Historical

Domaine Ramonet is one of the unquestioned star producers of Burgundy. The story starts with Pierre Ramonet (1906-94), a figure of legend both for the quality of his wines and his eccentricities of character. Though son André was involved for a while, the succession was really taken on by the next generation, Noël and Jean-Claude Ramonet, with the latter now firmly in charge. Noël’s sons (Michaël and Pierre-François) and one of Jean-Claude’s daughters (Anne-France) are now full members of the team.

Viticulture & Vinification

The white wines are highly individual. They were frequently part of blind-tastings in my formative days in the 1980s, with Harry Waugh and Bruce Templeton and others. The Ramonet wines would typically be nowhere in the running at first sniff, but would subsequently blossom and frequently take first place by the end of the evening. The strongly mentholated character which they had in those days needed time to blow off.

There is very little settling of the solids before fermentation, and not too much new oak – about one-third apart from Le Montrachet – giving the wines a solid, thick texture. Sometimes one can detect a menthol character to the wines on first opening, though this blows off with aeration.

The red wines which I have tasted have been consistently exciting. The fruit has a Côte de Nuits quality, which exists in theory at this end of the Côte de Beaune but is rarely seen in bottle. A clear exception would be the Ramonet Clos de la Boudriotte, which has come my way more often than the Clos St-Jean.

Vineyards

The range has grown over the years. The Montrachet arrived in 1978 (a bottle of that famous first vintage tasted in Nashville in 2005 was sublime), a vine swap with Domaine Chartron brought the Chevalier-Montrachet twenty years later, St-Aubin Le Charmois and more vines in the Chassagne-Montrachet premiers crus in the early 1990s, then Bouzeron in 2011, followed by acquisitions or farming agreements in Jean-Claude Ramonet’s own name, including the Clos des Caillerets (ex Vincent Girardin) in 2014. All the wines, whether originally belonging to Domaine Ramonet or in Jean-Claude’s own name, are now labelled as Jean-Claude Ramonet.

Despite four grands crus in the cellar each year, the Ramonets clearly retain a special affection for the premier cru vineyards with which their grandfather (or great-grandfather to the younger generation) Pierre made his name: Les Ruchottes in white and the Clos de la Boudriotte in pinot noir, two of many beautiful Ramonet wines.

Part of the holding of Les Ruchottes dates back to 1934. This is arguably the most exciting of the Ramonet premiers crus, with an extraordinary density of fruit. Do not look for finesse, freshness and elegance, but for an all-encompassing basket of flavours and textures which will develop into a sublime wine with time in bottle or in the glass.

The red Clos de la Boudriotte is a really stylish red burgundy which offers glimpses of the Côte de Nuits in the quality of the fruit. Not exceptionally dense, yet the fruit absolutely covers the structural tannins. Another reason for wine lovers to take a closer look at the red wines of Chassagne.