Domaine Christian Clerget

France, Burgundy

A domaine of 6 hectares, with 8 appellations, run by Christian, Isabelle and their daughter Justine Clerget from their house in the northern end of the little village of Vougeot, which is really in the commune of Chambolle. They have been organic (certified) since 2017, Justine having insisted on it when she joined them, but it sounds as though she was pushing at an open door, because Christian is entirely committed to this approach and clearly believes that good wine starts with the vines.

At harvest the grapes are picked into small cases for the short trip to the winery which really is right in the middle of their holdings. They adapt to the vintage conditions, so that they did 2 pigeages in total in 2019, whereas in 2017, they did one a day throughout the fermentation. In 2018 they did some whole bunch fermentation, but reverted to their normal complete destemming in 2019. At the end of the alcoholic fermentation Christian decants into tank, allows the wine to settle for ten days, then puts the wines into barrel where they stay without racking until bottling. They are using about 30% new wood on the villages and 40% on the Chambolle Charmes and the Échézeaux, and the wines say in barrel for a long élevage of 18-20 months.

Bourgogne Rouge .69ha

Morey Saint Denis Blanc 'les Crais'

Morey Saint Denis 0.20 ha

Chambolle Musigny 2 ha (in Les Athets, Les Babillères, Les Herbues, Les Nazoires, Les Bussières, Les Croix, Les Condemennes)

Vosne Romanée les Violettes 0.37 ha

Vougeot 1er Cru les Petits Vougeots 0.46 ha

Chambolle Musigny 1er cru les Charmes 1.01 ha

Échézeaux Grand Cru 1.09 ha (in 'en Orveaux')

A tip from Christophe Roumier, and well worth a visit... Justine Clerget ‘converted’ to the vine while working at Confuron just outside Nuits. There followed formative internships in New Zealand (including at Two Paddocks in Central Otago) and Argentina.

Justine arrived home in 2015 encouraged, and took on the conversion to organic farming (certification achieved in 2017), taking charge of the estate in 2018.

Domaine Clerget farm 6 ha (15 acres) of vines spread between Morey-St-Denis and Vosne-Romanée. The oldest vines are in their plot of Échezeaux, which were planted in 1946.

In terms of winemaking, wines undergo 18 months of élevage, with 50% new oak for the grand cru, 40% for their premiers crus and 20–30% for the village wines. There is no racking post malolactic conversion and the wines undergo neither collage nor filtration. Matthew Hayes, www.jancisrobinson.com  (Jan 2023)


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