Domaine Rougeot

Having family history in a famous winemaking region seems an obvious advantage: land passed from parent to child, intimate knowledge handed down to the next generations. But anyone who’s heard producers talk about family knows conflict between generations easily arises—especially when valuable land is involved and philosophies of winemaking vary so widely. There’s also the danger of insularity, when people don’t look beyond the confines of their village, region, or their own cellar to assess the quality of their labors. Combining a long family history with an eye toward the outside world is one of the reasons we’re most excited to share the graceful work emerging from Domaine Rougeot Père et Fils, where winemaker Pierre-Henri Rougeot issues accomplished, progressive wines in a region not necessarily known for shaking things up.

Domaine Rougeot was founded in the ’70s, in the Meursault village center, but Pierre-Henri is the eighth generation of Rougeots to be winemakers here. The family has 12.5 hectares total, 10.5 of which are in Meursault proper. Pierre-Henri’s story is interesting: he began work in his 20’s as an export manager for a cooperage, meaning he traveled all over France to sell barrels. On these travels, Rougeot became friendly with a number of natural winemakers in the Loire, Languedoc, and Beaujolais, and a few of their concerns convicted him over time: of these, minimizing the use of sulfur dioxide seemed tantamount. Pierre-Henri says, “I have discovered people with the true sense of what it is to be a winemaker—to give clearly the sensation that they have of their wines in barrel; this requires no chemical additions or interference.” Years of drinking natural wine persuaded Pierre- Henri that it was a vital pursuit; he claims these wines, “when well done, of course,” are always more complex, “with more personality than ever before.”

Galvanized by new possibilities for his family’s domaine, in 2010 Pierre-Henri took over the winemaking from his father. Père Rougeot still leads the work in the vineyards, however, where full transition to certified organic farming was completed in 2014, and biodynamic farming is next on the docket for the family to begin practicing. Pierre-Henri holds that his father is learning lessons from him, about low- intervention, older styles of wine—but the son must still learn a great deal about how to care for the land properly; there lessons from his father continue.

This kind of pragmatism is the leading force at Rougeot: vineyard care takes precedence; stable, high-quality wine comes next; then sulfur is considered—throughout eight or nine months of élevage, as all vinification has taken place entirely sans soufre, Pierre-Henri will taste each wine from barrel to see if any require a small application of SO2; oxidization and high amounts of volatile acidity aren’t tolerated. But whenever Pierre-Henri sees barrels and cuvées that seem excellent and stable, the preference is to bottle them with nothing added. The domaine has two labels, therefore; a more classical-looking label depicting the domaine indicates those wines with small amounts of SO2 added; a diagonal, flag-shaped label represents those wines made with none.

We are pleased and impressed with each of the wines in this lineup—and though Meursault obviously is a white wine village, Pierre-Henri’s Pinot Noirs are not to be missed; eschewing de-stemming, cold maceration, and factory yeasts, they taste like the red Burgundies that seem sometimes out of legend: rustic and transparent, with plenty of dark fruit to balance their structured, mineral spine. The Bourgogne Blancs also represent great value: each has the echo of the fancier Meursault terroirs; they present as classy without being too voluptuous. If you’ve given up on Burgundy because it all seems overwrought, overly expensive, nearly impossible to access good wines, check these out: expressive, actually-attainable beauties, from a forward-thinking winemaker breathing life into his family legacy.