Meo Camuzet

History

The foundations were laid by Étienne Camuzet (1867–1946), a winemaker and professional politician who served as mayor of Vosne-Romanée and deputy for the Côte-d’Or from 1902 to 1932. He even played a decisive role in the French Chamber of Deputies ratifying a law in 1919 permitting the creation of appellations. Being too busy with politics to manage his vineyards himself, he leased them to four farmers, one of whom was the legendary Henri Jayer. In 1920, he purchased Château du Clos des Vougeots and 3 hectares of vineyards in Le Clos, and later, in November 1944, sold the château to the Confrérie des Chevaliers de Tasteven.

When Étienne died in 1946, his daughter Marie Noirot-Camuzet inherited the estate and retained the existing lease agreements. She died in 1959, leaving no children, and bequeathed everything to her nephew Jean Méo, who was working in General de Gaulle’s office at the time. Jean kept the tenants in place for decades, whilst pursuing a career that included managing ELF, France Soir and the Havas agency, as well as serving in the European Parliament and the Paris City Council.

In 1981, the estate was renamed Méo-Camuzet, and the first wines under this name were bottled from the 1983 vintage. In 1984, Jean asked his son Jean-Nicolas, who was then just 20 years old and studying at the ESCP business school in Paris, to take over the management. After completing his studies, which included a stint at the University of Burgundy and a year at the University of Pennsylvania, Jean-Nicolas returned to Vosne-Romanée in 1989. His two mentors were Henri Jayer, who was retiring at the time but keen to share his knowledge, and Christian Forau, the son of one of the estate’s historic tenants, who taught him viticulture. By 2008, all the tenants had retired, and Jean-Nicolas took full charge of managing all the estate’s plots. He also set up the trading company Méo-Camuzet frère et sœurs to produce more accessible wines without competing directly with the domaine. In 2014, he launched Nicolas-Jay, a project to produce Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Vineyards and terroir

The estate covers 14 hectares, situated on some of Burgundy’s most renowned plots, including six Grand Crus: Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot, Echezeaux, Corton-Clos-Ronier, Corton-Les-Perrières and Corton-La-Vigne-aux-Saints. The Premier Cru plots span Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Chambolle-Musigny and Fixin. There are also several ‘village’ wines and three white wines.

The estate’s vineyards stretch the entire length of the Côte d’Or, from the limestone-clay slopes of Vosne-Romanée—home to some of Burgundy’s most complex soils—down through Nuits-Saint-Georges and up to the Corton hill above Aloxe-Corton. It is precisely thanks to the vast diversity of exposures, altitudes, soil depths and limestone content across these plots that each wine is produced and bottled separately.

The grapes

Almost the entire estate works exclusively with the Pinot Noir variety. The three white wines are made from Chardonnay.

Winemaking

The estate adheres to organic viticultural practices, although it does not hold official certification: only permitted products are used, the soil is ploughed five times a year, and horses are once again employed on difficult plots. Yields are strictly controlled through pruning and green harvesting. All grapes are harvested by hand and sorted on a table in the winery, with 5 to 20% of the harvest being discarded depending on the vintage. The grapes are left for cold maceration at a temperature of around 15°C for three to five days before natural fermentation begins. During fermentation, which lasts two to three weeks, the winery begins with pumping over and ends with punch-down towards the end. Very little sulphur is used, and chaptalisation is kept to a minimum.

The wines are then aged in French oak barrels, with the proportion of new barrels selected to suit the character of each wine rather than the vintage. The average barrel ageing period is seventeen months. Bottling is carried out by gravity without filtration and, in most cases, without fining.

The wines

The range covers the entire Burgundy hierarchy.

At the top are six Grand Crus, the most prestigious of which is Richebourg.

Below these are ten Premier Crus from four communes, followed by village-level wines from Vosne-Romanée, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Chambolle-Musigny and Fixin, comprising one Burgundy red and three whites.

Each plot is vinified and bottled separately, resulting in an exceptionally wide range for an estate covering just 14 hectares.