Domaine Jacqueson

It is a shining example of why it is better to buy a top wine from a lesser village than an inferior wine from a top village. The domaine extends to 18 ha of well-sited, carefully tended vineyards: 11 ha in Rully; 6 ha in Mercurey and 1 ha in Bouzeron. The percentage of low-yielding very old vines is high and they follow strictly sustainable lutte raisonnée methods with the minimal use of synthetic products. Pierre Jacqueson left teaching in 2015 to join his sister, Marie, who had been working alongside her father Paul for many years. Paul is still around and takes a particular interest in the barrels, visiting the oak forests each year to select their own oak staves which are then weathered at his favourite cooperage. When we used to visit, it was Paul’s father, Henri, in the background. He had founded the estate in 1946 and worked hard to re-establish the name of Rully which had been better known before many of its wine growers were lost in the trenches during the Great War. Henri was the first in Rully to concentrate on the quality of the fruit with the all-important reduction of yields, which remains very much a feature of Jacqueson wines today.