Jean-Marc Boillot

Jean-Marc Boillot


Introductions to this domaine don`t come better than my colleague Pete`s of last year and I shamelessly quote in part. `Jean-Marc Boillot now owns 10.5 hectares of vines in the Cote de Beaune, including former vineyards of Domaine Sauzet, the late Etienne Sauzet having been Jean-Marc`s grandfather. A rebel with a cause and an archetype of modern French winemaking all rolled into one. After nearly fifteen years of making his family`s same old, same old wines, he walked away from his family, having failed to convince them that they were making mediocre wine and that they could do much better. This was no trivial adolescent spat. Jean-Marc was 33 at the time and didn`t exchange words with his grandfather for five years. His brother still doesn`t speak to him. Many years later, grandfather relented and changed his mind about both Jean-Marc and what Burgundy should be. You can see from this that Jean-Marc is no stranger to the idea that a lot of sacrifice and commitment is required to make great wine.` We tasted with the lovely Lydie, Jean-Marc`s daughter, and she took us through the wines in the refurbished and very tidy winery. From the family`s point of view 2007 was characterised by an early harvest and throwing away a lot of fruit so a much smaller amount of wine was produced, but that is in accordance with their complete commitment to quality. There is less time in oak for the wines here than in many places in Burgundy, with the reds seeing thirteen months and the whites just eleven. We tasted the reds first as is normal in Burgundy and they have that typical Boillot vibrant red fruit. The Pulignys were great too, with even the village showing well but the Champs Canet spectacular. (CW 20/11/08)

There are currently no wines for this area.