Domaine Remi Jeanniard is located in Morey-Saint-Denis, deep inside the village and it's obsecure location and the tiny signboard makes locating the winery a challenge. Monsieur Jeanniard started his own domanie after his father retired in 2003 and the wineyard was split between Remi and his brother. Monsieur Remi Jeanniard's inaugural vintage is 2004 with 7 hectares of vines. Domaine Remi Jeanniard own properties in the heart of Côte de Nuits, with plantings in Morey St. Denis, Gevrey Chambertin, and Chambolle Musigny. He practices sustainable farming including pruning in spring to control yields, green harvest in July and refrains from chemical fertilizers. Grapes are handpicked and fermented only using natural yeast. Bottling is done without filtering nor fining. SO2 is used minimally, choosing instead to preserve the wine's freshness with carbonic gasses.
Remi Jeanniard yields fantastic value in a climate of soaring Burgundy prices
A very humble Monsieur Remi Jenniard
William Kelley - 2019 Burgundy Vintage
“In Burgundy, the best wines,” wrote the 18th-century Cistercian monk, Dom Denise, “are produced in years when the harvest occurs in mid-September,” and as I tasted the 2019 vintage up and down the Côte d’Or this fall, I often found myself reflecting that....
This is a thrilling year for Pinot Noir, delivering wines bursting with head-turning perfume and fresh, succulent fruit. Supple and enveloping, they are simultaneously serious and immensely charming, prompting Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier—who crafted some of 2019’s most compelling wines—to remark that he had never before encountered “a vintage that tasted so good, so young.”...
In short, 2019—as Dom Denise might have predicted—is a superb vintage, and these are wines that all Burgundy lovers are going to want to secure for their cellars.
'Vinifying a small cuvée of Chambolle-Musigny myself, I saw first-hand how perfumed and seductive the young 2019s were, even after just a few days of fermentation, and these wines have never really gone through an awkward or truculent phase. In style, they evoke a hypothetical blend of the succulence, charm and expressiveness of 2017 with the substance and concentration of 2015. Looking further back in time, I’m tempted to invoke comparisons with 1964: a ripe, rather powerful vintage nonetheless beautifully differentiated by site and endowed with considerable aging potential.'
In our visit a few autumns ago, we were welcomed by the modest, a bit shy even, Monsieur Remi Jeanniard. With a brief tour to the winemaking facilities (really, it took us a very brief moment to tour the entire place, yes, it is tiny). We had our tasting at the cellar with Monsieur Jeanniard leading us through the his gorgeous terroir driven wines.
Domaine Remi Jeanniard's vines are older than average vine age in the region, with all of his Vielles Vignes village bottlings being at least 50 years old, and the Morey St Denis over 60. This gives a natural concentration to the wines. Most of the work here is in the vineyard with no chemical fertilizers added and harvest is done by hand. Vinification is pretty much traditional: natural yeast, just 12 months in oak with relatively small percentages of new oak being used. Bottled with very little SO2 and without filtering and fining.
What strike us the most was the understated style of the wines. The wines are not powerhouses, instead they're attuned to a zen-like quiet, slowly drawing on seasoned Burgundy palates. The aromatic profile is filled with red fruits and flowery bouquet, with the higher cuvées showing deeper, complex aromas of blue fruits, peppery spiciness and salinity. The wines have one thing in common, the acidity. Highly refreshing, it brings out the sensation of salinity and juiciness. Without a doubt this is pretty classic Morey St Denis, showing just a touch of edge but with excellent refinement in it.
Other than the introduction thus far and the technical notes to follow, the amazing detail about this Domaine is the price of the wines! The wines are sold out at the Domaine year in year out, and getting them on the secondary market is a challenge for the low production levels and rising popularity! Monsieur Jeanniard has had several opportunities to increase the price but nay, he said this is the price he wanted to sell. What a true wine lover!
The small and well kept cellar.
Famous plots galore in Morey Saint Denis
Morey Saint Denis Vielles Vignes
- 60 year old vines
- 420 cases/annum
Chambolle Musigny Vielles Vignes
- 50 year old vines
- Limestone bedrock
- ~ 250 cases/annum
Morey Saint Denis 1er Cru, Clos de Ormes
- >60+yrs old vines planted in high density ~ 12,500vines / ha.
- ~150 cases/annum
- Located below Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, on Gevrey side of Morey.
From a single parcel of about a third of a hectare, planted in 1951 on deep sandy-clay soils with large, round pebbles, these are hand-harvested with sorting in the vineyard. The grapes undergo pre-fermentation cold maceration, followed by a three-week fermentation with 20% whole bunches, with pigeage or pumping overs when necessary. After pressing, the wine is moved to 50% new barrels. Aged for one year before bottling - unfiltered.
Morey Saint Denis 1er Cru, Les Blanchards
- >40+yrs old vines. Named for the white clay-limestone soils.
- Located just below Clos des Lambrays, to the left.
- Fermentation takes place in stainless steel for three weeks. Aged in oak barrels for one year. 50% new oak. Everything from harvest to bottling is done by the lunar cycles.
