Arthur Clair, who now runs the Domaine with brother Edouard, guided me through most of the Domaine’s range of wines. There are 32 cuvées across 27 hectares, so I didn’t have time to go through them all. Clair is an engaging winemaker with which to exchange views, thankfully one of the dwindling instances whereby the next generation seamlessly took over, with father Bruno and longtime cellar master Philippe Brun now retired.

“We didn’t have much problem with disease, but we did miss the water, which was a problem as our vines are located on well-draining soils. Those sites were advantageous in the past [when seasons were rainier.] They still offer fruit that has ripeness and concentration and the quality has increased. In Clos Saint-Jacques, we did not suffer too much soil erosion because we use cover crops. [By August], everything was ready to pick, but the phenolics and the taste were not there when we tasted the berries. We would have missed some aromas, and so we waited. My grandfather and great-grandfather planted massal selection using early ripening vines, and so despite delaying picking, we were still one of the first to pick in the Côte de Nuits. We started to pick around the 28 August with Côte de Beaune cuvées and also one parcel of Bonnes-Mares that ripens early. It was a classic vinification. We did a 12-day cuvaison with a lot of whole clusters [mainly 50% across all cuvées] with less pigeage, around seven or eight in total across all appellations. We didn’t want to ferment at more than 31° Celsius in order to avoid dark fruit. We will bottle our 2022s between March and June.”

Tasting the domaine’s wines over more than 20 years, I have seen a refinement over the last five or six years. There was once as much rusticity as charm. Nowadays, there’s a real delicacy, a fineness of touch, stylistically moving their wines towards Rousseau-like transparency and precision. There’s much to offer across the range away from magnets like their Clos Saint-Jacques and Bonnes-Mares, excellent as they are. Readers should check out their superb spread of single vineyard Marsannay cuvées or their overlooked range of whites. If not there already, this producer is fast becoming one of my favorites.

Domaine Bruno Clair

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