Domaine Rougeot Père & Fils

In a stone cellar from the 18th century, located in the village of Meursault, the production of fruit trees belonging to the Hospices de Beaune was pressed. The estates passed to the Rougeot family at the end of the 19th century, and today they are surrounded by an elegant garden and a small monopoly vineyard. Marc Rougeot, who inherited the cellar from his great-grandfather, farms 13 hectares of orchards not only in Meursault, but also in the villages of Monthélie, St Romain, Pommard and Volnay, with his son Pierre-Henri, who returned from a tour of France in 2010, and the farm's wines are made inside these historic buildings. Pierre-Henri's grandfather planted most of the nurseries in the late 1950s and Marc replanted some of the nurseries in the early 1980s. Exceptions are the sheltered area of ​​old vines in Saint-Romain and the plot of Monthélie, which was planted a little later. Today, the responsibility of the family farm is divided between the father who takes care of the stables and the son who is responsible for the wine production, and it is obvious that both have a lot to learn from each other's views and work.

From 2020, certified organically produced wines are year after year more specific and more strongly reflective of their origin. From 2021, the nurseries have also been converted to biodynamic production. Before returning to his family farm, Pierre-Henri traveled around France selling barrels, and during his travels he met several producers producing natural wines. Inspired by them, Pierre-Henri tries to avoid the use of sulfur dioxide in the production of his wines.

The Pinot Noir grapes are collected by hand in small boxes, carefully selected, and placed in fermentation vessels as whole bunches. Each plot goes separately with natural yeasts in the cellar without the addition of sulfur dioxide and the selection of yeasts it brings. Chardonnay and Aligoté grapes are pressed as whole or crushed bunches, depending on the plot, and the grape juice is allowed to settle at a cool temperature of 10°C. White wines age with their fines in oak barrels. The wines are allowed to mature for 12-20 months in 228-liter Burgundy barrels without spinning and lapping the fines. Sulfur dioxide is added per barrel at the earliest when the wines have matured for 8-9 months. Some of the barrels are bottled completely without the protection provided by sulfur dioxide, but oxidation or acetic acid are not allowed in the wines. The wine of each plot is also bottled separately, and sulphite-free wines can be recognized by their slanted labels.

The farm's total annual production is around 40,000 bottles. The producer has an organic certificate.

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