Bruno Clavelier

The Domaine Bruno Clavelier has been present in the Vosne-Romanée area since the end of the 18th century, although until the 1990s the activity was limited to selling wine to local producers or merchants. The real turning point came when Bruno Clavelier, after a career in rugby, decided to take over the family estate. He graduated in enology from the Faculty of Dijon and began working full time in the vineyard. In 1992, he bottled his first wines, which soon stood out for their quality and loyalty to the terroir. The estate can count on a precious heritage of old vines, planted between the 1930s and 1940s, after the devastation of phylloxera, thanks to a mass selection of the best plants in the domaine. The vines, which are over 80 years old, naturally produce very few bunches, although of very high quality, with very intense and concentrated aromas.

Since the 1970s, the vineyards have been managed without the use of chemicals. Today the estate is certified organic and the principles of biodynamic agriculture are also applied. The choice was made with viticulture in mind as part of a larger, more comprehensive natural ecosystem. Thanks to this approach, the plants have achieved a natural productive and vegetative balance, as well as improved resistance to pests and diseases. Cultivation in harmony with the environment, within a vital context that is rich in biodiversity, makes it possible to ripen grapes that are not only healthy and genuine, but also very balanced, requiring minimal human intervention to turn them into a great wine.

Bruno Clavelier's philosophy is to succeed in combining the authentic essence of the terroir of each individual plot and the peculiarities of the climate of the vintage in a bottle. All harvests are carried out manually, with a first selection in the vineyard and a second in the cellar on sorting tables. Vinification is carried out in the traditional way, in open oak truncated conical vats, using part of the whole bunch of grapes, in a percentage that varies according to the vintage. Fermentation is carried out using only indigenous yeasts and light pumping over to ensure a delicate extraction. The wines mature for a period of 16-18 months in fine-grained Tronçais and Allier oak barrels, only a third of which are new, and are bottled without clarification or filtration.