Domaine Bruno Clavelier

Gifted rugby player Bruno Clavelier took over from his maternal grandfather, Joseph Brosson in the late 1980s, expanding the winery buildings and cellars as he intended to bottle all the wines himself. He rents the vines from the family and now farms them biodynamically, with organic certification.
 
There are no hard and fast rules for vinification except to avoid too much intervention. The grapes are sorted first by the picking team and then on a table de tri. Most are destalked though between 5 and 20% of whole bunches may be included depending on the vintage and the vineyard. Vinification is more an infusion than a maceration process, with no punching down and not much pumping over.
 
In the cellar there is not much new oak used – 15 to 20% for the village wines, a quarter to a third for the premiers crus. In elevage as much as in vinification Clavelier does not want to impose the hand of the vigneron. A keen student of the geology of the vineyards, he is keen that each wine should display its terroir.
 
Corton Rognets, Grand Cru                                                                  0.34ha
Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Corbeaux                                        0.22ha
Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d’Orveau                            0.82ha
Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Noirots                                           0.15ha
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Aux Brûlées                                                0.30ha
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts                                      0.50ha
Nuits St Georges 1er Cru les Cras                                                      0.25ha
Vosne-Romanée La Montagne                                                             0.35ha
Vosne-Romanée La Combe Brûlée                                                    0.52ha
Vosne-Romanée Les Hauts de Beaux Monts                                    0.37ha
Vosne-Romanée Les Hautes Maizières                                             0.49ha
 
 
Vosne-Romanée La Combe Brûlée
The vineyard lies tucked up into the mouth of a valley just above 1er cru Les Brûlées. It is a cool site producing a light coloured wine. However the old vines, planted in the late 1920s, give an unexpected concentration of flavour.
 
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts
Fifty-five year old vines. There is more clay than you might expect in this up-slope site, delivering a weight of fruit on the palate in combination with hillside minerality to make a very fine, complete Vosne Romanée.
 
Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d’Orveau
Whatever the merits of Bruno’s view that this vineyard could have been classified as grand cru, the wine is certainly spectacular with many of the sublime qualities of Musigny, though perhaps a touch more austere. The perfumed bouquet is superb though.