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.
95 Points Allen Meadows
A kaleidoscopic nose of different spice elements is pure, elegant a airy, combining mostly red berry fruit aromas that are in perfect keeping with the minerally, detailed and impeccably balanced middle weight plus flavors that possess superb length. This is a wine of finesse and Zen-like harmony with a supporting framework of very fine tannins that come across as cashmere on the caressing finish.
18.5/20 Jancis Robinson
Sylvain describe this wine as the ‘cherry on the cake’. Just three barriques are made from his 16.73 acres (a tiny plot).
Extremely charming with very pure, pure fruit with lots of sweetness and appeal. Broad and rich yet with wonderfully pure fruit – this has to be a steal (I hope…). Racy, limpid, less dense than DRC’s version but definitely of the vineyard. Great terroir expression. Very, very fine. Quite open and it wants you to love it which can be no bad thing, can it?