Cyprien Arlaud and his younger brother Romain now run this vibrant family domaine, which continues to wow the critics. Cyprien gradually took over from his father, Hervé, at the turn of the century and brought with him a big dose of ambition and energy, the two characteristics of the new generation of growers that has helped transform Burgundy in recent years.
In the 1990s the domaine was operating out of two separate buildings; the cuverie in Morey-St-Denis and the cellars in Nuits-St-Georges. Obviously, this was not ideal and in 2003 work was finished on a superb new winery the other side of the N74 from the vineyards of Morey. In fact the building had to be finished bang on schedule to meet an important deadline. Not the forthcoming harvest but Cyprien's wedding to his long standing girlfriend Carole. The huge structure, pre the arrival of the imposing stainless steel vats, made a great location for the reception!
2004 was the first vintage to benefit entirely from this dramatic investment and it proved to be a great success for the domaine in what was a vintage that really sorted the men from the boys. In many ways, although Cyprien had already made many superb wines - his 2001s and 2002s should be sought out - 2004 was a kind of watershed as the two brothers found their direction together and the wines came up trumps. For us, this was the vintage that confirmed the domaine's status as a major league player.
In style, the wines have a degree of approachability about them but this fruit driven character is nicely understated and the wines stay true to their terroir. It also seems they have gained depth and structure in recent vintages and as Burghound Allen Meadows observes '2004 is a seriously good vintage for Arlaud and it appears he is maturing into quite a winemaker'.

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