Domaine Henri Rebourseau

Jacques Rebourseau was a respected winemaker from Lugny. His son Claude Rebourseau settled in La Roche Vanneau in 1782. Modest farmers, they belonged to the hard-working rural class of the day involved in viticulture. They passed their passion for winemaking onto their children, one of whom was Jean-Baptiste Rebourseau. Born in 1839, Jean-Baptiste Rebourseau married Louise-Victoire Philippon in Gevrey in 1861. He grouped together several vineyard plots of which the grands crus of Gevrey-Chambertin still remain within the family today. His two sons Émile and Henri inherited the estate.

General Henri Rebourseau was the son of Jean-Baptiste Rebourseau. During the First World War when he was mobilized on the front lines, his brother Émile Rebourseau took on the management of the estate. The General returned to Gevrey in 1919 and moved into Brunelle House, which was built in the mid-eighteenth century. A charismatic gentleman, in 1929 he formed the Chambertin Syndicat of which he remained president for many years.

General Henri Rebourseau handed the keys to the Domaine to his son Pierre Rebourseau. A university man like his father, following a career in industry at the head of the Dietrich group, he dedicated himself to his passion for wine. He was president of both the Clos de Vougeot and Chambertin Syndicats. Pierre Rebourseau handed over the management of the estate to his grandson Jean de Surrel. This was to be a significant turning point in the history of the Domaine. Jean de Surrel adopted organic winegrowing practices and a biodynamic approach.

Domaine Henri Revourseau comprises vineyards stretching from the villages of Gevrey-Chambertin to Vougeot, cultivating some of the oldest plots upon the Côte de Nuits.

The Domaine’s vineyards are unique to the land upon which they are cultivated, conveying the originality of their climats.

How should a land cultivated without interruption for over 1400 years be worked today? The answer lies in knowing and understanding every individual vineyard plot and remembering the interventions applied to each vine, while evolving and adapting to change. This vineyard memory has been partially conserved in the estate’s harvest records that date back to 1778.

The Domaine employs traditional cultivation methods, combining 100% organic winegrowing with biodynamic practices.

The passage of time leaves an indelible imprint upon the wine. Its influence is a determining factor in the expression of the character of the Côte de Nuits’ climats.

«This earth is entrusted to humankind; every one of us holds its future in our hands.
Today it is our responsibility to manage, develop and maintain the vineyards that our ancestors have passed down to us.

Gazing across the vineyards of the Domaine, one could be tempted to act with arrogance, practising an interventionism that would flatter tastes and succumb to fleeting trends.

But this memory of the past, inscribed in the soil of our ancestors, acts as a reminder not to err in the ways of fluctuating immediacy.
 

The Domaine’s courageous team cultivates the vines with care and attention, enabling every individual vine stock to reveal in its fruit a loyal expression of the soil and the climat.
This arduous work requiring such precision is a guarantee of the best possible results. While the forces of nature call us to order with storms, hail, drought and disease, we keep to the promise that our commitment will not be in vain.
With every vintage a new challenge emerges, the task sometimes seeming almost impossible when faced with the generosity or adversity of the climate that shapes our crus.

Like my grandfather in his time, I make daily notes of the weather conditions, as it is these that forge the harvest.
 

As I pass through the vineyards, whether breathing in the warm, mineral, earthy aromas of first ploughing, or drinking in the summery vigour of the grapes taking form, I carefully observe growth conditions to get a feeling for the biological behaviour of the vine.
The vines are nourished as much by the times as by the terroir; I can’t measure the precise influence of each, but it is evident that both play a role.

Like parents keeping watch over their young, we can but make ourselves available for our vines; our joy is that these vines bear fruit, leaving their imprint in the bottles whose contents uplift the hearts of men.
 

Our crus improve with the measure of time, each bottle ending its long slumber with the gentle expression of the climat that nurtured its roots and cradled its fruit, revealing the promise of its origins.»
 

Jean de Surrel