domaine roulot
Jean-Marc Roulot
Meursault
Côte de beaune - Côte d’or - burgundy
Story…
The name Roulot has become synonymous with the region of Meursault, and truthfully one would struggle to mention great Meursault without thinking of the wines from the Roulot estate. The families history in Meursault dates back to the late 1700’s and the domaine itself was originally established in the early 1800’s by Guillaume Roulot. Though the domaine was recognized for its well made Chardonnay for years it wasn’t until the arrival of Guy Roulot in the late 1920’s did the domaine really begin to flourish.
Guy was a trailblazer in Meursault, with a strong focus the unique differences of soils found across the region. Guy wanted to celebrate these differences, so he began bottling single village (cru) sites on their own which at the time was quite revolutionary. It also helped that Guy was a gifted and well respected winemaker, which helped push the whole region to follow in his footsteps of bottling single cru/village wines. Guy amassed an impressive line-up of parcels in Meursault, many on his own but he also acquired access to prime sites when he married Geneviève Coche, of Meursault’s very celebrated Coche family. Unfortunately Guy tragically died far to young in 1982 leaving the wine world in shock and the domaine in a tough spot. Guy’s son, Jean-Marc had a successful career as an actor in Paris with no real intentions of joining the family business. From 1982-1989 the winery was under the guidance of several people, including Ted Lemon the first American to ever be named winemaker at a Burgundian estate and who would also go on to found Littorai in Sonoma County. In 1986 the Roulot’s hired manager and relative Franck Grux to oversee the domaine.
In 1989 Jean-Marc made the decision to come home and take over the family domaine. He had been coming back to help out at the domaine during harvest and other key times in the year for some time and over the years after his father’s passing he grew more and more passionate about the family domaine. Building off of his father’s work, Jean-Marc has continued to champion the diverse terroirs of Meursault, as well as pushing the quality and purity of the wines to a whole new level. He is unanimously recognized as one of the finest winemakers in Meursault.
Farming & Philosophy…
The vineyards have been farmed with organic practices since the arrival of Jean-Marc to head of the domaine. Since switching to organic practices they have also eliminated the use of herbicides and now only plow the vineyards when necessary. Jean-Marc and his team have been employing biodynamic practices in the vineyards since 2012 and they were officially certified organic in 2013.
When Jean-Marc took over the domaine he began pushing the house style in a different direction. Like many producers in Meursault, the Roulot wines always tended towards a focus on richness and concentration. However Jean-Marc wanted to exercise more finesse in the wines leading to more focused, bright and chiseled wines; without sacrificing any of the depth. The fruit is all hand harvested and goes through a very gently press cycle prior to native yeasts fermentations in tank. The wine is left on its lees during barrel aging which is around 12 months on average, the wine is then racked to tank to age another 6 months on average. The wines are fined and very gently filtered before going to bottle. Sulfur use in the cellar is done sparingly, typically ranging from 20-30mg/L of free SO2 at bottling. The use of new oak is fairly moderate, averaging between 10-30% depending on the vintage and the site.
vineyards…
The list of village & premier cru sites that are at the disposal of Domaine Roulot is exhaustive to say the least. Jean-Marc has holdings in a dozen plus sites, that make up a host of single cru bottlings and his overachieving Bourgogne Blanc. Most notable of sites are; Meix Chavaux, Tillets, le Porusot, Perrières, & their monopole holding of Clos des Boucheres.
Meix Chavaux
a .95 hectare plot with vine averaging about 50 years | the domaine’s plot is at the base of the slope at about 250 masl, here the soils are deep which makes for a more soil driven wine with more opulence
Tillets
a .49 hectare plot located high on the slope, this site has very little topsoil over stony white marl soils
le Porusot
a .42 hectare plot on an east facing and somewhat steep slope with little topsoil
Perrières
a .26 hectare plot | a highly regarded site that has relatively shallow soils with a higher dose of clay than most, over deap limestone subsoil
Clos des Bouchères
Les Boucheres is a relatively small cru, totalling around 4.41 ha under vines, and Jean-Marc’s Clos des Bouchères is walled off slice of this cru, about 1.38 hectares in total | planted in 1980 and originally under the ownership of René Manuel, Jean-Marc acquired this Clos in 2011
