Henri Boillot

Henri Boillot, based in Meursault, makes some of the Côte de Beaune’s finest wines. The domaine has a long history, stretching back to 1885, when Henri Boillot’s grandfather founded the estate.

Henri Boillot

Henri struck out on his own in 1984, but returned to the family domaine, eventually buying out his siblings in 2005 and re-naming the estate (previously Domaine Jean Boillot) to Domaine Henri Boillot. Today Henri works closely with his son Guillaume, who is in charge of the vineyards and making the property’s reds. 

The family owns around 14 hectares of vineyards – including the monopole Premier Cru Clos de la Mouchère in Puligny-Montrachet, but also operates as an extremely quality-focused négociant. While using quite a lot of new oak, the style here is for lean, precise and razor-sharp Chardonnay, eschewing heaviness. 

The reds have shifted in style under Guillaume, with a lighter touch in the winery leading to a less extracted style. It is one of the few addresses that excels both in whites and reds, with quality incredibly high across the range. 

They own 14 hectares of vines in total – mainly in Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Volnay. They are particularly known for their monopole – Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Clos de la Mouchère, a walled four-hectare plot within Perrières. Recent additions include plots of two Grands Crus – Echezeaux and Latricières-Chambertin. 

Since Guillaume Boillot took over the viticulture at the estate, they have started moving from lutte raisonnée to organics, with certification for the domaine scheduled for 2022. They work closely with their chosen growers to ensure the farming on their négoce bottlings meets their rigorous standards.

The winemaking here is relatively simple, with a policy of doing as little as possible. Henri Boillot leads on the whites, with his son Guillaume in charge of the reds. The wines are all fermented with indigenous yeast.

The whites are whole-bunch pressed very gently, going into larger, 350-litre barrels for élevage to reduce the impact of the oak on the wines and preserve the purity of fruit. For the reds, they avoid whole-bunch, with everything de-stemmed.

They use vinification intégrale – fermenting the wines in barrel (the traditional 228-litre barrels for reds). The proportion of new oak varies on both whites and reds, increasing as you move up the quality hierarchy, with 100% on the Grands Crus.

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