News

Pierre, 7th generation, 30 years old, is now at the head of the family business. Located in Vosne Romanée, the estate covers 23 hectares, entirely on the Côte de Nuits. One of the estate’s flagship vineyards is Clos des Réas, a Vosne Romanée Premier Cru which, in fact, is surrounded by a wall. The 2.12 hectare plot has been in the family since 1860 and is a monopoly, which means that all the climate belongs to the estate. The resulting wine shows the elegance of lace, unlike the ripe and rich character of the wines of Aux Brûlées, another Vosne Premier Cru also produced by the family.
“In the vineyard, the work is identical, whatever the location of the vines, up or down the hill”, explains Pierre. In Burgundy, the village appellations come from the vineyard located on the lower part of the hill, while the Premiers Crus are generally mid-slope. “But the higher you go, the lower the returns,” he continues. Sloping soils have better drainage and vineyards also have better sun exposure so that the fruits ripen faster. In general, the harvest begins with the Grands Crus, then the Premiers Crus, then the villages.
There is also no preferential treatment in the cellar – the fruit is destemmed and during fermentation the wine is either reassembled or drawn. Conversely, half of the Premiers Crus are aged in new barrels, while the proportion is 25 to 30% for the villages, and new barrels are prohibited for the regional appellations. further expansion has become a challenge. The abandonment of horses, which were replaced by tractors, could have widened the geographical area of ​​exploitation. But the problem now is the price. “A village appellation vineyard bought for around 2 million euros per hectare still makes sense,” explains Pierre. “But the Premiers Crus, valued between 12 and 30 million euros, can no longer ensure a return on investment in a person’s life.”