange peel on the nose, cashew and pistachio underneath. Salinity and minerality were the main point, with the oxidative notes adding complexity without ever overwhelming. The phenolic grip from the skins was well-balanced against the fruit. Both Aligotés carried the same phenolic grip that defines his work with this varietal — texture being the centrepiece, not concentration.

Flight II, The Reds, was the evening's most instructive lesson, though the room did not know it yet. La Gouzotte 2018 presented a well-crafted regional expression, but the terroir story was not yet on point. Les Boutières 2017 brought more structure, with its sharp acidity and fruit concentration balanced by the unaggressive oak. This wine reminded me of 山楂 — the hawthorn snack of my childhood, bright and tart with that same distinctive grip. The Passetoutgrains 2018 led with structure over fruit, with an unexpected minty finish. Night Cost 2018 was the most powerful of the flight with a mineral finish that outlasted the fruit.

All four wines were closed during the initial tasting, which resulted in attendees being less enthusiastic about this flight. That is, until 10.30pm, when something quietly shifted in the glass. Suddenly, the tannins softened and the fruit had opened.

Flight III, aptly named The Terroir, that made the evening's argument, was tasted blind. Les 1er Ponts 2017 arrived with a perfumed rose-like nose that is elegant and precise. The sharp acidity on entry was followed immediately by red fruits of real concentration and fine-grained tannins, with a mineral finish that carried fruitiness all the way through. Les Grands Ponts 2017 was the flight's most distinctive; with stem on the nose almost akin to biting into tomato vines, followed by chalkiness beneath the fruit reminiscent of its limestone terroir. Tête de Ponts 2017 was the most restrained initially before blossoming into what I enjoy in a Bourgogne with age. It was decidedly my favourite wine to watch the entire four hours, the way I would watch my 高山茶 High Mountain Tea evolve across multiple steeping.

Jaren Foo, a finance professional and one of the eight attendees, observed that during the tasting, he found Les 1er Ponts "tightly wound and holding back." Two hours later, it had "completely shed its reserve and blossomed" to what Foo described as "incredible layers of pure fruit, subtle earth, and a vibrant structural tension."

The evening closed with Flight IV Jeannot 2016. Green and crunchy on the nose, fruit-forward on the palate, and all the more complex for it. But Jeannot's complexity is derived from integration — the tannin structure precise and the finish everlasting. What struck me was how the mineral note arrived only at the very end, quietly, after the fruit had already made its case.

Patience is what these wines ask for the entire evening, especially evident in Flight II.

Thank you to Clareti for these wines. Event was held at Yet To Name Ramen at Orchard Plaza. 

This was AWR's first pre-launch event, and it was exactly the kind of evening I want to build AWR on. We do not focus on labels people reach for because they already know the name, but wines that ask something of the people drinking them. I call these intellectual wines, for a room willing to sit with the wine and experience it to understand a winemaker's intent.