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Spotlight: Domaine François Buffet

Behind every bottle of wine we sell, there is the story of the winemaker who put it together.

This article continues our producer spotlight series, shining a light on the domaines and winemakers who cultivate the wines we offer in our quarterly newsletters.

Situated in the lovely town of Volnay in the Côte de Beaune region, Domaine François Buffet’s style is emblematic of the area's reputation for elegant, lightly extracted wines. The domaine has been producing wine for over three hundred years, and BurgDirect has featured 11 of this domaine’s reds in our wine bundles.

A long and storied history of care under the Buffet family makes this winery a perfect candidate for this month’s spotlight.

The History Domaine François Buffet

The history of Domaine François Buffet goes back several generations to 1692, when the family moved to Volnay from the nearby town of Pommard. Like many of Burgundy’s domaines, stewardship of the vines has remained in the family to this day.

Today, Marc-Olivier Buffet helms the domaine after taking over from his father Jacques in 2005. In the past 15 years, Marc-Olivier has gradually pushed the style of the domaine towards the more fragrant, approachable and nuanced wines they are known for today.

The Buffet family is rightfully proud of its winemaking heritage, and keeps a record of the changes and additions made to the winery by its different members. For instance, the horizontal screw press introduced by Jacques Buffet in 1972, or the de-stemming machine bought by his grandfather Léon in 1932.

Similar stories are told about how the family managed during the phylloxera crisis of the 1890s, or how Léon’s wife Marie and mother Clémence managed the vineyard themselves when he was called up to the army in World War I.

These sorts of stories tie Marc-Olivier into the longer tapestry of his family history, inspiring in him a sense of reverence and respect for his land and profession that is difficult to find in other places of the world.

The Family's Winemaking Philosophy

As a Burgundian, Marc-Olivier, like his family before him, is deeply imprinted with the philosophy of terroir expression; the idea that a wine should be representative of the territory in which it was made.

In order to get the best out of that terroir, the domaine does not use any herbicides, anti-rot sprays, or insecticides, preferring to rely on integrated growing practices and ancestral knowledge of the soil and its environment. Marc-Olivier leans towards natural compost over chemical fertilizers, and uses the presence or absence of plants like thistle and clover to gauge the healthiness of the soil.

As is traditional, the domaine harvests grapes entirely by hand, and ages the pressed wine in wooden barrels for about 18 months.

To keep from extracting too much pigment and tannin, Marc-Olivier avoids the practice of pigeage, in which winemakers punch down and mix the thick layer of stems and grape skins that rise to the top of the barrel. One of many decisions that lead to the elegant and graceful aromas the domaine’s wines are known for.

In Marc-Olivier’s own words; our philosophy is to give full expression to our extraordinary terroir by limiting productivist human influences which often disturb nature’s ways and which result in “production-line" wines.

The Wines

Domaine François Buffet’s vineyards cover more than 20 acres and 15 appellations. Most of these wines are made from grapes grown around the villages of Volnay and Pommard, but the domaine also owns small vineyards around the villages of Savigny-lès-Beaune and Pernand-Vergelesses.

Domaine François Buffet tends towards lightly extracted wines, with silky smooth tannins and just a touch of color. This lighter extraction allows the more delicate flavors and aromas usually lost in bolder styles to shine through. The wines are fragrant, floral, and delicately perfumed with pure notes of Pinot Noir.

For a full list of Domaine François Buffet’s wines you can expect to see in our newsletter offers, visit their page on our website by clicking here.

History in the Making

This year will mark Domaine François Buffet’s 331st, and Marc-Olivier Buffet’s 19th. As every winemaker must, Marc-Olivier has left his own imprint on the domaine during his tenure. Not only has he brought the style towards a more elegant and low-intervention approach, he has shifted the cultivation of the vineyards towards a more biodiversified permaculture approach in order to reduce the chemical burden on the soils and prepare it for a changing climate.

Some things change only so that others may stay the same. Like his father and grandfather before him, Marc-Olivier will steer this year’s harvest and vinification with a light touch, allowing the natural terroir and traditional methods passed on to him to work their magic.

And thanks to the changes he’s made to improve the vineyard’s sustainability, so too will his children when their time comes.

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