2023 Henri Magnien Côte de Nuits Village “Queue De Hareng” Clos Francois Thurot - Monopole
I want to bring your attention to what is arguably the best $40 Burgundy you will ever buy: the 2023 Henri Magnien Côte de Nuits Village "Clos Francois Thurot."
Here are three simple reasons why this is a must-buy offer:
It’s a Vins Rare Exclusive. We’ve never made a retail offer for this wine before. My entire allocation is typically sold to a single wholesale client.
It’s Secretly Gevrey-Chambertin. Due to a quirk of history, this vineyard has Premier Cru-level Gevrey terroir but is bottled under the humbler Côte de Nuits-Villages label. The history lesson below explains precisely why this is such incredible secret. We spent a fair bit of time explaining so that both Burgundyphiles and your average Joe can benefit. We hope you make it down ⬇️ there for the info!
It’s 100% Risk-Free. I’m so confident in this wine, it comes with my full Money-Back Guarantee. If you don’t agree it’s a towering home run, I will pay to ship it back and give you a full refund—including the bottle you drank.
This is truly an insider's wine. For years, I've watched winemaker Charles Magnien turn out world-class bottles, and this one is singing right now. I opened one yesterday and—WOW—it’s all silky, red-fruited, perfect balance. The secret is that while the label says Côte de Nuits, the wine's DNA is pure Gevrey.
If you care more about what's in the bottle than what's on the label, you will not find a better value. I have just 96 bottles and one case of magnums available. Grab this before it’s gone!
To understand why this wine is such a special value, we need a quick history and geography lesson. It’s a story about how historical boundary lines created a hidden gem for savvy Burgundy drinkers.
In Burgundy, a wine's prestige is tied to its location. Everyone knows Gevrey-Chambertin , home to some of the world's most revered Pinot Noir. Just to its north lies the much smaller, lesser-known village of Brochon.
When the official appellation (AOC) system was created in the 1930s, Gevrey-Chambertin had the fame and clout to establish its boundaries. Brochon did not. As a result, Brochon's vineyards were essentially split in two.
The vineyards on the south side of Brochon , which physically touched Gevrey-Chambertin, were absorbed into the Gevrey-Chambertin AOC. You can see this on the modern map below, where vineyards like En Champs and Les Evocelles are considered Gevrey-Chambertin, even though they are technically in Brochon.
The vineyards on the north side of Brochon , because they didn't have their own AOC, were given the broader, less prestigious designation of Côte de Nuits-Villages . This is where our featured wine is from.
So, is the land on the north side of Brochon really that different? Not at all. And we have the historical proof.
Below is a map from 1953 created by Louis Larmat, one of the most respected cartographers of Burgundy. Before the rigid AOC lines were strictly enforced, Larmat classified vineyards based purely on the historical quality of their terroir.
Let's look at the legend. The top vineyards were rated 1ère Classe (equivalent to Grand Cru). The yellow vineyards, 2ème Classe, were considered Premier Cru quality.
Now, look at the 1953 map and find the vineyard named Queue de Hareng in Brochon. You'll see its northern tip is colored yellow —the same Premier Cru quality rating as parts of the famous Clos Saint-Jacques just to the south! The rest of the vineyard is colored light green, the same as the best Gevrey-Chambertin village sites.
This map proves that historically, the terroir of Queue de Hareng was considered to be on par with the very best of Gevrey-Chambertin. It got stuck with the "lesser" Côte de Nuits-Villages label simply because of its location on the "wrong" side of the village.
This brings us to the bottle in your glass. Charles Magnien’s Clos Francois Thurot is a special, old-vine walled plot (clos) located within this exceptional Queue de Hareng vineyard. It sits on a limestone-rich slope at a similar elevation to many Gevrey Premier Crus.
This is the definition of a "secret" Gevrey-Chambertin. It has the historic pedigree and the top-tier terroir, but because of a line drawn on a map almost a century ago, it carries the humble Côte de Nuits-Villages designation. IT’S A MASSIVE OVERPERFORMER and one of the smartest buys in all of Burgundy.
