Domaine Robert-Denogent

Robert Denogent, Burgundy winemaker

The Robert-Denogent estate is located in the large and beautiful region of Burgundy, more precisely in the South. The Robert Denogent estate produces white wines in the Mâcon-Villages, Mâcon-Solutré, Mâcon-Fuissé, Pouilly-Fuissé and Saint-Véran appellations. But also a red bottle, from Gamay from the Chapelle de Guinchay in Beaujolais. Plots belonging in the past to Jules Chauvet, a famous merchant and oenologist now considered the founding father of natural wine.

The story of the Robert Denogent estate

The story of Domaine Robert-Denogent began a little over 30 years ago, when Jean-Jacques Robert took over the family estate.
It was at the beginning of the 20th century that the Denogent family recovered vines located on this exceptional soil in Fuissé and Solutré-Pouilly. In the early 1970s, after 50 years of exploitation by her parents, Andrée Denogent took up the torch with her husband, Mister Robert. The transmission continues with Jean-Jacques Robert who, after years of study in oenology and law, decides to invest in the estae of his grandfather.
Today, the Robert-Denogent estate spreads over more than 8 hectares and on diversified soils.
Antoine and Nicolas Robert, now largely at the head of the estate, have brought a touch of freshness to the Robert-Denogent estate, but while keeping the philosophy of their grandfather; produce elegant, rounded white Burgundy wines with long-term ageing. Wines now unfiltered, sometimes without sulfur for even more purity and authenticity to best reveal the magnificent soil of the Mâconnais.

Natural wines that respect the environment

Anxious to take care of the soils on which they work their white Burgundy wines, they decide to move towards more sustainable farming, organic farming (certified since 2016) and in the process of Biodyvin label, a reference in terms of biodynamics.
Jean-Jacques Robert and his two sons, Nicolas and Antoine, want to be the least interventionist possible in the vineyard and in the cellar. Conscious of the exception of their soils (clay-limestone and clay-schistose), the little treatment carried out in the vineyard is based on sulfur and copper. If you walk through their vineyards, you will discover soils covered with grass. This grassing is a natural protection for the soil against heat but also rainwater. The ecosystem is also preserved. Thanks to rich soil and sufficient organic matter, the Robert-Denogent estate can cultivate and extract very fine grapes.
Each bottle is unique thanks to grapes from unique and exceptional soils. After manual harvesting at maturity, all the wines are vinified in the same way. The pressing is direct, Antoine and Nicolas Robert, validated by their father Jean-Jacques Robert, then carry out a light settling. Fermentation is done by indigenous yeasts, alcoholic and malolactic fermentation take place in the same oak barrel. The Robert-Denogent estate then decides to age their wines on fine lees, between 18 and 30 months depending on the vintage. There is no intervention on aging until bottling (racked only once).

The wines of Mâcon-Villages and Pouilly-Fuissé

Ready to discover Chardonnay of great finesse? Epi-curieux has the chance and the honor to offer you wines from the Robert-Denogent estate, full of energy and freshness… just like the two brothers Nicolas and Antoine!
We first stop on the Mâcon-Villages appellation, with the Les Sardines 2020 bottle, without sulfur, unfiltered. This bottle Les Sardines comes from clay-limestone soil, then aged for 19 months (tank and wood). A 100% Chardonnay like the brothers Antoine and Nicolas; fresh and juicy, with a nice acidity that whets the taste buds just the way we like it!
Onto another appellation, and it is in Pouilly-Fuissé that we continue the walk, with the Bottle La Croix 2018. At least 50 years old, the vines of this bottle express the richness of an exceptional soil (loamy, schistous soil). The Robert-Denogent estate is doing a remarkable job here, with the tension and energy that results from this white Burgundy wine where the profile of autolysis brings a magnificent complexity. Purists of this type of vinification will fall under the spell… Just like us!
Last Chardonnay selected, the vintage Pouilly-Fuissé Le Carron 2015. Antoine and Nicolas Robert made this wine from very old vines (90 years old), in Monopole in the commune of Fuissé. The soils are clayey, shallow and very stony with flint or chalk. A long-lived Chardonnay, a sunny, rich vintage… a very great white Burgundy wine from Domaine Robert-Denogent! Gorgeous.
There are therefore not only whites to their credit, the Robert brothers also work 1.5 hectares in the Beaujolais-Villages appellation. These organically grown grapes come from the Chauvet family. And this bottle is a tribute to the talented Jules Chauvet, known for having been a "Master in thinking about wine". Coming from 30-year-old vines, in the commune of La Chapelle de Guinchay, and from a soil of sand and pink sandstone, this Beaujolais-Villages Cuvée Jules Chauvet 2021 from the Robert brothers is a real wine of pleasure, a pure juice of Gamay, naughty and greedy!