Domaine Roblet-Monnot
In 1987, when Pascal was just 20 years old, he was handed the family domain and embarked on his first solo vintage at the helm of the 150+ year old estate.
Today, the estate is 9 hectares in total with 5 hectares in Volnay, plus a little in Pommard and the Hautes Côtes. Pascal is held in high esteem for the work that he has carried out in the vineyard, starting with his conversion to biodynamics in 1997. He also introduced high density plantings (12,000 vines per hectares) with resulting low yields of 30-35 hectolitres per hectare. In 2002, like what had been done previously by Lalou Bize-Leroy, he stopped trimming the vine foliage so as to stop stressing the vines. He also uses horses in the vineyards in the place of tractors to reduce soil compaction.
During harvest 4-5 kg small cases are used to collect the grapes following rigorous sorting and a further pass on the sorting table in the winery. Some years everything is fully de-stemmed, others some whole-bunch is utilised. A gentle cuvaison of around 4-6 weeks is followed by 18 - 24 months of ageing in 400 litre barrels, of which a tiny proportion is new. There is no fining or filtration and a small amount of sulphur is added at bottling.
In 1987, when Pascal was just 20 years old, he was handed the family domain and embarked on his first solo vintage at the helm of the 150+ year old estate. Today, the estate is 9 hectares in total with 5 hectares in Volnay, plus a little in Pommard and the Hautes Côtes. Pascal is held in high esteem for the work that he has carried out in the vineyard, starting with his conversion to biodynamics in 1997.
Some years everything is fully de-stemmed, others some whole-bunch is utilised. A gentle, prolonged cuvaison of around 4-6 weeks is followed by 18 - 24 months of ageing in 400 litre barrels, of which a tiny proportion is new. There is no fining or filtration and a small amount of sulphur is added at bottling. The resulting wines are deep, textural and encapsulate the beauty of Pinot: perfume, richly textured yet ethereal with an exemplary balance of sweet red fruit and earthy complexity.