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 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.

The family owns around 14 hectares of vineyards – mainly in Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Volnay, but also purchases fruit for an extremely quality-focused négociant operation, with the wines all bottled under the same label. The property is best known for their flagship monopole – Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Clos de la Mouchère, a walled four-hectare plot within Perrières that produces a particularly honeyed style of Puligny. Recent additions include a second monopole, Meursault Premier Cru Clos Richemont.

In recent years, the property 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. There as increased focus on the domaine, with just 10% of production négoce in 2023, for example.

This is one of the few addresses that excels both in whites and reds, with quality incredibly high across the range.

The winemaking here is relatively simple, with a policy of doing as little as possible. 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 up to 100% on the Grands Crus.

Although they use quite a lot of new oak, the style here is for lean, precise and razor-sharp Chardonnay, eschewing heaviness.

Henri's son Guillaume worked at the domaine for several years and was responsible for the red wines. Under his watch, the Pinot Noirs shifted in style, with a lighter touch in the winery and a less extracted style.