Domaine Arnaud Ente

Overview

Domaine Arnaud Ente is one of the most sought-after Meursault producers, with a tiny production making the wines among the most difficult to acquire in all of Burgundy. Arnaud Ente farms biodynamically and produces from small parcels in Meursault premier crus (particularly Goutte d’Or and Perrières) and village Meursault, as well as a parcel of Puligny-Montrachet. The wines are notable for extraordinary concentration and mineralité achieved without heavy oak influence. Gilman regards Ente as one of a handful of producers making truly transcendent white Burgundy.

Appellations

• Meursault (Goutte d’Or, Perrières premier crus; La Sève du Clos village monopole; village)
• Puligny-Montrachet (village parcel)

Key Wines

• Meursault “La Goutte d’Or” (1er cru) — one of the finest expressions of this premier cru
• Meursault “La Sève du Clos” — village monopole; outstanding individual-terroir expression
• Meursault “Les Charmes” (1er cru)
• Small production Puligny-Montrachet

Style Notes

Ente’s style is defined by extreme concentration, pristine mineral purity, and an almost ascetic restraint from oak. The wines are finely structured and built for extended aging. Their rarity means they are almost exclusively traded on the secondary market rather than encountered through normal allocation channels.

2021 Vintage Notes (tasted Jan 2025, VFTC #115)

Visited January 13, 2025. Arnaud and son Pierre showed 2021 bottled wines (not 2023 barrel samples). 2021 vintage conditions — cooler, more classic — “perfectly dovetailed with the domaine’s stylistic penchant for pure, mineral-driven and racy examples.” 60–70% of crop lost to frost. Alcohol 12.7–13%. “Every bit as dazzling out of bottle this year as they had been out of cask two years ago.”

2021 Scores:

• Meursault “la Goutte d’Or”: 95+ pts (2033–2070) — “absolutely stunning”; serious spine of acidity
• Meursault “la Seve du Clos”: 95 pts (2031–2060) — “stunning young wine”; “would really be infanticide” to drink now
• Meursault “les Petits Charrons”: 94 pts (2031–2060) — “showing magically”; stunning soil undertow
• Puligny “Champ Gains”: 94 pts (2031–2060+) — vines from 1956
• Puligny “Referts”: 94 pts (2030–2060+) — just a hair more open than Champ Gains
• Volnay “Santenots du Milieu” (red): 94 pts (2038–2080) — emphatically red fruity in 2021
• Meursault “Clos des Ambres”: 93 pts (2030–2060) — 5-6 years from drinking generously
• Meursault: 91+ pts (2027–2050+) — “superb”; few years from fully blossoming
• Bourgogne Blanc: 90 pts (2025–2040) — “now starting to drink very nicely”
• Bourgogne Rouge: 90 pts (2028–2045) — red fruity; still bound up

2022 Vintage Notes (Burghound #102)

Arnaud Ente now prefers to present wines with at least a few years of age (hence 2022 not 2024 from barrel). Red potential alcohols averaged 13.5%; yields 28 hl/ha; no whole clusters; reds bottled April 2024.

2022 Scores (bottled):

• Volnay “Les Santenots du Milieu” 1er: 92 — overtly floral; bigger, richer, powerful; ripe but fresh and vibrant; hint of warmth on finish; “sufficiently supple that it could be enjoyed now but ample development potential remaining”
• Bourgogne Pinot Noir: 88 — “a stunner for its level and highly recommended”; excellent density; strikingly long; “should easily be able to repay additional cellaring”

My Tastings

(none yet)

Sources

• sources/articles/VFTC/VFTC Jan-Feb 2025 #115.txt
• sources/articles/Burghound/Burghound Issue 102 - 2024 and 2023 Cote de Beaune Reds.txt