Supermarkets bad for Burgundy, says ex-Jadot GM

The presence of Burgundy wines in supermarkets is undermining the regional brand, according to former Maison Louis Jadot general manager Bérnard Repolt.

Bérnard Repolt said the presence of Burgundy in supermarkets was having a negative impact on the wine’s luxury image

The current managing director of Beaune producer Remoissenet Père et Fils – of which Jadot is a minority owner – said that the presence of Burgundy on supermarket shelves was detrimental to the wine’s luxury image.

“Supermarkets are killing [the Burgundy] brand,” he said. “Burgundy is expensive. Burgundy is for me more in the luxury world… You know, our clientele are the same people who buy Hermès and Vuitton…

“If I was the Duke of Burgundy, I would make Burgundy wines illegal in supermarkets.

“That’s my view. I think supermarkets are good for commodities but not good for luxuries.

“Jadot has very good wines, but it has so much quantity that you find them at Waitrose, at Tesco. We wouldn’t sell any of our wines in supermarkets.”

Matthew Clark signed up as the UK agent of the historic Remoissenet Père et Fils around six months ago as it sought to bolster its premium Wines of Distinction portfolio. The Beaune producer was previously distributed by Hallgarten Druitt.

Matthew Clark carries 11 wines from Remoissenet, which have been added in response to increased demand for Burgundy classics, according to according to wine buyer Siobhan Irons.

Founded in 1877, the Remoissenet estate was family-run was sold in 2005 to – a consortium including New York financiers Edward and Howard Milstein, Toronto-based Halpern Enterprises – and Maison Louis Jadot.

Over the past 11 years as MD of the estate, Repolt, along with head winemaker Claudie Jobard, the daughter of Laurence Jobard, veteran winemaker at Maison Joseph Drouhin, has sought to enhance quality and increase vineyard holdings.

Speaking to db at a winemaker’s lunch co-hosted by Matthew Clark, Repolt went on to express his disappointment with the 2016 vintage, whose “disastrous” frost had reduced potential yields by as much as half.

“We lost probably 50% of the crop. I’ve never seen that before,” Repolt said, remarking that the only comparable level of frost damage in Burgundy came in 1981.

He also addressed the controversial topic of premature oxidation, or ‘premox’, in white Burgundy wines – a subject about which many Burgundy producers are understandably reticent. Repolt admitted that it had become a problem in the region.

“It’s a very taboo subject with producers,” he explained. “Typically if you have a bottle which is oxidised you go to the producer and the guy says, ‘Oh, you probably have a bad cellar’. But I think we have a problem.

“We [have it] at Remoissenet as well… Our first vintage, 2005, was quite warm and some of our whites are a bit… more advanced than they should be. So there is an issue, but I’m telling [customers]: drink our whites young; our reds I can see no limits in ageing.”

Repolt explained how the problem first became obvious in 1996-97, though he remained unsure of its cause.

“If you take two iconic companies,” he said, “Jadot and Drouhin, that have had the same winemaker for 30 years – Jadot has had Jacques Lardière from 72 to 2006; Drouhin has had Madame Jobard [for] the same period – they didn’t change their press, they didn’t change their barrels, they didn’t their vineyards, but they both – we all – started to have a problem.”