Domaine Thierry Violot-Guillemard

Pommard, Cote-de-Beaune, Bourgogne

“An outstanding line-up of wines at the upper level.”, Allen Meadows, Burghound.

This is a lesser known domaine that flies under the radar but there's no question that Thierry Violot-Guillemard is an outstanding winemaker and thewines are very classy. These are a source of very fine and textured Pommard, Beaune, some Auxey-Duresses and in recent vintages some whites.

Thierry started in 1985 with vines planted in 1936 that he inherited from his grandfather. Thierry's mother joined him in the business following hisfather’s death in 1986 but in 1987 Theirry was involved in a serious car accident in which he was lucky to survive - he spent two years in hospital andhad 73 operations.

His brother joined him in the domaine in 1992 but left again in 2006, selling his share of the vines. The accident changed Thierry's vision of the vineyard and raised questions about the environment. In 1990 he went biodynamic and employed a vineyard manager who helped advance the cause to gain organic certification.

The grapes are all hand-harvested and the wine aged for between 15 and 20 months with the use of 50-60% new oak. There is no fining or filtering.There are 16 crus vinified from a total vineyard area of six hectares, with 35 to 40,000 bottles produced annually - only 25% are exported, mainly to the USA and Japan. Thierry's philosophy is that the vineyard is a living entity with the juice of the vine the conclusion of the annual cycle.