Drouhin Delivers Strong Returns And Best Amoureuses For Generations

Domaine Joseph Drouhin - Among The Oldest Of Burgundy

Domaine Joseph Drouhin is one of Burgundy's oldest and most respected domaines and has in the last 100 years contributed to setting the agenda for the Burgundy we know today.

The domain was founded in 1880 by a young entrepreneur Joseph Drouhin, who at the age of just 22 took over a wine trading business.

Joseph had an eye for quality and quickly began investing heavily in vineyards to secure his business’ access to top quality fruit. Both name and business flourished, and the young Joseph Drouhin had hardly foreseen that at this time he was creating the foundation of important wine history and a prestigious name on the international wine scene of the future.

112 Football Pitches Of Vineyard In The Pounding Heart Of Burgundy's

Whether the wine tour goes to Chablis, Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune or Côte Chalonnaise you will come across the name Joseph Drouhin again and again. In addition of being a highly respected and highly respected top producer, Drouhin is also one of Burgundy's largest producers. Domaine Drouhin holds no less than 80 hectares of vineyards where the majority are classified Premeir Cru or Grand Cru - Burgundy's two most distinguished classifications. Of the 80 ha, which corresponds to more than 112 football fields, almost half are located in respectively Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune, which are precisely the home of the region's most exclusive wines and are today, almost without exception, the home of the region's top investment wines.

But although the domain has apparently had focused on size and quantity in terms of area, Drouhin has over the years acquired parts of iconic vineyards and today produces wine from, for example, mythical Musigny, where the wine connoisseur can have a Musigny experience for just a fraction of the price compared to, for example, Domaine Leroy’s Musigny. But Drouhin also produces investment-grade wines in other prestigious vineyards such as Clos de Vougeot, Corton-Charlemagne, Montrachet Marquis and Les Amoureuses - the latter with an investment potential that will be highlighted in this investment tip.

The Princess Of Chambolle-Musigny

While Henri Jayer has contributed to making Cros Parantoux the most famous Premier Cru vineyard in Vosne-Romanée (and probably the rest of the world), several different producers have jointly made Les Amoureuses the probably most prestigious and famous Premier Cru in the wine municipal of Chambolle-Musigny. But although this municipality is also home to the iconic Grand Cru vineyards of Musigny and Bonnes-Mares, Les Amoureuses stands for many wine connoisseurs among the municipality's brightest stars and is often referred to as the Princess of Chambolle-Musigny.

Hyper-Limited Production: Well Half The Size Of Romanée-Conti

The best wines from Burgundy are very much characterized by being produced to a very limited extent. In combination with other characteristics, such as high quality and limited production gives these wines a very attractive investment potential when demand exceeds supply - and they do so quickly when there are only a few thousand bottles in a good vintage.

Domaine Drouhin is no exception when it comes to sublime quality and hyper-limited production. Drouhin only produces approx 3,000 bottles of Les Amoureuses in a regular vintage. To put this into perspective, it can be mentioned that approx. 1,000 bottles of Domaine Leroy Musigny, around 5-6,000 bottles of Romanée-Conti by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and approx. 10,000 bottles of Chambertin by Armand Rousseau is produced per year to name some of the most expensive and exclusive wines in the world.

This, by its very nature, underlines how limited the production of Les Amoureuses is, and while the wines in the example are in a league other than Drouhin's Amoureuses, and thus the subject of greater attention, it can be argued at the same time that the audience for Drouhin's Amoureuses is substantially greater due to the price is just a fraction. This can give even greater demand of the few thousand bottles produced per year - a mechanism that can be particularly attractive to the wine investor.

As can be seen in the table above, Drouhin's Les Amoureuses have been the subject of great price increases, both in the short and medium run. It is noteworthy that this wine has delivered particularly good returns over the past few years where the wine market, and financial markets in general, have experienced hardship. This is due to the unrest in Hong Kong, international trade war led by the US and China, US penalty tariffs on French wine and most recently the corona crisis. Still, Drouhin's Les Amoureuses have delivered a return of almost 25% over the past 24 months, giving an annualized return of just under 12%. Looking at a five-year perspective, Les Amoureuses has made a return of just under 61%, while the RWI index^* has produced a return of just under 24%, which means that Domaine Drouhin Les Amoureuses has outperformed the wine market in terms of price increases.

* An index composed of four Liv-ex indices: Bordeaux 500 (10%), Burgundy 150 (40%), Champagne 50 (30%) and Rest of World 50 (20%) rebalanced on a monthly basis, converted to EUR.

Thus, it can be argued that it primarily makes sense to comment on Burghound's criticism and while one can argue that Burghound is the most important authority when it comes to the Burgundy wines, seen in isolation, this makes quite reasonable sense.

The fact that both 2017 and 2018 have received 95 points from Allen Meadows of Burghound is a bit of a sensation when compared to the other vintages; we have to go all the way back to the 1962 vintage to find the latest vintage Drouhin Amoureuses which got higher points by Burghound than the 2017 and 2018 vintages. At the same time the latest vintage which got 95 points as well is the 1961 vintage.

95 points may seem a little modest when talking about the world's top wines, but when we are in Burgundy where the competition is extremely fierce and the 99 and 100 point wines are extremely expensive, 95 points are a lot - especially when they come from Allen Meadows of Burghound, which is perhaps the most capable burgundy specialist, is extremely stingy with his points.

All this wine and burgundy lovers know and by the 2017 and 2018 vintages it is now possible to buy the two best Les Amoureuses from Domaine Drouhin for several generations.

RareWine Invest’s Opinion

Domaine Drouhin is a producer of format which is illustrated both by the fact that the domain is among the greatest top producers in the region and is also represented on some of the world's most famous vineyards. Drouhin is very reputable and the quality of the house´s wines results in both respect and solid investment potential among the house's top wines.

One of these is Les Amoureuses that by sublime quality in the vintages of 2017 and 2018 is the best ones since 1962 according to Burghound.

In addition, Les Amoureuses has outperformed the wine market and delivered average annual returns of 10-11%, whether we are looking at a two- or five-year trajectory.

The investment potential is not to be overlooked, but you need to be quick, determined and have good connections if you want to get your hands on the attractive bottles; namely, only about 3,000 bottles of Drouhin Les Amoureuses are produces per year, which is significantly fewer than both DRC's Romanée-Conti and Armand Rousseau's Chambertin.

However, the wine is in a completely different league and price range, but the audience is thus also much larger, which means that there are even more wine connoisseurs who can compete for the extremely sparse quantities of these attractive wines.