Sylvain Cathiard’s grandfather, a foundling from Savoie, came to Burgundy and found work with Domaine de la Romanée Conti (DRC) and Lamarche, subsequently buying a few parcels of vineyards for himself. His son André Cathiard began to bottle some of the crop.
In due course Sylvain began work with his father but then separated to start his own small domaine, until on his father’s retirement in 1995, Sylvain could take back the family vineyards on a renting agreement. He has now been joined by his son Sébastien.
The Cathiards have 5.5 hectares of vineyards in Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-St-Georges and Chambolle-Musigny, including tiny holdings in Clos de Vougeot and Romanée-St-Vivant. A recent addition (from 2006) to the range is the Nuits-St-Georges Aux Thorey.
94 Points Allen Meadows
This is unusually expressive for a young RSV and this positively explodes from the glass with a kaleidoscopically spicy and nuanced nose that features a broad range of fruit aromas, including red, blue and black plus a subtle mix of floral notes, in particular violet and fresh rose petal. The rich and even more refined flavors are mouth coating and palate drenching and all the dry extract is buffered by bright finishing acidity on the gorgeously long backend. This is an extremely impressive ’06 and also exceptionally classy and sophisticated.
94 Points Stephen Tanzer
Good medium red. Perfumed, subtle aromas of raspberry, minerals and sexy oak. Sappy, pure and youthfully tight, with lovely density and definition to the flavors of raspberry, coffee and spicy oak. Finishes broad, dense, spicy and very long. This is superb for the year.