Domaine Bonneau du Martray

Bonneau du Martray sold to Screaming Eagle owner

American billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of Screaming Eagle and majority shareholder in Arsenal football club, has bought historic Burgundy estate Bonneau du Martray, which has seen its wines served at Queen Elizabeth's birthday celebrations.

Considered one of the most prestigious estates on Corton Hill, the owning family of Domaine Bonneau du Martray has announced the sale of the majority of its shares to American businessman Enos Stanley Kroenke.

Stan Kroenke already owns Screaming Eagle in California’s Napa Valley, and is the majority owner of Arsenal football club in the UK. He has a personal fortune of $7.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

The deal is another example of a top Burgundy wine estate being sold to outside investors. Luxury goods group LVMH bought Clos des Lambrays in 2014, for close to 100 million euros.

Domaine Bonneau du Martray is an estate of 11 hectares located on the hills of Aloxe-Corton and Pernand-Vergelesses, producing only grands crus from Corton and Corton-Charlemagne. The estate is also considered a pioneer of biodynamics in Burgundy.

Its reputation is outstanding internationally and its wines were served at a private birthday dinner party in 2006 for England’s Queen Elizabeth II.

French newspaper Les Echos, quoted Armand de Maigret, director of wine operations for Stan Kroenke, as saying that the American businessman fell in love with this ‘terroir that exists nowhere else’.

Kroenke, who is rarely interviewed, reportedly wants to remain faithful to the work engendered by Jean-Charles Le Bault de la Morinière, the latest generation of a family which has owned the domaine for two centuries. He is expected to remain in his post for at least a few months.

The deal is likely to raise more discussion about France’s notoriously tricky rules around succession for family-owned wine estates that have seen the value of their land rise strongly in the last few decades.

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

Grand Cru vineyards in Burgundy cost more than €4 million per hectare on average, according to French land agency Safer.

Alongside Screaming Eagle and Arsenal, Kroenke also owns Jonata in Santa Inez Valley and The Hilt in Santa Rita Hills.

Kroenke is the owner of Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which also includes stakes in Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NFL), Los Angeles Rams, Colorado Rapids, both in MLS.

Bonneau du Martray has been run since 1994 by Jean Charles de la Morinière, an architect who returned to the 11-hectare family property to manage it, fine-tuning the estate that his father originally brought back to life.

In a region renowned for producing some of the greatest wines in the world, Bonneau du Martray is one of only a few estates in all of Burgundy to produce solely Grand Cru wines. For over twelve centuries, this family-run estate remains a true rarity as the single largest holding in the extraordinary white wine appellation of Corton-Charlemagne. Its vineyards lie on the choicest hillside terroir along a contiguous block stretching between ‘En Charlemagne and reaching towards Aloxe-Corton. The domaine’s 9.5 hectares of Charlemagne are planted high on the hillside, where the soil contains more clay than limestone and is more suitable for white grapes. The average age of the vines is around 45 years and yields are kept very low. The domaine is unique in its west and southwest-facing orientation, which guarantees long, slow maturation of grapes.

In 1994, Jean-Charles le Bault de la Morinière took over the day-to-day operation of his family’s domaine. His attention to detail and pursuit for perfection has helped grow the estate’s already remarkable reputation. In particular, Jean-Charles initiated a survey of the land’s topography and soil types, resulting in the categorization of 16 different parcels, each vinified separately and contributing a unique quality to the wines.

Domaine Bonneau du Martray is the single largest holding in Corton-Charlemagne at 9.5 hectares, with an additional tiny 1.5 hectare parcel dedicated to Pinot Noir. This latter produces Grand Cru Corton. One of the first changes made by Jean-Charles after taking over, was the decision to vinify sixteen different, identified parcels separately. Each would impart a particular quality to the wine. At successive parcel tastings the complexity of the vineyard is revealed as outstanding. In general terms there is a floral freshness from the upper slopes, power and texture mid-slope, a rich, sweet, ripe character lower down and all manner of nuances in between. 

Pinot Noir is planted on the lower slopes, having been saved from being grubbed up by Jean-Charles' father. The vines are very old, around 45 years, and the yields are therefore correspondingly naturally low. 

Another change effected by Jean-Charles is savage restriction in yields and a move to massale selection. This involves propagating vines from the Domaine’s own, most successful plants, and is a method favoured by Jean-Charles to clonal selection as he believes that vines adapt to their surroundings. 

No pesticides or herbicides have been used for a long time and now, after many years of discrete and thorough experimentation, Domaine Bonneau de Martray is totally biodynamic.

Before Jean-Charles’ arrival, the domaine was harvested and vinified without detailed thought to vineyard blocks. It was one of the first things he changed. His Corton-Charlemagne is now separated into 15 blocks, all of which are vinified and aged separately until the second racking.

All fermentations at Bonneau du Martray are spontaneous. “I am violently opposed to the introduction of industrial yeasts” says Jean-Charles, “I would not be so presumptuous as to say that yeasts are a part of terroir, but they are, at the very least, a part of the vintage. I don’t see why one would want to erase that character. And I’m afraid of commercial yeasts. Has anyone had the temptation to introduce GMOs in them? We have no idea.”

His father used to vinify and age 25% of his whites in tank, but Jean-Charles says he wouldn’t be comfortable vinifying his whites in tank and that his father’s wines lost in the process some freshness despite aiming for the opposite. “It is funny how our approach differs”, says Jean-Charles. Well, not exactly. After twelve months in oak, he racks them with their lees into tanks for a further six months ageing. Though not exactly the same recipe, father and son certainly share the view that the influence of oak needs to be muzzled. Like his father, he is comfortable with 30% new wood.

“Bâtonnage must be a reasoned step”, says Jean-Charles. “I do not use it systematically. If I stir the lees, it is only on cuvées I believe would benefit from it. Then I stir only once and allow the wines to settle for at least two weeks so I can taste before deciding whether more stirring would be beneficial. Bâtonnage is a progression. It may take up to three months to obtain the desired effect. It is something one builds peu a peu (little by little).”

A second racking takes place in January to rid the wines of the lees and start the settling process. When there is need to, Jean-Charles will fine. But as with everything else, the process is reasoned, in fact, in this case, it is highly reasoned. “I test three types of fining for each cuvée. There are 15 cuvées. That is 45 fining trials plus 15 unfined wines. A total of 60 wines to taste and compare. One always has to taste.” After fining, or not, the wines are assembled together to allow them two months or more of resting time before bottling, which more often than not takes place in April. Prior to bottling, Jean-Charles believes in a filtration dégrossissante, a very light filtration.

Beaune is a large appellation and, sharing its name with the Côte d’Or’s main city, tends to confuse people. Add to that the nearby appellations of Savigny-lès-Beaune and Chorey-lès-Beaune (the ‘lès’ signifying ‘close to’) and you can see Beaune’s unfortunate image problem.

Luckily for us, however, this means that there are still some relative bargains here. In the present offering, the Beaune wines of Domaine Rossignol-Trapet and Domaine Lafarge should not be missed (see pages [ ] and [ ] respectively), whilst Domaine Jacques Prieur and Domaine Pierre Labet, released separately in December, also have extensive Beaune holdings.