Jean-Claude Boisset

As a young man of 18 Jean-Claude Boisset started trading in a few wines. Three years later he bought his first piece of vineyard land, Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles,  though it needed planting and clearing. These vines today form part of Domaine de la Vougeraie. Meanwhile the merchant side of the business kept growing at an astonishing pace, to the extent that in 1985 Maison Jean-Claude Boisset became the first Burgundy négociant to be listed on the stock exchange. There have been forays into wine businesses in other parts of the world, notably California and Canada, with son Jean-Charles Boisset and daughter Nathalie Bergès-Boisset increasingly at the helm.

Over the decades Boisset has taken over a host of other Burgundian businesses which have failed to be as competitive as the new kid on the block. Various of these acquisitions brought with them vineyard holdings which were amalgamated in 1999 with the Boisset family vineyards. Up to that point they had been known as Domaine Claudine Deschamps, based in Premeaux just south of Nuits-St- Georges. The new domaine was christened Domaine de la Vougeraie, described below.

Wines under the Jean-Claude Boisset négociant label used to be dismissed as being of modest quality, suited to large-scale and price-conscious distribution, but a change in philosophy and the appointment of Grégory Patriat as winemaker in 2002 have brought these wines into the mainstream of high-quality products. This has been followed by the building of a no-expenses-spared winery in Nuits-St-Georges, the roof being covered in earth and planted up with Chasselas vines of different colours.

The vineyards in the Boisset empire go to the Domaine de la Vougeraie. Under the Jean-Claude Boisset label Grégory Patriat makes around 40 different négociant wines each year, of which two-thirds are red. Some stems are included if the plot allows it. They are not included in the lighter wines but for the remainder 50% are used. The reds are vinified without sulphur until after the malolactic fermentation. Chassin is the favoured barrel cooper for the red wines, a mix of Chassin and Rousseau for the whites.