Henri Jayer

Jayer is the Godfather of red Burgundy wine. Hugely repected, he inspired many of todays growers in the Cote d'Or. The wine world mourned his death in 2006. He was 84 years old.

A pioneer of the now-universal idea that great winemaking begins in the vineyard, Jayer opposed extensive use of chemicals in vineyards and advocated plowing to control weeds. Jayer's most important contribution to winemaking may have been the cold maceration technique, in which crushed Pinot Noir grapes are allowed to soak before fermenting, to bring out the fruit's colour and flavour.
Jayer never filtered his wines, as many will know from seeing
‘Ce vin n'a pas ete filtre' across the lower neck of his bottles.

Having children who weren't interested in taking over his sites, his nephew, Emmanuel Rouget (who came to work with him in the late seventies) took over. Rouget strictly follows Henri's methods of viticulture and winemaking and set up on his own in 1985. The takeover was forced in 1996, after the French Government told Jayer that he must either retire or forfeit his pension. In response, Jayer transferred his vineyards to Emmanuel, but was still responsible for half the wine being bottled under Rouget's name until 2002. Jayer's last vintage was in 2001.

Jayer's wine history began in 1945. Henri entered into a 10-year contract with the Mme. Noirot-Camuzet. When that happened, Henri's role was to care for the entire vineyards property. Henri got 50% of the fruit, which he labeled under his own name, and the other 50% went to Mme. Noirot-Camuzet. (In 1959 the old lady Noirot-Camuzet passed away, leaving her estate to her first cousin, Jean Meo. The domaine, therefore, became Meo-Camuzet.) Jayer continued to make wine from the Meo-Camuzet-owned fruit from the vineyards of Richebourg, Vosne-Romanee Les Brulées and Nuit-Meurgèrs. The original 10-year contract extended until 1987. This more or less coincided with Henri's "retirement" from the relationship in 1988. Jean Meo's son showed an interest in winemaking, studied oenology and took over the operation. Jayer remained a consultant to the Meo-Camuzet heir, Jean-Nicolas until 1998 although he no longer produced the wines.

In 1951, Jayer himself was able to buy a small piece of Cros Parantoux, a Vosne Romanee vineyard, from a Mr. Roblot. Then in 1953, old Mme. Noirot-Camuzet offered another small piece of the vineyard to Henri. Henri had now amassed around 45 hectares of Cros Parantoux. He replanted his portion in 1956. In 1970, the sister of Robert Arnoux sold Henri the last available piece of the vineyard. Henri now owned around 72 hectares of Cros Parantoux. (Meo-Camuzet retains around 29.5 hectares of the vineyard. They are the only owners of Cros Parantoux.) All these years, Henri had been blending the Cros Parantoux fruit with other vineyards. But in 1976, he created a wine that was about 3/4th from Cros Parantoux, the rest from a very delicious Vosne Romanee Villages fruit.

1978 marks the first time that Henri bottled a wine exclusively from Cros Parantoux and labelled it as such.